Zhong Guo Cha

I think this one was received in a swap with Wombatgirl ages and ages ago, since she’s the only other person to have posted about it. I’m sharing it with the boyfriend this evening as he requested ‘something I haven’t tried before’.

I haven’t tried it before either, so I may have just given him a cup of ewww…

It’s also rather later than I thought it would be, so I think I’ll relocate to the bed to read while drinking my tea, so I’ll make this short.

Aroma is as it should be. Sort of thick and cow stable-y. Little bit of sweetness to it, little bit of cat breath and a little bit of something floral.

The flavour is a little bland and watery, though. It’s got a clear honey note though. Very sweet and not super-stable-y.

it’s relatively good, apart from being thin, but not really very interesting. This one would probably have benefited from a longer steep. The leaves have not been discarded yet, so I might try that tomorrow.

So, I’ve been a little afraid of Pu-erh teas – what with the stories of finding fingernails and cigarette butts in the cakes, etc. Also, some of the descriptions I’ve read here of people saying their pu-erh smelled like fish really didn’t give me lots of incentive to want to try some.

But I figured I should. And I found some on sale. (I’m a total sucker for things on sale.)

The package didn’t have anything about how to prepare the tea other than boiling water, so I ran back,and checked out Wikipedia after I got the water on the cute little nest. It reminded me that you should wash your pu-erhs, so I ran to the kitchen (more running than I’ve done in weeks) and dumped out the water and put more on to heat.

Which was probably good, because what I was smelling? Smelled like fish.

Then, more water heated, I put it on, and the ever helpful quote from Wikipedia "Steeping times last from 12–30 seconds in the first few infusions, up to 2–10 minutes in the last infusions. " I decided to go until it looked right. How’s that for scientific? This time I also used almost boiling water rather than boiling water

It smelled so much nicer, still a hint of something oceanic, or like nice dirt but not just like fish. And the color was AWESOME. A beautiful red-brown. I expected the tea to be kick-you-in-the-head strong, but it wasn’t. It’s very mild, not particularly tannic, and not bitter.

I’m enjoying this a lot.