Single Serve Shou Puerh Tuo Cha

Oof, another oldie. I got this packet of mini tuos from the freebie bag at the San Francisco Tea Festival back in 2018. I thought there was only one in the package but there were two tuos, so it’ll take slightly longer to sipdown than I expected.

Gave it a rinse to help the tuo start breaking up, then steeped for 4 minutes. Smells like dirt with a subtle smoky element, and the brew is such a dark, thick brown it looks like the coffee brewed at my workplace.

I’m not a big pu fan, but this one is pretty tolerable to me. Does have a strong dirt flavor, but it doesn’t have that muddy/marshy taste to it, and it coming off as more of a “fresh potting soil” earthy taste. Also some hot hay undertones, and that subtle Keemun smoky note.

Not my favorite type of tea, but I do like the thick and warm mouthfeel and the caffeine is soothing on a head that is upset by winter storm barometric pressure changes.

I think this came from the SF Tea Festival’s promo bag that they gave away with entry in 2018. They did not give them out to all attendees this year like they did last, which was a disappointment especially with the $25 entrance fee. Anyways… on to the tea.

I’m at work where we have an instahot faucet, making it hard to refine the temp. I think I steeped this for 2-3 minutes after a 20s rinse. It turned out alright. It’s a little wet, musty, cave like in a pleasant way. I feel like I need more/better adjectives to describe puerh because my puerh vocabulary is limited! Enjoying this cup nonetheless.

Here’s another sample that was in my SF Tea Fest freebie bag. I was happy to see not one, but two of these 4.5g mini tuocha in the pouch. I did three-8oz steeps based on color using boiling water. The liquor is very dark brown verging on black and smells like my average experience with shou puer – barnyard, fermentation but not fishy, chocolate. In the mouth, I taste wet earth and barnyard, with minerals that quickly turn salty/briny. It is a fairly clean and light- to medium-bodied shou despite its color and scent. There is no bitterness and only a hint of astringency biting in my throat. It is not a sweet tea. I am pleased to be salivating. The spent material is finely chopped and surprisingly doesn’t contain much fannings – only a fine layer of dust settled in my mug after pouring through a strainer.

Overall, I find this mini tuocha to be a nice change of pace with its strong briny quality. The barnyard aroma and taste I find pleasant and not gamey. This is something that could be kept on hand but I wouldn’t be springing for it often. It didn’t pull me in.