Sweet Fragrance Pu-erh

This is one of the 10 samples for $10 that the tea setter sent me (free shipping too!) I made this as my stomach isn’t feeling great and I wanted a nice puer to warm it up. This one didn’t have much of a fragrance, which surprised me given its name, but once brewed it is definitely the sweetest puer I’ve had. Very enjoyable. Not the bready kind, very mild, tough to describe except sweet. A good one for beginners like me!

Sweet Fragrance Pu’er is an easy to drink pu’er. It’s a ripe 1992, however has a light to moderate flavor intensity. Plenty of woody amber sap sweetness in early and final steepings, with earthy wet wood, charcoal and steamed leaf flavor notes. There is a silky texture which remains throughout all the infusions, which was pretty nice.

Overall, I loved how easy to drink and sweet this tea was. However, I wished for a bit more complexity since the flavor of this tea stays pretty consistent between each infusion. Either way, this is a great beginner pu’er that has no fermentation notes that would appeal to tea drinkers that like roasted oolongs vs deep dark thick blacks pu’er drinkers.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/09/09/sweet-fragrance-puer-from-tea-setter-tea-review/
Featuring sad pu’er pick Owl.

The dry leaves of Sweet Fragrance, amusingly, don’t have much fragrance. It’s only when they hit the cup that your nose gets nudged awake. Since this is a pu-erh, after all, “sweet” is going to be in the eye–or nostrils–of the beholder. Beneath the usual brassy smoke, there lurks a bit of honey that’s been charred by the flames. Something fruity wants to come out, but it’s just not quite there.

That undertone makes a better case for itself once you taste it. The fruit and honey melds into something more substantial: roasted, caramelized rosehips and just-before-ripe cherries. We’ve got a touch of fish in here, but it’s ignorable knowing that it’ll fade in successive infusions. That’s the nice thing about pu-erhs and oolongs–treat them like the Energizer Bunny and they just keep going and going… (The other nice thing about these teas in particular is that the steeping times are mere seconds. Pu-erhs and other “exotic” teas usually put off the casual tea drinker, but in fact, the quick prep means that you don’t even need to hack ‘em when you’re on the go.)

The next few infusions… Full review: http://snooteablog.com/2013/09/11/snooty-tea-review-tea-setter-round-1/

This tea was wonderfully earthy and robust yet sweet and mild. It is the puerh for people who think that they don’t like puerh. Another awesome one from Tea Setter.

I got off to a late start today but really wanted to have another true tea (not just a tisane), so I decided to prepare half of my 4 gram sample from Teasetter of Sweet Fragrance Pu-erh. This was my second experience of an unadulterated pu-erh, the first having been a tuo cha from Upton. This Sweet Fragrance Pu-erh was my very first time trying loose-leaf pu-erh without any extra flavors thrown in.

I did a quick rinse and then brewed the leaves for less than a minute during which the liquor became a dark apricot amber. I figured that was long enough for my first steep. The flavor was smoky with a hint of leather. is it sweet? Hmmm…. perhaps I’ll find out in subsequent steeps. So far, so good. I am struck once again by the similarity of the this genre to Lapsang Souchong.

Of course, it may be that every pu-erh to date (all two of them!) reminds me of Lapsang because that is the closest tea to pu-erh in my experience. Sort of like people who know very little about perfume and compare everything to Chanel no 5, since every perfume probably smells closer to Chanel no 5 than to water.

second infusion: wow. the moment the water hit the wet leaves, the liquor turned dark amber! after about 30 seconds, I halted the steep. The tea tastes very good—even better than before. It’s a bit less smoky but still flavorful. Definitely sweeter than the first glass!

I really enjoyed drinking this. It didn’t remind me at all of the pu-erhs I have tried in the past, which all had a much more pungent flavor and a bit of fishy flavor in some of the first steepings. This was much sweeter, with no fish to be found!