Wild Arbor Loose Leaf Ripe Puerh of Yong De Spring 2013

I tend to buy loose leaf ripe puerh for two situations, one in the morning when I’m brewing Western style and have no time, or when I’m in a hurry to have a gongfu session for some reason. Today I finished a really good raw tea and wanted a ripe, but I wanted to get the ripe in early enough so I can still sleep tonight. So I picked this loose leaf because it was handy. It started out fairly bittersweet with a lot a fermentation flavor left. The fermentation was still noticeable in the fifth and sixth steep to some degree. I would say there were some notes of chocolate in there. I really didn’t notice any fruity flavors but I only gave this eight steeps. Could be they would emerge in a few more steeps. I don’t really know. But I was at my caffeine limit so I stopped at eight.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.4g 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, and 30 sec. Overall I’d say this is a fairly good quality loose ripe puerh but then again most of the ones you get from Yunnan Sourcing are good. It is somewhat rare in that these are spring leaves. Most ripe are not spring tea but autumn or even summer leaves.