This is the second time I’ve had sheng pu-erh and the second time I’ve brewed it myself. I’m sure my brewing expertise isn’t up to par for brewing pu-erh well. Nonetheless, this is an interesting cup. Golden raisins, mellow figs, and light cane sugars dominate the first steep. We’ll see where it goes from there.
Jing Mai Bing Cha, 2003
Pu-erh Tea by The Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop
This greener, semi-cooked Pu-Erh comes from Jing Mai Mountain in southern Yunnan, where tea is wild-crafted from several-hundred-year-old tea trees. The mature leaves are sun-withered, hand-kneaded, wood-fired, wok-roasted, steamed and then shaped into round cakes by putting the leaves into cloth bags and placing the bags under a stone mold upon which the tea-makers stand, applying their weight in a rotational motion to achieve the desired circular shape of the tea cake. The flavor is bittersweet and brings to mind breathing in the air close to a river nestled in a forest. This tea is intended for several steepings, with the “heart” of the tea’s character usually apparent somewhere around the 3rd or 4th steeping.
