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“First impressions: The wet leaves greet me with a complex and mysterious aroma. It’s deep, vegetal, fruity, sweet. 1 The aroma makes me feel like being in the middle of a forest. It’s summer, the...” Read full tasting note
“Gongfu! Just finished up this session – it was an interesting way to kick of a Sunday morning! The sheng is a little mulchy looking with some pretty bitter and astringent first steeps that are...” Read full tasting note
$49.00
The 2020 La Sombra is the best bang for your buck raw Puer of the 2020 spring. A multi-region blend that walks the tightrope of fruity sweetness and savory undercurrent, depth and drinkability. Highly recommend this cake to both beginners who want to fall in love with raw Puer or veterans who want a daily workhorse tea that doesn’t skimp on quality.
Each cake is 200 grams.
Pressed in 2020. Each cake is 200g. The cakes are wrapped in bamboo leaf tongs, with five cakes per tong.
First impressions:
The wet leaves greet me with a complex and mysterious aroma. It’s deep, vegetal, fruity, sweet.
1
The aroma makes me feel like being in the middle of a forest. It’s summer, the sun is high but I’m in the shadow of the trees. An intense heat intensifies the strong scent of this dark and humid place. It’s a low-toned aroma. The liquor is sweet and light, I get some flowers and steamed vegetables.
2
Aroma: Toasted rice, hojicha and other stuff that I can’t name properly.
Liquor: I think of some green oolong/toasted green tea. Medium-rich chicken stock texture. Good balance of savoury/sweet. Light tannins gently coating the mouth with a floral aftertaste.
3
Aroma is not super intense, now I get more hay.
Liquor: fairly smooth, medium thin, floral bittersweet. Toasted. Delicate aftertaste, semi rough texture in the roof of the mouth.
I feel focused and grounded. My brain activity is slowing down.
4
Aroma feels alive but very delicate. Vegetal, hay, possibly some mint, yellow fruits.
Liquor: roasted green oolong (can’t be more specific). It’s fresh, toasted. Balanced game of bitter-sweet-tannic. Very likeable but maybe a bit boring for me.
5
Aroma gets earthy and sharp. Roots, artichoke.
Liquor: more tannic and bitter, not much sweetness. “The equaliser needs some adjustments”.
Cooling sensation, mint. Still approachable. I feel slow but there’s some tension in my chest.
6
Aroma is fading, the bitterness calmed down leaving an astringent/floral tie guan yin like liquor.
7
I get more pungency and some vanilla at this point. There’s not much sweetness. Feels fresh and cooling. Lemon balm aftertaste.
I could keep going but feels a bit boring at this point.
Final thoughts:
To me this is a friendly and fairly interesting tea. It’s still fresh but has a “calm” nature. At the moment tends to be quite floral, with a white sugar sweetness. I’m curious to see how this will age.
Flavors: Floral, Forest Floor, Green, Hay, Popcorn, Roasted
Gongfu!
Just finished up this session – it was an interesting way to kick of a Sunday morning!
The sheng is a little mulchy looking with some pretty bitter and astringent first steeps that are frankly kicking my ass this morning! Despite that; there’s a really interesting balance of red fruit and smoky notes throughout the session – I think I need to sit with this session longer to decide if I like it or not, but at the very least I’m finding it quite interesting!! I think I could have brewed it longer – I got six infusions – but I was kind of over the tea by the fifth infusion so I didn’t push it that hard.
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPgGvM7gzkv/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CbneoUJ6Zg&ab_channel=spectorspectorOfficialArtistChannel
