Puerh Tuo Cha

Ahhhh, a day off after a very busy week end…

Cleaning up the house listening to The Black Keys: Little Black Submarine anybody? The second half of that song makes me backflip and play air drums and guitar in the tub while cleaning it! Yeah, it’s that good!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdw95xR_MOY

And I wont even share the silly moves Lonely Boy will have me going for… well…maybe we do know each other enough by now… Just think Cave Man having the very first dance ever on this planet:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WcS8CcqPJcI

Now, need I to specify I don’t look this way, but my moves are pretty darn close!

It is not my place to condone any style of music, BUT, in a world of BieberMania, good solid bluesy guitar, drum & bass done in such a crafty way that it appeals to both younger and older generations makes these guys nothing short of greatness…

The tea to match this music must be on the robust and strong side. Perfect occasion to try that tuocha I’ve been saving for a couple of weeks now.

The mini cake is really well put together, very hard and compressed with a smooth surface. It doesn’t fall apart with manipulation as some other tuocha I have tried. It looks like a real hard candy! Since cleaning up the house doesn’t go well with Gungfu style, I choose Butiki recommended Western brew over the gaiwan today. It is said I should brew 7 min for 18oz of water, so that’s what I do in my glass pot.

To my surprise after such a long brew, the tuocha has not completely broken apart. And the liquor is not as dark as I would have expected. It’s sweet and fresh tasting and not «fishy» at all!

I know you puerh lovers out there will be outraged to read this, but to this day, I have never had a puerh that really blew me away. There are some I really like, but not in an «OMG This is amazing» kind of way.

But as I’m getting more and more acquainted with it, having tried lower and higher grades, I now find a HUGE distinction between «earthy» and «fishy». To me, not that long ago, all puerhs had some level of fishiness. This one has none whatsoever. I’m happy to see that my tastings have evolved and that I can now see the difference.

I feel a thickness in my mouth, as if it turned into a beautiful tea syrup. I’ve seen reviewers using «chewy» in their description. This feels somewhat «chewy» to me, the way you get that feeling in your mouth after biting in the firm flesh of a raw mushroom. Oh, I can’t help gulping it down, it’s so good! But then, something in me says STOP !

However good The Black Keys may be to my ears this morning, I have to shut them down and stop everything for a moment…there’s something it this puerh, a fragrance and taste I must identify, it’s like screaming at me to get it right… It reminds me of something fresh and powerful, it has triggered a stir of emotion in me. I feel tears coming, and I don’t even know why!!

And I think of the place I used to spend my summers as a kid…

I know many of you have made forest parallels with the taste of puerh. Here’s mine.

My Grand parents were farmers and therefore lived in a very rural and remote environment. They owned many acres of land and forest. Up to my 14th birthday, I have been lucky to spend almost all my summers there. Me and my cousins used to go play in the dense forest and explore. (Yep, back then, people would not freak out about how dangerous everything was for a kid, so we were lucky to have some freedom, however dangerous it might have been in retrospect!).

Some magic would happen every time! Especially when it rained…we used to lay down on the damp fertile soil, it was spongy and fragrant of the earth…we would open our mouth and try to catch every bit of raindrops that could escape and reach us through the big oak and maple trees…

….it tasted like everything it had sinuously contoured before reaching our mouths, savory and nature like.

We would laugh and then pick some authorized forest food, like «Thé des bois» in french, which is really Wintergreen in english, but if you translate word for word, it is «Tea of the Forest». You can eat its rosy-red berries, they are light tasting and delicious, but if you chew on the leaves, you get a woodsy freshness that invades your mouth. See where I’m going with this? This puerh has that fresh wintergreen feel to it. I’m not saying it really tastes like it, but there’s an imprint of that taste that lingers in my mouth and my soul after every sip. It is so vivid and reminds me of such a happy and carefree stage of my life, it has me all chocked up. Oh, am I making any sense at all? Is this another emotional hormone breakdown?

And why do I always have to write such looong reviews? What’s up with that? My intention this morning was just to have a robust uncomplicated tea while cleaning the house, then write a quick review about it… look where it got me? Let’s face it, I just can’t write short reviews…

I guess I will never be the most prolific reviewer on Steepster, but every one of my reviews leave me with a sense of wellness, so I guess I will continue my Tea-Therapy-Writing sessions in the hopes I won’t bore people to death with all the rambling :-)

As I know there are many other fantastic puehrs out there, this one is the first that totally captures my attention, that’s what I was waiting for to write my first puerh review. And I didn’t even experience it Gungfu stlyle as I know I would have gotten all the layers it has to offer. But it goes to show everyone that you can experience tea bliss in a very simple and unexpected way… For me, it is the validation I was waiting for to continue my puerh journey, Verdant is next on my list for that…

Thank you Stacy from Butiki for such a lovely moment.. I will now call my very alert and healthy 87 year old Granny to remind her of those memories, and tell her how lucky I feel to still have her around…

