Red Sample - Shu Puerh

From the Great Canadian TTB.

Well its official…I just don’t like pu’erh.

I am not terribly knowledgable in the subject but I know I have tried both shu and sheng, I have tried what I would consider lesser quality and better quality pu’erh. I have tried both pressed/brick and loose types. I have not tried anything real expensive but that is because I don’t want to spend money if I am not going to like it and I don’t want to waste good tea.

I gave this one a try this morning. The dry tea reminded me of fresh, moist potting soil. Not my most favorite flavour (:P), but not too bad. I did about a 10 second rinse, then steeped for 30 seconds. I thought I would steep for a shorter period of time just to keep the flavours more subtle. On smelling my first steep I get mushrooms. I always seem to get mushrooms with pu’erh. Also a mineral smell, like canned mushrooms. I am also getting the scent of a stale, old, lake. Ha ha. Like when the water has not been moving for a long time and you are standing on the wet shore.

The taste of the brewed tea is giving me the taste of very wet dirt/soil. It is reminding me of old grass clippings/compost, like the grass clipping pile at the end of the summer. The tea was fairly bold and thick considering the short steep. I tried to make my way through the cup in case the flavour profile changed. But after a few sips I just couldn’t do it.

This pu’erh was not bad. It is just not what I enjoy tasting in my tea. I think it is fair to say I have given it a good shot. I am not totally writing off pu’erh, there are some flavoured blends I don’t mind, and I am going to try “white” pu’erh but I think I am done my “do I like it or don’t I like it” phase.

sipdown! go me! at this rate i could almost get to 200 today…almost lol

This is a really earthy puerh. i picked it up in beijing when i was there in february and haven’t had a chance to really try it. I had mostly picked it up to share with others and most of it has gone that way. I much prefer the puerhs that i’ve had from verdant and mandala but this isn’t bad for an every day sort of puerh – provided you can handle the earthiness of this.

Sipdown! I’m playing a little game of ‘name that tea’ today.
This is one of 3 mystery tea samples from my trade with Sil. The majority of the writing on the red envelope is in Chinese, however in fine print on the back I found Beijing Wuyutai Tea Company. In even finer print there is a website listed, with an english translated version at en.wuyutai.com. The history of the company is available on the site, along with their selection of teas.
I took one whiff of this package & knew it to be a Shu. It has the characteristic earthy musty haylike flavors & aromas, & was a nice cup for a rainy day.