:-/
Made this the old stick-in-a-glass-and-keep-drinking-off-of-it method as a personal dare. It was… uh… yep.
EDIT a real tasting note, thanks to Bonnie!
Normally, I wouldn’t have written anything about this, since I tend do go for the “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” approach (if not nice, at least helpful to someone else). But since I’m currently challenging myself to log every tea I drink in a day, no matter what, I couldn’t leave this one out!
Here’s the story:
I still have a few good friends in Qingdao who sometimes send over tea and fun stuff (and we send over chocolates and other fun US stuff). One of my friends is quite a funny gal who isn’t actually a fan a pu’er, but she knows that I am! So in part of a care package that included great TGY and green tea, there was this tea tucked away in a triple sealed bag. How could I resist! It was like a giant “:-P” face..daring me to try it. So we did- it was very funny in how little sense it made. A super duper dark base (not the greatest shu, not revolting but definitely murky..sour…ashy..drying) plus, for no particular reason, jasmine? Honestly, it was much better in a giant mug than it was when I first tried it in a gaiwan. Strangely juicy, with not a trace of jasmine or florals.. why were they stuck into it in the first place? In the mug, they are swallowed up by mud. In a gaiwan, they stick out like a sore thumb from the base.. but so unrelated, it’s more like a disembodied floating sore thumb.
Poor little tuocha- I know the plant that grew its leaves worked hard all season gathering the nutrients to turn into sugars and cell walls and everything needed to make it’s little tea leaves. So full of promise and good things! And someone picked those leaves and pile-fermented them and then said to themselves.. you know what? I’m going to take these jasmine flowers over here, and for no reason at all, I’m going to stick ’em onto this pile ’o leaves and make inexplicable tuochas! My friend also thought is was funny in how inappropriate it was.. but it can only be share through experience.
So here the tuocha’s are.. sitting in a baggie on my desk in all ways like a bad joke. I don’t want to laugh at you but.. there’s something in your complete lack-of-sense that also makes you endearing.. like some sort of terrible internet preposterous joke. I imagine unwrapping you and sticking googly eyes on you: that’s who you are.
http://i.imgur.com/4qiQy.jpg
It’s been quite a while since I tried this tea last, and when I came upon it in the giant TO-DRINK-AT-WORK bag, I giggled and said to myself.. Ok- I dare you! Do it! And I did. And survived with some fun! :-P
http://i.imgur.com/7RGy7.jpg
