2012 Mengku Bingdao Guyun Ripe Puerh Tea Brick 250g

If you are looking for a spectacular tea this probably isn’t the one you want. However, if you are looking for a good solid ripe this one fits. It was cheap and when you pry apart the leaves you can tell it was a cheap brick. They only charge $9.99 for it. The first couple steeps had some unpleasant fermentation flavor although I wouldn’t use the word fishy. After this the fermentation developed into something nicer until it went away entirely somewhere between steep 5 and 6. A nice sweet note developed in general. There was virtually no bitterness to this tea anyway. I’m not sure that I would describe this tea as having chocolate notes or fruity flavors but it did develop a nice flavor. This was a highly enjoyable tea at a bargain price. I don’t know what more there is to say about it.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The tea still had a very nice color in the twelfth steep. I think this one would go sixteen steeps at least.