My first unflavoured puerh! I chronicled the whole thing in pictures, but photobucket is being uncooperative. This was the one I was most excited about with my order from butiki. It was something I hadn’t tried before. I’ve been loving my flavoured puerh but afraid of a plain one. Butiki has never let me down, and this remains true.
The little cakes come individually wrapped in their own little papers. You can’t smell much through the paper other than a light earth scent. once you open it up it’s shaped like a little nest! It smells like sweet hay and is very dark in colour. I popped it into my steeper and poured the water over it. If it weren’t for some mild housework I needed to attend to I would have watched it break apart.
It started right away! Little piece started floating off of it preceded by tiny bubbles. After I finished my vacuuming I returned to a steeper full of a dark red/brown liquor. It smelled slightly fishy with a bit of sweet earth. It looked beautiful! The little nest cake was all gone and had been replace with free swimming leaves.
The taste did not let me down one bit. Sweet hay, thick and rich. This cup is awe inspiring!
Preparation
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Oh boy the adventure begins. Puerh is really nice. Once you get to tasting it, you don’t think of it as fishy (unless something is wrong with the puerh which I have yet to run into except with flavored stuff that is sour sometimes from the flavoring not the leaf itself.
You must have let your tuo cha steep awhile. You shouldn’t do that with every shu though. Some are good and rich at 30 seconds. Good for you! The small round puerh coins are really good too.
I followed the directions on the website. It said 7 minutes or longer. That’s good to know though! Maybe next time I’ll watch it and see how long it takes to darken. I love it though!
If that’s what it said than fine. I have others that are 30 seconds but are not as big and hard probably. Anyway, I wouldn’t want you to steep every puerh that long is what I was getting at. The Tuo Cha’s are exceptions.
Yes, you can definitely do short steeps. The directions are for 18oz of water (western style) but you could certainly do 4-6oz of water at much shorter steeps. I took a puerh class where they did one tea steeped short for maybe a minute, then 15 minutes, then 30 minutes and we did a side by side taste comparison. It was really interesting.
I definitely recommend experimenting.
I want a gaiwan. I feel like everything would be more fun. I’ve got my eye on the paisley one in our teaware section! I’m definitely going to experiment next time.
LOL, Boxer! One of my first reviews here started with, “I need a Gaiwan”. :D
LOL! When I joined this site I had one perfect mug and a handful of teas from DT. I feel out of control right now. haha!
Butiki has some pretty Gaiwans. I have a clay one just for puerh with a handle because I’m a klutz! You can use a cup and saucer or a finum basket works well too. Lots of times that’s what I use if the steepings are short (30 seconds). mrmopar suggests 30 seconds for most his shu puerh and he has LOTS!
I only have antique china tea cups that I’m terrified to use, I am also a klutz. I’m thinking I’m going to order one.
I’m always nervous ordering breakables on ebay. I have a number of Boxer figurines, but in my head they’re always going to arrive broken. lol
I like that!
Oh boy the adventure begins. Puerh is really nice. Once you get to tasting it, you don’t think of it as fishy (unless something is wrong with the puerh which I have yet to run into except with flavored stuff that is sour sometimes from the flavoring not the leaf itself.
You must have let your tuo cha steep awhile. You shouldn’t do that with every shu though. Some are good and rich at 30 seconds. Good for you! The small round puerh coins are really good too.
I followed the directions on the website. It said 7 minutes or longer. That’s good to know though! Maybe next time I’ll watch it and see how long it takes to darken. I love it though!
If that’s what it said than fine. I have others that are 30 seconds but are not as big and hard probably. Anyway, I wouldn’t want you to steep every puerh that long is what I was getting at. The Tuo Cha’s are exceptions.
Yes, you can definitely do short steeps. The directions are for 18oz of water (western style) but you could certainly do 4-6oz of water at much shorter steeps. I took a puerh class where they did one tea steeped short for maybe a minute, then 15 minutes, then 30 minutes and we did a side by side taste comparison. It was really interesting.
I definitely recommend experimenting.
I want a gaiwan. I feel like everything would be more fun. I’ve got my eye on the paisley one in our teaware section! I’m definitely going to experiment next time.
LOL, Boxer! One of my first reviews here started with, “I need a Gaiwan”. :D
LOL! When I joined this site I had one perfect mug and a handful of teas from DT. I feel out of control right now. haha!
Butiki has some pretty Gaiwans. I have a clay one just for puerh with a handle because I’m a klutz! You can use a cup and saucer or a finum basket works well too. Lots of times that’s what I use if the steepings are short (30 seconds). mrmopar suggests 30 seconds for most his shu puerh and he has LOTS!
I only have antique china tea cups that I’m terrified to use, I am also a klutz. I’m thinking I’m going to order one.
I’m always nervous ordering breakables on ebay. I have a number of Boxer figurines, but in my head they’re always going to arrive broken. lol
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekgirlunveiled/2633775495/
I like that!