This is my favorite of all Yunnan Sourcing’s cha gao. It’s been approximately three zillion years since I last had a Sugar Smacks/Honey Smacks type cereal but this tea smells and tastes a lot like I remember that cereal tasting. Maybe a little less sweet, but that same toasted grain sort of flavor. This one tasted more grainy to me and the Jinggu raw cha gao tasted more caramely. I like both but slightly prefer this one. I didn’t like the ripe Jingmai or any of the other ripe cha gao either, which seemed weird to me because I usually enjoy regular ripe pu-erh.
I don’t think I’ve ever brewed these in a teapot. I don’t think I’ve ever tried them cold either, unless the last couple sips in my cup that have gotten cold count. Usually I end up doing a grandpa sort of brew with a couple pieces in a big mug or thermos, adding more water or another tea chunk as needed. This time they went into a travel mug with a few bits of chunky Himalayan pink salt (not really enough to make the tea taste salty, goofy autonomic nervous system requires me to have a high salt diet, too many fluids and not enough salt leads to cool stuff like passing out, dehydration-like headaches and adrenaline surges that feel like panic attacks…there are few things I haven’t tried adding salt to at this point). A little bit of hot water at first, swirled the cha gao around in my cup until they had dissolved a bit, then filled the cup up the rest of the way. No refills this time, just one giant mug to try to warm up and convince myself grocery shopping was necessary.
