Steep Information:
Amount: 1 nest ~4.6g
Water: ~16 oz
Tool: ceramic Tea Forte solstice teapot
Steep Time: a little over 1 minute
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: rice
Steeped Tea Smell: rice
Flavor: bitter, astringent, rice, green tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bitter green tea
Liquor: translucent yellow-green
As an aside this online shop has amazing customer service, packaging, and products. I highly recommend them.
MilitiaJim appreciates that it is what it says, rice tea.
I started with a quick rinse steep to loosen everything up. As the nest unfurled the leaves were smaller than I expected. I ended up needed to strain the tea as I poured into my cup.
I think I was not patient enough in letting the water cool from a boil, or 1 minute was too long to steep the leaves as it was bitter. I could both smell and taste the rice.
I’m intrigued and can’t wait to try this tea again later, I am still new to pu-erh teas so the whole rinse and tiny steep concept is difficult for me to time correctly. To add trouble I also always over heat my whites and greens!
Post-Steep Additives: none
Resteep: same as the first in preparation and taste
This gets extra points just for being different and fun.
Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/chicago-tea-garden-tuocha-green-pu-erh.html
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
Hey, AmazonV. I just had a quick couple of questions regarding Pu-Erhs in general, as I am quite new to them. Did you pick the tuocha apart before steeping? I heard you are also supposed to “rinse” the leaves. Does this mean first rinsing the dust and such off (as some cakes, tuochas, and bricks may be of a very old vintage), or should one just plop the tea right in the cup? Thanks!
Hey Alex – no i don’t pick apart the litte touchas as they are for single servings, cakes need to be pried apart with a knife (i think there are good youtube videos on this)
some people rinse (steep fast and throw out) the tea first to get rid of dust and such, just pour in the water to the pot as if steeping, swirl around, then right into the sink (only a second or so) you don’t have to though if you don’t want to (don’t just rinse it in the sink, you might end up loosing leaves, use your strainer or teapot or gaiwan)
you’ll notice the toucha coming apart the more you steep, these steep many times, until it looks like loose leaf wiht no help needed
Great! Thanks!
Hey, AmazonV. I just had a quick couple of questions regarding Pu-Erhs in general, as I am quite new to them. Did you pick the tuocha apart before steeping? I heard you are also supposed to “rinse” the leaves. Does this mean first rinsing the dust and such off (as some cakes, tuochas, and bricks may be of a very old vintage), or should one just plop the tea right in the cup? Thanks!
Hey Alex – no i don’t pick apart the litte touchas as they are for single servings, cakes need to be pried apart with a knife (i think there are good youtube videos on this)
some people rinse (steep fast and throw out) the tea first to get rid of dust and such, just pour in the water to the pot as if steeping, swirl around, then right into the sink (only a second or so) you don’t have to though if you don’t want to (don’t just rinse it in the sink, you might end up loosing leaves, use your strainer or teapot or gaiwan)
you’ll notice the toucha coming apart the more you steep, these steep many times, until it looks like loose leaf wiht no help needed
Great! Thanks!