Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha

So… this is some exciting stuff. This is my first ever Puerh. and i didn’t know rather to be excited or intimidated by it. It is wonderfully malty like the yunnan blacks i have had and so much more dark… almost like a cup of coke. Dry, it smelled a little fishy. Brewed is is a wonderful thing. having said all of that. i’m not even sure if this is the same tea as the teavivre tea. The packaging look identical so i kind of assumed. None the less, amazing.

Thank you Tommy for my new Fixation.

I love a good pu-erh tea. I did not always, but I do now! And this one was particularly tasty.

I was a little surprised at just how finely cut the leaves are in this mini tuo, but it did allow for a hearty strong brew, dark enough to satisfy my coffee-craving brother! Most pu-erh I drink, even in mini tuo form, has somewhat larger leaves, but it did not denigrate the flavor of this tea.

As far as pu-erh goes, I really enjoyed this one. It has a distinct malty, earthiness and minimal to no astringency or bitterness.

Thanks to TeaVivre for sending along this sample!

Not really lovin’ the aroma but I can get passed it. The first infusion is nice tasting, tho! It’s dark brown and a malty sweet-sour woodsy flavored under a semi-strong black tasting tea. NICE.

2nd infusion coming soon

This is my first sampling of Pu-erh tea. If Teavivre’s Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha is representative of other teas of this type, I will be seeking out additional members of this club soon!

This tea is absolutely delicious! It has a rich, robust, and bold wood taste with a sweet edge to it. The color is a full-bodied dark brown, like maple syrup filtered through mahogany wood. The aroma reminds me of freshly cut fine wood in a furniture maker’s shop.

I found myself swirling the tea around my mouth longer than usual with each sip. I just didn’t want to swallow it and end the fabulous flavor ride.

As always, I followed Teavivre’s preparation instructions to the letter. I brewed this tea at 212 degrees for two minutes. That method seemed to perfectly produce one of the best tea experiences I have ever had.

If there is such a thing as a tea drinker’s tea, this has got to be it. I would enjoy this beverage at any time of the day or night. This tea is now listed at the top of my rapidly growing tea shopping list.

One word. Outstanding! This is another sample from Angel brewed in my Yixing clay cup. This is very smooth, dark, and lovely. This is very comparable to my favorite Imperial Pu-Erh from Dr. Tea just in the Tuocha format. You know when you have a good pu-erh when it does not taste fishy. Some lower quality pu-erhs that I have had are good…but you get a little fishyness to the taste. I’m starting off my day with this one going on my third steep. The first two have been great. I’m anxious to see how well this tea holds up to extra steepage. I am finding that with most pu-erh tea it’s helping after a few drinks last night while DJing. I’m not the connoisseur that I used to be of fine beer. Two Great Lakes Christmas ales…and I was feeling it. I’m such a lightweight. Truly though a great tea. I am continually being impressed by the quality of tea from Teavivre.

This was my first time drinking pu-erh tea and i did not really know what to expect. So far I haven’t had very pleasent experiences with black teas and I wasn’t sure how pu-erh compared to black. I can tell you now that they don’t. This pu-erh took me off guard and pleasantly surprised me!

The dry disk was a hard brick of dark tea with a noticeable earthy smeel. To be honest, the smell had me nervous but my fears were quite unfounded.

I rinsed the tea first then steeped it at 212 for 1.5 minutes. The leaves broke up pretty well I would say but I might rinse it more next time to provoke the breaking more. The liquid was an incredibly dark brown with a earthy smell. Now at this point I really had no idea what to expect. The taste was earthy with a slight fishy sweetness and not bitter at all!

The second was at 208 for 1 minute and broke the tea up completely. It did not lose any flavor at all! I’m sure this could be steeped over and over for awhile. I look forword to much more pu-erh in the future!

My puer loving friend was finally able to come over this evening to try this with me. This puer has an earthy aroma, not the fishy smell some puers have. I gave it almost two minutes on the first steep. It was not terribly strong, so if you like it strong right off the bat, you may want to wash it, then steep. give it the full two minutes at least.

Steeped 1 minute with boiling water. Toucha remains mostly intact. The brew is dark with a light musty aroma. The wet leaf reminds me of wet musty hay. The first sip is much sweeter than expected. I happily notice the leather notes I got from the rose toucha only much lighter. May be imagination but I pick up just the tiniest hint of smoke. I am also getting that slick slightly tacky lip feel that appealed to me in the China Cha Dao puerhs. No astringency, or fishiness and I don’t find it heavily earthy.

