I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this before, but when I searched this tea there was no listing.
This has been in my cupboard for about two years. When I bought it, it was my first Pu-erh and I didn’t know that a little air circulation benefits them, so I kept it in its tightly closed foil bag. When I opened it for the first time in about year, there was a very fishy smell. I took the last three tuo cha out and set them on the shelf for about a week or so. The fishy aroma is greatly decreased, but I wondered if I went too far and the flavor was also gone.
I made this for my son, his girlfriend, and myself to drink after our pizza lunch today. They loved the Teavivre puerh, didn’t care for the Rishi loose Classic Puerh, and liked this one somewhere in between. (They wouldn’t even take a second 2 ounce cup of the Rishi.)
The first steep had the barest hint of fishy aroma, so slight it may have been my imagination. The taste was just good, earthy puerh, though. I gave it about two minutes after the initial rinse, and the color was dark orange. The next steep was darker. By the fourth steep i saw a definitely lightening of the color, but the flavor was little diminished. We took this to six steeps and the last one was getting weak, but was still pretty good. For the price, this is an inexpensive shu with enough flavor to be interesting. I still prefer Teavivre for shu puerh mini tuo cha, but this one is very similar.
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