Grizzly Brown 2006 Meng Hai Tu Si Ripe Puer

Wet leaves smell butter, woody earthy and fresh
The texture is thick oily
Taste is suprisingly buttery, I mean reaaally buttery in my oipinion, earthyness, minerals and afterwards fruity Huigan
Man I wished Ive ordered more than 250g
This is absolutely buttery and sooo much more than a normal Shou for me

I hope this one comes back soon

092/365

Brought this one to work today so I can spend a whole day with it. I’ve heard good things about this one (it’s another from Dark Matter 2016), so I’m excited to give it a go. As I’m at work, I’m brewing this one western style.

First steep is a pretty orange/amber. It’s lightly earthy, with a touch of forest mulch, and a little sweetness. Most shou I’ve tried isn’t this sweet straight from the get-go, so that’s a nice surprise. It’s also lighter and less pungent altogether – both in terms if liquor and flavour. It’s not your typical “muddy” shou.

Second steep is very similar. It’s still very light-tasting, but smooth and with an almost buttery quality. The leaf is still pretty compacted, although the liquor is slightly darker this time. Mild-earthy-sweet is how I’d describe this.

Third steep is, again, similar. The liquor is much darker this time – the black/brown that I’m used to seeing with shou. The creamy smoothness is perhaps a little more pronounced, but it still retains a nice balance between earthy/sweet. It’s very easy to drink, and not at all funky.

Fourth steep is still pretty much the same in terms of flavour! I get the impression that this is a tea that could keep going and going, although I’m starting to experience a slightly drying mouthfeel.

I’ll probably carry on a little longer with this one, but probably not for more than another 2 steeps. I’m sure it still has a fair bit to give, but it’s making me feel quite thirsty because it’s become drying – and my still-fairly-sore-throat really isn’t enjoying that very much. I’d return to this one again in the future, though – it’s a great, drinkable shou!

Gongfu!

It’s finally feeling, and looking, more like Autumn in the park now; so I took the opportunity yesterday to have a tea session of this ripe pu’erh because I guess I’m leaning in hard to that woody and camphorous profile right now. It’s shou season, truly! There’s a dense and darker sweetness to this one too though; like molasses and dates. It’s very thick and clean finishing, but with the intensity of flavour and body that I crave in shou!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGSSBFIArC6/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1zLXt2Suu0&ab_channel=TheSnuts

1/10 ratio and 212F
Breaking in my new teaboat with Grizzly Bear. I really enjoyed this shou. It’s very clean and zero funk. Sweet and earthy, spice tingling. Later steeps brought pretty noticeable minty cool flavor. I think it’s a great shou and would be perfect choice to introduce someone new to puerh. That’s how clean the taste is. Good at pushing, didn’t get weird or bitter. Should I say how budget friendly it is?

https://instagram.com/p/Bcm_r5ijGlE/

I feel like it’s taken multiple sessions over time for me to develop a better appreciation for this tea. Steeped up what will probably be my second to last session with this tea in a red clay teapot yesterday.

I drank it from the first steep without washing, so the initial steep was extremely light , but clean and sweet. As the tea darkened it became thick and smooth, with some mineral notes and an interesting cooling sensation offsetting the warm, creamy body.

Since I only got a couple of steeps in before it was time to leave work I tossed the leaves into my thermos and filled it with boiling water. It kept warm overnight and I finished it this morning. Still nice and smooth with an easy to drink sweetness, thick mouthfeel and that distinct cooling sensation.

I am glad I spent some more time with this tea and I think it is a nice daily drinker.

For a key to my rating scale, check out my bio.

I’ll start by saying that this tea is an excellent value and a great daily drinker for people interested in drinking Shu Pu’er on a daily basis. While the tea does have some visible mold on the leaf surface, the tea’s flavor is very crisp, clean, and sweet (and the mold is easily eliminated by rinsing the tea as should be common practice when drinking pu’er – I rinsed the tea three times and the flavor certainly did not suffer from this). While it is a very clean and light Shu, it lacks the depth and complexity of higher-tier teas in this category. The common notes of brown sugar, soil, camphor, and nutty/creaminess are present, but the mouthfeel is relatively weak – thin viscosity and (while certainly not astringent or bitter) not as round as many shu pu’ers. The best way to describe this tea is clean, sweet, thin, and light. Again, at just over $0.10 / gram, it is an amazing value, but there are better Shu’s on the market if you’re willing to spend a bit more.

Hey, I’m not backlogged anymore. I tried a couple of shou puerhs today. This was the first. Still trying to decide if I like it or not.
Dry leaf didn’t smell like much. I preheated the shibo, cup, and pitcher I was to use with boiling water. Followed directions on the label.
6.4g, boiling water, 7s rinse – smells earthy, menthol
10s – tastes cooling, menthol, 15s- cooling, smooth, hint of sweetness,
22s- cooling, tingly on my tongue; continued to be cooling and sweet over the next three steeps.
I took a break here – ate a grapefruit and re-heated my water.
40, 50, 60s- earthy, smooth; 2m, 4m
Overall smooth,earthy, sweet, cooling/menthol especially at the beginning. Started out pretty light in color getting darker over subsequent infusions.
This tea didn’t make me a convert, but it wasn’t a bad first impression/introduction to shou.

Sampled from the Pu’erh Plus TTB.

Prepared 4.6g in a 60ml ceramic gaiwan. I generally followed BLT’s instructions. Rinsed once for 7 seconds and let the chunk rest for 2 minutes. Steeping times: 10 seconds, 15, 15, 22, 22, 29, 35, 45, 60, 90; 2 minutes, 4, 8, 15.

The dry leaf aroma smelled earthy and leathery. Sitting in the pre-heated gaiwan brought out sweetness. The aroma of the wet leaf was also sweet and leathery initially, and became chocolate-like and even sweeter the more the leaf was steeped.

I should have given the chunk a second rinse. It was more pressed than I thought, so it didn’t completely fall apart until after the fourth steeping. As a result, cups 1-4 were too light in taste: sweet and earthy with an aftertaste of dates and raisins. Beginning with the 5th and till the 1oth cups, I experienced very much what BLT describes on their website. Right on the money! That is, overall, this was a clean, clear, and gentle shou. The soup is the color of dark orange. Though lighter in feel and taste than I prefer in shou, Grizzly Brown was full-bodied, very creamy in texture, and had a pronounced sweet earth note. The date/raisin aftertaste was more rounded and lasted longer, and I also noted a prunes. At cups 11 and 12, the sweetness faded and I tasted wood and leather. However, 13 and 14 surprisingly returned to fruity sweetness, even tasting somewhat tart.

This was an excellent tea. I got very little in the way of earthy notes from it. It had nearly cleared. I did get some sweet notes. One note that I can best describe as sweet bamboo shoots emerged in steep three and lasted a few steeps. Not sure what to call the notes that emerged after this. This was not what I would call a chocolaty shou. It was quite good. I steeped it twelve times and I had to stop myself from continuing because I had already had too much caffeine. I just went out on a limb and bought the whole 1 kg brick on this one and it was worth it.

I steeped this twelve times with a 150ml gaiwan and 11.1g leaf in boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

From the Dark matter group buy, steeped during a google hang out with other steepsters.

First steeps were quite weak, but mineral and wet pile. I went crazy and did an aggressive long steep and got one excellent cup of rich, thick, earthy, and smooth. The next infusion however was horrific as it was so bitter it was rising up my nose. It is really impressive to get bitter out of a shou, hahhaa! So yeah, maybe take a more moderate approach to this tea and insane like I did.

Overall not bad, if I had some more I’d experiment again.