Second cup, toucha completely crumbled. Has a bit more leather and as it cools a bit of bitterness moves in with a heavy dose of hay. Third cup I added a couple small leaves of chocolate mint. Not enough to really flavor it but added a cool mouth feel and evened out the bitterness. Next time I brew this I am going to really short steeps.

The other reviews raved on this tea. I may adjust my rating up or down a bit after I try modifying my steep parameters. I loved the rose toucha. This one I like. Definitely better than meh, but not a wow. IMHO – YMMV (in my humble opinion – your mileage may vary)

I made this in my gaiwan and did 6 steeps. I wrote more details in my tea journal so I’ll just give you the quick version. The first few steeps were very strong with a leathery/smokey sweetness and earthy undertones. The last few steeps turned earthy but there was still a nice, light sweet smokey flavor. The aroma was deep and woodsy through all of the different steeps. I liked the last few steeps the most.

So, I should start this note off with the confession that I’ve never had pu-erh tea before. It’s not that I didn’t want to try it, it’s just that it seemed a little intimidating. But I got this as a sample, and took to YouTube to learn how to prepare it (yes, I am a nerd) and gave it a shot.

The smell is interesting and almost like wet earth. I’m picking up a bit of fish, too, but the good smell of fresh fish, not awful like a fish market. For some reason, I’m reminded of Monterey; kind of the woodsy, oceany atmosphere together, I guess? I’m not sure. I was really surprised by how dark the tea got, almost black.

I do think this was a great first pu-erh, because I am really enjoying it! I wasn’t sure what to expect. It starts out like a standard black tea (or at least, how I think good black tea should taste!), but gets very complex after that. I can see why people describe pu-erh as earthy, because it’s definitely that, but there are some spicy, subtle, almost chocolatey hints. It’s pretty nice. I don’t know how it would stack up to other pu-erh teas, but I like it.

(Sample provided free by TeaVivre for review.)

I like pu-ehr. It gives me wonderful flashbacks to the acupuncturist I saw in Chicago, who had me drinking daily cup fulls of it in a brew she called “Liver Peace Tea”. It was also a component in a beauty tea she told me to drink if I wanted to soften my smile lines.
Anyway, I came to associate pu-ehr with feeling more relaxed, and as a comfort during what was a particularly severe Chicago winter.

This one comes in beautifully wrapped single serving pucks that can be steeped around six times a piece. If you’ve never tried pu-ehr, this is a good one to start with even if, like me, you mostly drink bizarrely flavored rooibos and honeybush blends. It’s gentle, with a slight backdrop of sweetness to it. Pu-ehr is always a bit earthy, with kind of mossy, loamey-ness to it, but even if that turns you off at first, reading about the health benefits might coax you back. On the first steeping it’s not too strong at all, and would pair really well with all sorts of food.

Full disclosure: This review is based on a free sample provided to me by the distributor. If you suspect me of being the sort of person who can be bribed with free tea, now would be the time to disregard my opinions.

For a start, these are the most perfect looking tuocha I’ve ever seen. Perfect half spheres with a dimple, expertly wrapped in moisture wicking fabric paper. If you are into the aesthetics of your tea drinking, these are well worth looking at.

There is an enticing and unexpected sweetness to the smell of the dry leaf.

I’m always amazed at how quickly pu-erh steeps. 90 seconds and I have a cup that looks like coffee. Regular readers will know that I don’t go in for this business of “rinsing” pu erh teas. Given how fast it steeps it just seems to me like you’re throwing away the first good cup in the name of tradition.

The aroma off the cup is a reassuring swirling of damp soil, cave rock and rainy days.

But the flavor on the tongue brings that unexpected hint of sweetness again. Like someone was storing barrels of molasses in that cave, or perhaps the paper wrappers for the tuocha had been painted with caramel. But don’t worry. This isn’t like drinking vanilla strawberry roiboos or something. This is a soft, round, hint of a suggestion. Not even a wink and a nod, more like a knowing glance, at sweetness.

I tend to find the second and third steepings of a pu-erh to be the best, so I’ll be getting back to you shortly, I suspect.