My first unflavoured puerh! I chronicled the whole thing in pictures, but photobucket is being uncooperative. This was the one I was most excited about with my order from butiki. It was something I hadn’t tried before. I’ve been loving my flavoured puerh but afraid of a plain one. Butiki has never let me down, and this remains true.
The little cakes come individually wrapped in their own little papers. You can’t smell much through the paper other than a light earth scent. once you open it up it’s shaped like a little nest! It smells like sweet hay and is very dark in colour. I popped it into my steeper and poured the water over it. If it weren’t for some mild housework I needed to attend to I would have watched it break apart.
It started right away! Little piece started floating off of it preceded by tiny bubbles. After I finished my vacuuming I returned to a steeper full of a dark red/brown liquor. It smelled slightly fishy with a bit of sweet earth. It looked beautiful! The little nest cake was all gone and had been replace with free swimming leaves.
The taste did not let me down one bit. Sweet hay, thick and rich. This cup is awe inspiring!

Sipdown! (and a backlog from yesterday)

This is the first real Puerh that I’ve tried. It’s something that’s on my list of things to try and start sampling in 2013. Unwrapping the small cake, leaves me with a little cake with a small indentation in it. The cake is hard, brown and has an earthy smell to it. Little crumbs fall off the cake as I pick it up, but overall the cake is very well put together and doesn’t fall apart.
Since I don’t have a gaiwan at the moment, I decided to try this western brewing style according to the instructions provided by Butiki Teas. Seven minutes later my cup is full of a dark brown coffee like brew. The aroma of the brew is earthy and there might be a hint of a fishy taste but that may just be my inexperience with Puerh. Even after the seven minute brew, the little cake is still trying to hold together.
The first sip of this brew is earthy but not overly so. It’s a mouth full of delicious goodness. I can’t place the taste but it’s familiar to me somehow. This is a beautiful cup of tea. Before I knew it, the cup was done. Because the puerh cake had not fully broken apart, I re-steeped this again. The brew held it’s taste and even still, the mini cake did not fully break apart. I was able to re-steep this another three times without the brew becoming weak or becoming fishy. Instead, throughout the process it remained mildly earthy and delicious. I still can’t place the “other” taste that I’m getting as I drink this. I have to say, for my first, foray into the world of puerh, this was a great start! I’m looking forward to trying this again after I’ve experienced other puerhs.

Thank you Stacy for this Sample!

I was soooo tired last night that I woke up on the couch about midnight having snoozed…zzzzz sitting up chin cupped in my hand (not a pretty picture). This is not how I sleep ever! Taking my zombie self off to my fluffy bed, I finally had the first full night’s rest since the High Hill Fire began on Saturday.

This morning I had this nice little paper wrapped mini Tuo Cha from Butiki to look forward to. Ahhhh. Puerh!

Steeping 7 minutes (after a 20 second rinse) 18 oz would be perfect for beginning my day.

While waiting, watching the fire news, I was stunned to find out that I am only 2.5 miles from the fire.

I really am mentally anxious for tea!

I expect a nice little Tuo Cha to produce an earthy flavor…mild and comforting but a bit predictable.
I should have known better than to assume that Stacy would be predictable in her choice of a Butiki Puerh Tuo Cha!

The flavor was mild and not earthy at all. Fresh then cooling in a way that reminded me of a forest. There was plenty of juice and a heat across my tongue lighting the way for more discovery. Something elusive…a flavor that was an herb in the background. This prompted me to go onto my patio and pick some Rosemary, Sage and Greek Oregano. Rubbing a little Sage between my fingers and smelling the scent? Maybe? Rosemary? No! Greek Oregano…? Um hum…Yes!
Greek Oregano is light, sunny reminds me of playing on a hillside in the Summer smelling the light, natural wild growing herbs.

I added some sweetening…which in this case increased the herbaceous quality which I found to be so desireable and unique in this Puerh.

What a surprise and treat this Puerh was for me. So different than I assumed or expected. So worth having again and again.

I ordered one of these little cuties a little while back & I’m definitely going to order a few more!

My tasting note for this isn’t going to be a very detailed one, sadly. I stayed up all night with my daughter Kira Monday night (literally all night- no sleeping for this lady :| ) because she was feverish (turns out she has an ear infection) :( Her fever finally broke around 4:30am and as soon as she went to sleep it seemed, Danny (my eldest) woke up for the day. I don’t often make a big pot of tea, usually opting for a mug at a time, because when I make a lot it tends to get forgotten in the shuffle of the morning. But Tuesday morning, I knew I wouldn’t forget it.

So I pulled this little nugget out of my cupboard.

The smell of the dry tuo cha wasn’t all that strong, but smelled of fish. I rinsed it for 30 seconds & as I poured off the liquid it smelled of hot muddy fish. Very earthy.

The finished pot of tea was very smooth. A good puerh for someone new to them I’d think. The aroma was lightly fishy, but reminded me more of horses after steeping than fish as it had after the brief rinse. Unfortunately I was too tired to remember to write down my notes on this tea so the more subtle observations I made have been lost, but I greatly enjoyed this tea. I will definitely be purchasing more to have on hand for those days when I have the time to sit down and enjoy a full pot (my teapot is small :P) of tea.