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drank 2005 Pu-erh Tuo Cha Phoenix Old Tea Tree by ESGREEN
64 tasting notes

So, going off of KS’s steeping parameters, I tried this one again. I used boiling water, the other half of my sample, filled my 16oz cast iron pot to about 12oz capacity with no rinse, a bit more than one minute duration. The liquor was an extremely clear dark brown-amber color. It felt like more of an embodiment of the first two steeps I had done when I tasted this gong fu style. But it was still really weak in flavor, and it just seemed to dissipate and left me grasping for the rest of it. Western style, the mouthfeel felt more “chalky” to me, but there was an added cooling effect that went unnoticed previously.

Yet, as I’m sipping through the pot, I keep getting a thick musty/fishy kind of taste at the bottom of each cup. This is noticeable to me in the aroma of the empty cup and the taste once the liquor has cooled. It’s not really sitting in the stomach right, either. I noticed this the first time, but didn’t comment in case it was some combination of something I ate and the tea, but it occurred this time as well. I generally have a pretty weak stomach, especially with heavy creams or chocolate and such, but teas are usually okay with me. This one not so much.

Anywho, I trust KS’s judgment and taste buds, and hopefully inconsistencies can be explained by me just getting a bad batch or that I have a completely different view of shu pu’er. But we seem to have had pretty similar opinions of past shus, so I dunno! In any case, the leaf quality, lack of depth, and negative cha qi are things I can’t get over regardless of the other odd things I came across with this shu, so I’m sticking with my rating. :/
Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 15 sec
2 comments
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Bonnie
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recently this happened to me where everyone raved about a tea and my batch sucked! something was amiss! Rotten batch,a plot,the IRS..don’t know. I sent it up to space in a weather balloon(I mean a UFO),get it….Colorado? Better pu for you. I had a Nepalese puerh style black tea tonight. The first ever they tell me. Very good!

K S
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I never noticed the musty or fishy qualities. Mine had a strong poo smell that wasn’t in the taste. Almost makes one wonder if they didn’t misslabel one of them except we describe the leaf being loosely packed the same and the light color of the first cup. I left the leaves in my press and plan to try them again today. Hopefully it keeps improving. At least mine wasn’t horrible.

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Bonnie
Delete

recently this happened to me where everyone raved about a tea and my batch sucked! something was amiss! Rotten batch,a plot,the IRS..don’t know. I sent it up to space in a weather balloon(I mean a UFO),get it….Colorado? Better pu for you. I had a Nepalese puerh style black tea tonight. The first ever they tell me. Very good!

K S
Delete

I never noticed the musty or fishy qualities. Mine had a strong poo smell that wasn’t in the taste. Almost makes one wonder if they didn’t misslabel one of them except we describe the leaf being loosely packed the same and the light color of the first cup. I left the leaves in my press and plan to try them again today. Hopefully it keeps improving. At least mine wasn’t horrible.

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Bio

I’m fanatic about all things tea-related. Lately, I’ve been fascinated with Wuyi yancha, aged Taiwanese oolongs, and sheng pu’ercha. Nearly all of my sessions as of late are performed gong fu, with pu’er tastings comprising probably eighty percent of them. My collection of pu’ercha is small, but growing steadily. Much of the specimens I drink daily are various samples, although I dig into a cake every so often.

I love trying new teas and I am always learning all I can about the world of tea. Hence, I spend a majority of the time I devote to tea either drinking, writing notes in my journal, or reading. But mostly drinking, as I think it should be. Since I have handwritten logs of everything I drink, I cannot usually find the extra time to log my notes here, and unfortunately my online log is underrepresented.

When drinking, I look for a tea that presents a unique experience, something that involves every sense and provides intrigue in every aspect throughout steeps. I search for teas with balanced complexity and something that makes me keep reaching for my cup. I yearn to find all the positives a tea possesses and every subtle nuance hiding among the leaves. I try to be detailed in my notes and deliver a more comprehensive view of the tea, paying attention to things other than simply flavors and qualitative aspects of aroma, such as the form of the liquor and its development in the mouth. Things like this are much easier to compare between teas, as I find them to be more consistent between sessions, and also make distinctions between a good and mediocre tea easier to make.

Teaware
Adagio UtiliTEA electric kettle.
For gong fu, a 100 mL porcelain gaiwan and a 100mL Yixing di cao qing xi shi pot dedicated to mostly young sheng pu’er.
I drink all green teas in small (maybe 450mL) glass tumblers in the traditional style, with off-boiling water.

Location

Fort Myers, Florida

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