I love these cute little tuochas! I made the mistake of using the term ‘tea cake’ in the hearing of my daughter and I had to make sure she didn’t try to eat one! Hehe
I rinsed this tea for about 20 seconds, then steeped for one minute. The first steep was very mellow and complex; the only word I can think of to describe it is wood. But, that makes it sound bad. It’s a good thing!
Second steep, 2 min. This was my favorite steep! Still had that woodsy taste but much sweeter.
3rd steep was a combination of flavors of the first two, but I think I needed to steep it a little longer as it seemed to lose the complexity it had at first.
This is a comforting brew that I enjoyed! Thank you to Teavivre and Angel for another generous sample from them!

This was my first attempt at a Pu-Erh, to start I love black tea’s and the idea of a fermented aged black tea more then appealed to me, I went into this thinking it was just an…extra-black black tea, and while it is by far the darkest tea I have ever seen, extra-black certainly dose it no justice.

The little brick itself is certainly a bit intimidating even if its only the size of a nickel, the leaves a very compressed of course and pitch black, it has a very earthy smell, like old hay, I dropped it into a flush in-mug infuser with boiling water over the top and it quickly started to break apart.

The tea seems to steep very quickly, you can actually watch it bleed into the water as if you dropped in a slow dye (If you have a glass pot or mug to steep in do it), boiling water for three minutes seemed to be more then adequate, I’d say it actually might have been a bit too much but there was not bitterness at all, I’ve read the fermentation process makes pu-erh very resistant to oversteeping, which is good because I’m pretty negligent about my timing in the morning. The little brick seems to contain an extraordinary amount of leaves, easily five or six times its volume in heavy wet earthy smelling happiness comes out.

The flavor itself is distinct, no pu-erh fishiness at all, the taste is far smoother, far more distinct and delicate then the very dark color would suggest, most of the reviews say that there is a leather taste, and I agree although I think I lack the words to describe it properly it’s a very earthy taste.

Tl;dr: The Pu-erh Mini Toucha from Teavivre is a distinctly delicious, easy to make Pu-erh tea, that from my first experience doing a Pu-Erh is as amusing to steep as it is to taste.

I got this pu-erh in a very generous sampler box from Teavivre. This pu-erh has a much more pronounced leather taste as opposed to soil taste and less sweet then most. I love drinking it after dinner and find it incredibly relaxing. A one minute steep brought out the interesting leather flavor while a second steeping at two minutes has a sharp cooking chocolate taste. Nice late night tea.

Surprisingly tasty, smooth and slightly chocolatey. Hint: Use good quality water when brewing this tea.

First steep: nothing special. Very light flavor.

Second steep: dark and earthy, slightly fishy scent and finish

The dry and (mostly) the wet leaves have a sweet and bread-like aroma, oddly reminiscent of fried vegetable tempura. The tuo cha come apart nicely in the cup. I rinsed the leaves twice before my first infusion, which was 90C for about 15 seconds. The taste and aroma are melon-like and round, light on the palate. Despite the lightness, there’s a twinge of deep sweetness on the tongue that I tend to associate with older shou puer (I’m not really sure of the age of these, although it probably is written somewhere).

The second infusion (90C for 20 seconds) became dark, heavy, and thick, just as I would expect from a shou puer with relatively small leaves. The taste is still a little sweet on the tongue, reminiscent of dried apricots and raisins.

The third infusion (90C for 10 seconds) is still quite dark. The mouth aroma has become more in the range of charcoal and damp moss, which is very pleasant. The sweetness fades here.

I’m certain there are at least 3-6 more infusions in this tuo cha, but I had tasted too many teas that day already and needed a break.

This was a very different experience for me as the only other puerhs I’ve had were all Sheng. Regardless, I went into this with a mostly open mind, and the results were pretty great. After properly washing it out a bit, I did the first true infusion, which resulted in literally black tea. The aroma was earthy, very earthy, but not in a bad way. The taste was actually much better than I expected, without a hint of the “muddy pond” taste that some lower-quality shu apparently has. It is interesting how it is a bit sweet this quickly, and it is certainly above-average. That being said, I am a bit ambivalent about the taste. Sure, it’s got a few things I like, but it’s not something that I would go out of my way to have again.

Not much to say here, averagely good puer. Went to maybe 6th steeping (considerably weakened by 4th) can’t say I dislike it.