Oh god, I have had this sample literally forever. I was very good about my other, non-pu-erh samples from Yezi, but I could never bring myself to take the time and make this one.
Part of the problem is that pu-erh is kind of scary, and I’ve never really had one that I’ve liked yet. I chose this sample to stretch myself and try a new, higher quality pu-erh than I’ve had before.
Dry, the leaf smells sweet and slightly of hay. It’s very reminiscent of midwestern autumns.
I am using an approx. 75 mL gaiwan and about 1.5 g of tea, per the website’s suggestion. Water is near a full boil. I will also be following the website’s suggested steeping times.
Rinse: super fishy smelling. Wet leaf: Now smells like wet hay. It’s very strong, I can feel it at the back of my throat. There’s a sweet undercurrent similar to the soft innards of homemade bread.
30 sec: Auugh, I splashed myself with some of the hot tea! After cooling my poor scalded finger, I come back to a cup cool enough to drink. The upfront taste and smell is all hay. I am stuck on hay today, apparently. However, there is this incredibly chocolatey aftertaste that hits maybe 10 seconds after I swallow and lasts for quite a while afterwards. Wet leaf now smells of new shoe leather and wet autumn leaves.
40 sec: Not much development from the first steeping. It feels pretty thin, but the flavors are very similar to the first steep, down to the chocolate aftertaste hitting after I swallow. Wet leaf smells crazy like hay again.
1 min: I have lost the chocolate aftertaste.
I have probably steeped this a total of about 5 times now and the flavor hasn’t really changed. Overall, this is fine. A lot better than the pu-erh that I have had previously. It’s made pu-erh a little less scary. However, I don’t think I would drink it again; it just doesn’t do much for me. I will hold off on rating this tea, because as I said, I am not a pu-erh drinker. I would not want to affect its rating because of that.
