Organic Ancient Green Pu-Erh Tuo Cha

More new tea! This one from Arbor Teas’ fair trade selection. When I first started drinking tea a few years ago, it seemed like there were only about three fair trade and five organic teas. Anywhere. And they were all kind of meh tasting but cost twice as much as normal teas. So when I went to see what samples I might want to try from Arbor Teas, I really figured that they wouldn’t have that many options. Dude, they have a lot. Seriously, have I been that far out of the Fair Trade/Organic tea loop or were there always lots of options and I just didn’t know where to look?

Anyway, I’m really excited to try this one, mostly because the only green pu-erh I’ve tried was CTG’s Sticky Rice one which gave me the idea I might actually like green pu-erhs. This one will be the ultimate test to see if I really do!

First off, the tuo-cha is surprisingly heavy so I broke it in half for my 10oz mug. The leaves are soft and furry and look somewhat Silver Needle-like. I did a rinse then steeped for about 30s. The liquor is very light and smells softly honeyed/musty.

The taste is delightfully surprising – sweetly musty, soft, smooth and earthy but light, not heavy/syrupy earthy like a cooked pu-erh. There are hints of hay in the sweetness and sometimes a faint honey. The aftertaste is deliciously nectar-y and pretty. I was worried about the possibility of bitterness (since CTG’s has a tendency to get bitter if you steep even slightly too long) but there is no hint of bitterness or even any astringency here – it’s very smooth. The lack of bitterness makes me think I might steep it just a little longer next time to get a bit stronger flavor but then I think that for something like this, a fainter first steep isn’t unusual.

The second steep (40s) is much darker and has an allover stronger scent and flavor, but it is just as pretty – lovely musty, sweet, honeyed smoothness with a bit of a richer flavor than the first steep and a hint of more normal pu-erh earthy but still not the overly sweet syrupy earthy that is just too much for me. There also seems to be a fair amount of honey in the aftertaste. It actually reminds me of a tasty Silver Needle tea. I’m not sure if that’s a normal green pu-erh taste but honestly, I don’t really care because this is the type of pu-erh I can totally get behind.

The third steep (~45s) is smooth and rich and earthy and nectary and a little heavier but not too heavy… There’s an almost… bready note to it too? Kind of like wheat bread or perhaps toast? It’s hard to really peg but it’s super-tasty.
^{~1/2 tuo-cha/10oz}

My first time trying a green pu-erh so I really have nothing to compare this to…

I infused this for about 3 minutes western style. The tuo cha does not want to open up and come unfurled – is this a good sign? A bad sign? Who knows.

First infusion is very mild, green tea is not a very prominent flavor here. I am getting apple and a bit of malty sweetness. Like many pu-erhs this reminds me of mushrooms, but a delicate white button mushroom instead of a deep, dark shiitake.

Second infusion is very much the same with no loss of flavor… a very light and aromatic brew. Not sure I will need to buy this again because I think I prefer the black pu-erhs but it has made for a very nice sample. :)

Multiple infusion test with this one

1st infusion…
Light and mellow in every way!
Doesn’t smell like much but what I can smell is a hint of bouquet or meadowy field.
Taste is sweet-wheat-like
liquid color is pale – near water color.

Rating on first infusion between 75-80
I’m assuming this is going to morph quite a bit…stay tuned…

First Infusion: This is a very different pu-erh than most I’ve sampled. It retains the earthiness of most pu-erhs, but it has a very slight sweetness to it that really rounds out the taste. Additionally, it smells more like a black tea than a pu-erh. But it’s really nice to find a pu-erh that doesn’t smell like fish :p

Second Infusion: This time I used a third less water in order to concentrate the flavor more. It definitely has more of the rose-tinted hue described on the company’s website. The flavor is even more complex than the first infusion. It kind of reminds me of a cross between a black tea and a white tea, if that makes any sense – you can easily identify a black tea taste to it, with some of the lingering lightness of a white tea.

Overall, this is a pleasant and very interesting pu-erh. Definitely worth the price of a sample on the company’s website.

Backlogging from the day before yesterday.

This tea is so interesting! I’ve never tried pu-erh from a little cake before. Or green pu-erh, for that matter. I used an entire cake for a pot that usually makes around 4 cups and as it steeped, I broke it up with a spoon to make sure it soaked all the way through.

In hindsight, I should have steeped it for longer. I saw that it was a green tea, almost like a white, so I treated it delicately. Somehow the fact that it’s a pu-erh slipped my mind. The flavor was very light this way, much like a white tea, but with the sort of aged aftertaste of pu-erh. The tea’s liquor was a light yellowy green.

My second attempt will steep at least five and a half minutes.

The first time I steeped this tea I made the mistake of treating it like a green tea. It is not. It is infact a pu-erh and must be steeped at boiling to really open it’s flavor profile. First lightly sweet wheat flavor giving way to sweet and green apples and finishing off with an ever so light earthy musty note. This tea is fairly simple and yet carries an experience of sophistication that I haven’t ever noted while tasting another tea. What does sophistication taste like you might ask? Order the sample and tell me if I’m wrong. This simple little tuo cha is delicious and a treat in every sip. Steep multiple times to ride the entire flavor train, but it looses me after the fourth.