Imperial Golden Pu Er

I am on a tea reviewing roll today!!

I LIKE this a lot!!! Probably because I do drink coffee, and the sronger the better! This brews up to a dark espresso colour, which did not scare me a bit, although I knew I needed to add cream to it.

This is so smooth, mellow and nutty. I’m on my second steeping and no flavour has been lost. I will get another steep out of this, as for a fourth? Yet to be determined. Yeah, I’m done reviewing. I’m just gonna sit back and enjoy this one.

After preheating my teaware, I opened the package of loose tea, breathing in what seemed to be a fragrant and bold pu’erh. Beginning by rinsing the leaves in the gaiwan, I took in the aroma of the wet leaves and had much the same impression as when they were dry. Then came the first thirty-second infusion. I was just a bit disappointed. The flavours were bold, yet at the same time were flat. Initially, the tea had great mouthfeel and the taste concentrated at the front of the mouth, but that was about as far as things went. Continuing, I steeped the leaves again for another thirty seconds. This time, the brew came out darker looking, earthier in smell, and stronger in flavour. The third infusion was much like the second, but the flavour was a bit fuller. Finally, for the fourth steeping, I left the leaves sit in the water for several minutes. This time, the tea came out stronger, but no more flavourful. Overall, I would say that I was disappointed at the lack of any sort of full flavour. However, the flavours that did exist were bold. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give this tea a 68/100.

Sipdown tea #5! Thanks goes to yappychappy!
This pu erh is a little bit different from what I was expecting. It has more of a sweeter, fruity note to it. There is a bit of a smokey note to it, too. It almost reminds me of the fruity pu erh from The Tea Grotto. I liked it but it’s not my favorite.

It’s not the most flavorful puerh out there but it still has interesting notes associated with it. There is definite smoked woodiness there with a good amount of mellow. But it’s a pretty clean brew. There isn’t much of a lingering aftertaste and definitely pretty lacking punchiness of the flavor or thickness of the soup. Drinkable but not what I like in puerhs, it lacks the complexity.

Both dry and steeped leaf smell musty, like old books.

One quick rinse and then first steep, 100ml, 40 seconds, boiling water. The liquor is very dark brown.

My first impression is bitterness, followed by earth and must. Not really feeling this steep at all.

2nd, 15 seconds. Not great yet, but developing. Less bitter, a bit richer tasting, with the puerh numbness starting to peek in. Still missing some dimension.

20s, 25s, 30s. This isn’t developing much with subsequent steeps. It’s totally drinkable, just really boring. You know how sometimes a black tea just tastes like tea and there are no real discernible notes that aren’t “tea”? This is kind of like that – it tastes like generic puerh.