Another step in my pu-erh exploration. Since I’m a novice, I won’t score this tea, but if I did, I would give it a 65. I didn’t like the flavor and found it to be bitter and uninteresting.
15 s rinse; 1st (15 s): Earthy nose. The taste is rich and not at all earthy, but hard to describe: some sort of cross between fruity and floral, but neither. Feels round and full in the mouth, with a long finish. 2nd (20 s): The earthy taste is almost dirty. Slightly bitter at end. 3rd (30 s): Nose is less earthy than before. Taste is less bitter but still not interesting. 4th (60 s): I was ready to give up on this tea, but this steep is less unpleasant. Some fruit appearing, and it is less bitter. Not really enjoyable but less unpleasant. 5th (60 s): Getting better; a bit of fruit showing through and most of the bitterness is gone. No cha qi. 6th (6 oz, 3 min): Getting rather thin.
Steepster has multiple listings for this Dayi product and as I recall it is a fairly popular shou for those in the early stages of their puerh exploration. I wonder if you might experiment with a thing or two – raise the temperature; let the wet leaves sit for 10-20m after the double rinse as it allows shou leaves time to open up a bit before using them. I have found that these two things help with the tightly compressed cakes and the Red Rhyme cake is definitely tightly compressed.