But, the key is in the leaf right?
So onto tasting.
All their teas are labelled like this, so I will have great insight into each one!
These little touchas look good! They are tippy, uniform for the most part, and they don't smell awkward like some cheap pu'erh touchas.
The dry leaf actually doesn't have too much of a smell to it, but I can sense a light earthiness with some mushroom scents coming off it as well.
Not surprising.
The brewed tea is dark, as you can obviously see above.
It looks like the coffee I was tasting last weekend.
The liquor is not dense, though. It is light, flavorful, and well balanced.
It has quite a clean taste, and there is more of a leather quality to it than a mushroom/rotting leaf taste.
The artificial aging process has not negatively impacted the flavor and left some strange taste as with other pu'erh touchas I have sampled in the past.
What really surprised me was the lack of endurance. Granted, I drink my shu'pu strong, but even still most shu'pu will last me a good 10 infusions. I gave up on this one at about 6.
The one quality I really enjoyed was a wonderful pine taste on the last 2 infusions. I guess I could have stretched out the brews and got some more of the pine, but hey, I still have 3 more touchas of this tea that will definitely not go to waste!
~Billy
I've received some samples from Teavivre too and written reviews. I agree with you on the premium longjing - it's good! However, I really did not think much of this pu'er, there were a lot of weird tastes in there that didn't click.
ReplyDeleteHere's my review of the same tea, if you're interested:
http://sagacitea.blogspot.com/2012/02/ripened-aged-puer-mini-tuocha-teavivre.html
Kate,
ReplyDeleteStrange that we had such different experiences!
How did you brew the tea?
Yixing pot is the way I went! That could have a bit to do with the differing tastes. Yixing, I find, rounds flavors out and for the most part, brings great qualities out of a tea, especially shupu!