This tea started out a little bit unpleasant tasting with the fermentation taste. It was also slightly bittersweet. It got progressively better though. It lost the unpleasant fermentation taste by the third steep and the fermentation taste completely by the sixth steep. It became a nice sweet ripe puerh with some of the classic notes involved, chocolate and dates I would venture to say. While this is not among the highest quality ripes in my opinion it is a nice solid tea. I liked this in the end, not so much in the first steep. It was very inexpensive at I believe only $24 for a cake. It had not cleared as much as you expect a 2005 ripe to have cleared but I enjoyed it.
I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. I could certainly have steeped it three or four more times had I wanted any more caffeine. This tea qualifies in the bargain category.
Flavors: Bitter, Dates, Earth, Sweet