Definitely this was an impulse buy at the Imperial Tea Court where I went to have some superior yellow gold oolong but that’s another story…
Here’s my first green pu-erh tea cake! Am I fully addicted to tea? I almost got a brick too but decided to save that for next time.
I steeped this in boiled water for around 3 minutes but I also noticed the website says 180F so I’ll need to modify this in the future.
I don’t know if I can really describe this with my regular words. It smells a tiny bit like an orange pekoe which has me kind of intrigued. It’s a bit sandalwoody and a bit fruity with a hint of smoke but not overwhelmingly so. I am picking up a lot of tannins here. My tastebuds are tingling with excitement and curiosity. It has a slight effervescent quality. It is definitely a green tea but not like any other green tea I’ve tried before. Mysterious.
I did manage to steep this 3 times before I gave up and decided I’ve had too much caffeine for the day already. By the third infusion it is definitely getting a lot lighter but I suspect if I had used less hot water from the very beginning this would not be the case.
I believe this is only my second green pu-erh, they are growing on me a bit. They are a little gentler than the black pu-erhs but not as sweet and light as the white ones. I did notice ITC had a 2010 green cake for $20 so I am wondering if I should go back and purchase that one and lock it in a vault for 10 years. :)
I am definitely happy with this purchase and it will be great to see how this evolves, I expect it will get better with a few years of aging but I like it pretty well now… I wonder if I can wait long enough for it to age before I drink it all!
