Jing Gu "Zi Cha" Purple Pu-erh Tea Mini Cake

It is interesting how many sweet and sour berry/fruit flavors could be discerned in this tea: sour cherry, cranberry, lingonberry, honeyberry, cloudberry, rowan, bird-cherry, green plum… Most of them are not even an option in the Steepster’s drop-down flavors/scents menu and that shows that this tea is pretty unusual.

I like it, it is a nice change of pace from other puerhs.

My first experience with a purple pu’erh, I must say I enjoy this. It’s so cheap, too! Notes of plum, freeze dried blueberries and earth. Another great tea from Scott @ YS, check it out!

My husband is out with work friends and I almost regret offering to give him a lift home. His problem is time escapes him and before he knows it the bar will be closing and he stumbles into the street at 4am. I have work in the morning and it’s already 10:30pm, hopefully he phones me early so I can snuggle in my bed. I got a teddy bear soft sheet that Oliver kitten loves, he has a thing for sucking soft wool things. Apparently wool sucking in cats and kittens shows that he was taken too early from his mother and he is trying to find a way to bond with her. I had him when he was 4 months, he was the one found on the street and so I took him in. I do worry about him sometimes, does he even remember his mother? What about his siblings? I can only pray that they are alright.

Anyway, back in the world of tea I am drinking this in the hopes that it will keep me busy to help me stay awake. My eyes are feeling heavy and a little droopy but if I’m not clear minded I cannot drive. Enter some purple tea in a beautiful cake form. I’m three steeps in and am impressed by it so far. It tastes like you expect for Sheng but it’s darker in colour than you would expect, of a normal Sheng that is.

It’s sweet and smooth with earth, musk and floral notes. On the whole it’s easy to drink and would make for a nice everyday tea. The cake was $8 for 100g which I feel is a very good price. Usually I cannot stomach cheap Pu Erh, it’s either too strong, too sour or it lacks flavour altogether. This may not be top quality, but it’s certainly nice enough to make me want more. I think I’m going to steep the shit out of this tea!

BTW steep three in a teapot was large enough to open the leaves fully and for the most part they are whole. I love seeing the leaves after, it’s a reminder that I’m drinking something natural.

I will be here, steeping and waiting for a drunken phone call.

Had this one today. What stood out was the creaminess of it. I only had a few infusions but they were all good. No bitterness. Smooth and creamy with a bit of sweetness. Also a nice stone fruit taste with a bit of sourness. The sour note was not unpleasant at all. In fact quite nice, adding a new dimension to the tea.

A sample from the Sheng Olympics. :) I had this yesterday and I’m already having trouble remembering the details. This is why it’s necessary for me to log as I sip! Anyway, it was 6-7g in my 4oz gaiwan, water in the 90C range, 10sec steeps to start, and continued until I was steeping for 2-3min. One of the things I found interesting about this was that when I first smelled the wet leaves, I had a moment of being reminded of a black tea – there was this malty note that I’ve never detected in a green/sheng type of tea before. Anyway, it wasn’t there in the flavour, but the early steeps did have a fruitiness that was somewhat reminiscent of a fruity black, that stone fruit thing. After those early steeps it got very vegetal and mellowed out quite a bit. Sweet and smooth. I didn’t really get the bitter/sour notes that other people have described? Anyway, it was good but it didn’t blow me away or anything. Good for drinking now, anyway. :)

2016 Sheng Olympics

Not being a fan of the purple variation oolong I have drank, I was still optimistic about this tea. Its really dark and has that funky smell to it, yet I hoped for something mild and unique. Unique I got. At first I was conflicted about my like and dislike for this. In the end I was glad to have tried it and find that this is something I do not enjoy. Its not anything to do with mouth feel, steeping abulity, or price. .. There is just a level of funk to this that makes it seem to be something that was made against its own desires; if a plant can taste such a way.
I am not done trying purple variations though. I will find one I enjoy!

2016 Sheng Olympics

This one was a bit different. It has a slightly different flavour, like all the purple varietals I have tried before – this has a similar pleasantly sour flavour, and is quite lively in the feeling it gives you. I had to stop every once in a while because caffeine started kicking in.

Its an interesting flavour, not something I am really used to, having only tried a few different processing types of purple tea.

Throughout the session the sourness got sweeter. I am on the second day drinking it and it is stonefruit flavour and aroma. With also something softer, but I am having trouble picking out the correct term for it. I am preferring today, I think mainly because this is still a flavour I am trying to wrap my head around. I dont know if its for everyone – but you could say that for a lot of sheng, right?

I would love to see what this tea tastes like aged. Maybe I should start buying some?