Help with mystery Tuocha?

So for my birthday today my Mom and I went to Chinatown. It was pretty fun since I hadn’t gone down there in a long while, though I was disappointed in the absolute lack of gaiwans. /sigh/ One day I’ll get one.
Anyway, my Mom surprised me by getting two little bags of mystery tuocha, though all she knew was that they were tea and I was really into tea. There was 6 in each bag, with 3 being duplicates so I got 9 different ones. Unfortunately I don’t read a smidge of Chinese, and trying to look anything up online was just an exercise in frustration. Lol.
I can only guess at what I have, but I was hoping someone here would be able to tell me exactly what kinds I have? Just so I know kinda what I’m getting into before trying them. Also do I use boiling water or something cooler? And do I wait until it breaks apart before straining and drinking it or is this one that I have to do multiple steeps? And how long?

Here’s pics of them. I tried to get them as clear and detailed as possible.
- http://tinyurl.com/MysteryTuocha1
- http://tinyurl.com/MysteryTuocha2
- http://tinyurl.com/MysteryTuocha3

Thanks!

5 Replies

I deduct the dark green one is a sheng/raw. The brown one I think is a sheng too. The rest are ripe/shu.
I figured out what characters are “sheng” and “shu” lol, so I might not be 100% correct. (hoping to see if I’m correct or not too)

For the ripe ones, boiling water works. I’d follow, say Teavivre’s steeping method as a guide http://www.teavivre.com/ripened-aged-pu-erh-tuocha/ Overall, do a rinse or two and quick steeps. Do longer steeps if you like strong espresso like teas. You’ll get a lot of infusions.

The raw ones, you can do boiling, but I like playing it safe with a little cooler water. Say, 185f.

With no gaiwan, you could probably pull off using them with a gravity steeper or large in cup steel filter, as long as you have a way to resteep it easy with plenty of room to expand.

Thanks. I’ll check out Teavivre’s guide and keep in mind quick steeps.

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Hikari said

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByrOyfFo49QtcUwzQkl0UTdxaTQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByrOyfFo49QtRWRSNkRZMnJjTUk/edit?usp=sharing

I’ve labeled them best as I could, but I couldn’t identify the characters on one of the toucha except that its a ripe pu’er.
Hope this helps:)

Awesome. That’s a great help. Now I have some idea what sort of tea I’ll be getting. Lol. Sad that none of them are the flavor I was hoping to get, except maybe the last mystery one. So we’ll see. Thanks again.

TeaVivre said

The other is just a ripened (shu) pu’erh tea, it’s a unflavored tea.

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