40
drank Pu-erh Classic by Rishi Tea
59 tasting notes

This is quite a decent, middle of the road pu’er.

It’s great, because it’s so widely available and there’s definitely nothing offensive about it.

I would not be compelled to stock up on this or age it, however, because it just seems so flat and uninteresting for the price. I don’t find anything to explore or think about or watch grow.
I would, however, use this for blending. It forms pretty basic, thick base for blends, and will stand up even if you put in lemonade for a twist on the Arnie Palmer.

Well, you might say, why not just have this around to drink in big mugs on cold and stormy nights? I’d say, good point, except that I find this tea really heavy. I can feel it weighing down in my mouth. It’s not at all weightless, like really fine exciting pu’er, and that heaviness starts to make me feel sick after a while. I never make it through more than half a mug before I quietly say…blehck…to myself and make something else.

For me, it’s just not worth spending the money unless I’m using for a blend. And even with blends, I have to work to cover up the inescapable heaviness in the mouth.

So all in all?
Good for blends
Very widely available (getting pu’er to the people!)
Not offensive
Pretty darn boring
Ultimately leaves a heaviness in the mouth that makes want something else to wash out the aftertaste

Nathaniel Gruber

Agreed. Well put.

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Nathaniel Gruber

Agreed. Well put.

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I generally drink Chinese teas.

I love things that are interesting, that force me to stop and think about and enjoy what I’m experiencing. Even better are those teas you just have to drink with a friend so that the outpouring of tastes and memories find a sounding board in a trusted companion.

I’m into tea as an experience rather than just a thirst quenching beverage. I love to learn- there’s so much to learn about tea.

I also prefer my teas to be exceedingly delicious, if at all possible. Luckily, I have great tea friends and teachers that can hook me up with the good stuff.

Something I’ve noticed about my ratings:
I tend to use Steepster more like Yelp and less like Twitter. I’ll generally only review a tea once in its life (though that review and rating might be edited over time to reflect changes in my own understanding of it).
I do not generally log each tea I’m drinking as I drink, since that feels like a distraction- I’d rather just drink the tea!
I tend to only review teas I really love or that I really did not enjoy. If it falls somewhere in the middle of “meh” and “that was pretty good, I suppose,” then I won’t be compelled to sit down and spend time giving a nice, fleshed out review and rating.
As such, it might seem like I give out high scores willy-nilly. Instead, I’m doing my first round of rating mentally off-site, and presenting only the teas I really want to share with everyone.

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Richfield, MN

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