Overall this was a good tea. That is not to say it had zero negative notes. The initial note of this tea was a sweet fruity note, perhaps apricots or stonefruits, perhaps something else like nectarines. Starting around steep three I also noticed a subdued sour note to the tea. It only lasted a couple of steeps and was not very strong. With a sour note there is always the possibility that it was my taste buds. There was very little real bitterness to this tea. A little crept in after the leaves had opened up around the third steep but it was never very strong. I have generally had good results from the Puerhshop house labels and this is no exception. I liked it overall. The Puerhshop website also says pesticide detection on this tea was negative so that is a good point. Puerhshop tests most or all of their teas for pesticides not sure which. I think they test the finished product where I believe Yunnan Sourcing tests the maocha before it is pressed.
I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rest. 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. The tea leaves were not particularly watery at twelve steeps. I could have gotten a few more steeps out of them but I had had enough caffeine for today. In the end there was good and bad to this tea, but the good I think outweighed the bad. All twelve steeps were sweet in nature. Only a couple had that sour taste and it was not very strong, I had to really think about it to determine it was a sour note.
Flavors: Apricot, Bitter, Sour, Stonefruit, Sweet
