2013 Yunnan Sourcing Premium Ripe Puerh Tea Mini Tuo

106/365

Another shou, and another from Dark Matter 2016! I’m nearly there with these, I think – just two more to go! This is basically your typical fermented, earthy, slightly muddy shou. The scent is a little fishy, although that thankfully doesn’t translate into the flavour. It’s gone after a few steeps, anyway. There’s a fairly prominent leather flavour throughout, plus a sweetness that’s reminiscent of pipe tobacco. Later steeps have a light fruitiness, in the way of prunes, dates, or other sticky dried fruits. It’s perfectly smooth and a little creamy, with absolutely no bitterness or astringency. As shou goes, this is a good one! It’s maybe not super remarkable, but the flavours are ones I like and I’d happily drink this again. It would make a pretty good introduction, for those who are uncertain.

This isn’t a bad shou, but it doesn’t have any qualities to make it stand out. Smell of dry leaves is nice like leather, good cherry pipe tobacco, dried dark fruit like prunes or raisins. The sweetness really comes through in the liquor, but none of that fruitiness comes through for me. It has the typical fermented, earthy, woodsy, leather taste of shou. It’s very mild. I detected no bitterness, no astringency, and no sourness.

Reminiscent of old leather bound books, cedar, damp forest floor, something of a musty but not rotting wood smell. After 3 or 4 steeps, fruits become more prominent — prunes, figs, dates — and pipe tobacco. Very little bitterness or astringency. A very comforting array of aromas and flavors for a snowy early spring afternoon.

Gongfu, 150ml, boiling water, 2x rinse at 10s, start at 15s + 7s per add’l steep.

Another hidden gem from Yunnan Sourcing. The tea is picked at altitudes of around 2300 feet in a nationally-protected forest, bordering the groves of the much sought-after Bohetang (but they make no claims that it is actually Bohetang). A premium organic quality tea since no pesticides are allowed in nationally-protected forests.

The leaves are individually fermented so you don’t get the fragmentation that you see in “wet pile” fermented shu, Then, using the services of a skilled origami master, each intact leaf is cleverly folded into a mini-tuo shape. This results in tuos that weigh between 5.2 and 6.4 grams since the size of each leaf varies.

But what about the taste? If brewed Western style as you might see in a dim sum restaurant, you get a light bitterness, slight bamboo note, distinct minerality and very pleasant lipfeel. If brewed gong fu style in a yixing pot, the tea starts off with notes of petrichor, evolves into a damp hardwood forest floor with hints of black chanterelle mushrooms, before tapering off to a delicate camphor and orchid.

From the Pu’erh Plus TTB.

Brewed in a ceramic gaiwan. The tuocha weight totaled 5.4g. I was going to give it two 10-second rinses and a ten minute rest, but it opened up very quickly, so only one rinse was necessary. Steeping times: 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 18, 30; 1.5 minutes, 4, 15.

The tuocha smells of cedar wood. Letting it rest in the pre-heated gaiwan brings out an aroma of pulled pork, which gradually changes into honey BBQ sauce, and then to chocolate. The wet leaf smells of tapioca and smoky pine wood.

The soup is deep reddish brown, full-bodied, and creamy. It’s somewhat cloudy at first and takes up to four infusions to finally clear. I may should have kept the tuocha better. Who knows how long it’s been sitting in the little plastic baggie (kept in an open cardboard box). The first two infusions taste funky, which begins to lessen at the third, when I also taste a hint of chocolate. The fourth infusion has that cream of mushroom flavor I haven’t tasted in shou in a while, but it is also sweet (not incongruously so). Fifth infusion and onward, there is flat cedar wood note, almost paper-like at the end.

This might be my tastes since I haven’t had a mini tuocha in more than a year. More likely, this might be a lesson on how I should keep shou mini tuos if I ever stock on any.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKi6g28BgRr/

Adjusted my rating upward a little bit.

I left the tuo sitting open for a while since last time, and there has definitely been an improvement after airing out. The “lake” taste is gone, leaving a rich but uncomplicated earthiness. Maybe a bit of mushroom in there, too.

Still not my favorite, but went from a disappointing experiment to a no frills “daily drinker” sort of cup.

This was one of the samples in Liquid Proust’s puerh grab bag. I didn’t look it up beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it was a sheng or shou. Here are my notes from a couple of days ago:

This MUST be a shou. The leaves have that slightly fishy, oceany smell, which some people seem to mind a lot, but I don’t. It definitely wasn’t strong like it is in other minis I’ve tried. The cake was SO much easier to break up than the others I’ve tried from LP, so I only had to rinse it once before everything was separated nicely. After a rinse, I was ready to go.

Flavors on the first brew, at 200º and 30 seconds: sweet oaky, tangy, leather, oceany, and shou flavor…I’m not sure how to describe that yet. There’s no bitterness or astringency, even after some longer 45 second steeps at 212 º. Some people don’t like this flavor, but I kind of do. Heavens knows what that says about my taste in teas.

I’m hoping to get this flavor from an aged sheng, but mellower. Does that happen? Experience will tell I suppose.

Tea 4 from my 2016 Dark Matter haul.

Eh, I dunno. I’m still not convinced I’ve found a ripe I really enjoy, though this one was more palatable than the others I’ve tried so far. This one was only slightly fishy. Maybe I’m just really sensitive to the fishy pile taste? And I don’t particularly like teas that smell like the inside of a boathouse and taste like lake water.

But this one was okay lake water. The kind of lake water I’d drink again if offered it in some public/social/cultural setting. :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BESHG51j_Vq/?taken-by=pyramid_king_brandon

A re-review of the first puerh I ever tried! It holds a bit of a special place in my heart for that reason, but it does not really hold water with my current palate and preferences. It is certainly not awful – there is some fermentation flavor left, but it’s not fishy or disgusting. Other than that, the flavor is simple and easy enough to like – some sweet, damp woodiness and earthiness. My main complaint with these little guys is just how dusty they are. Especially in the first 3 or 4 infusions, there is a lot of particulate suspended in the tea, and while it does lessen later in the session, is a problem throughout. Some people probably don’t have an issue with this at all, in which case these are a solid enough choice. I found it detrimental to the tea’s texture, as it was plenty thick, but not quite as smooth.

So in conclusion, this tea is not bad. It is simple and tasty, and potentially convenient on the go, but for the money, I think most would be better served by any of YS’s very high quality ripe cakes. You may have to shell out a bit more money per gram, but you get a much higher quality product in return. I still have a few of these around from early puerh orders, and I suspect I will finish them off in time, but they won’t be a reorder for me.

My session with this mini tuo started with malty and mossy infusions with a little sourness in the finish, ending with many sweet wood flavored steeps. I really enjoy having such a tasty and convenient shou option.