Geoffrey Norman

Where most cooked pu-erhs on dry smell whiff of fish and marinas, this one smelled like a lightly smoked Lapsang. So far, so good, I thought. I did about a teaspoon of shavings in a gaiwan, four infusions. That hickory sensation was present on the foretaste, followed by an actual earthy element (not a “supposedly” earthy), and ended on a non-astringent note. It confirms that a cooked pu-erh needs to age naturally for about a half-decade before it’s any good…on average.