I want to apologize to Wymm Tea for taking so long to taste this sample. I wanted to give it the attention it deserves and have not had time until tonight!
A few weeks ago I picked up an unknown puerh tuocha at a coffee shop nearby that was labeled “Black Tea Puerh”. I got it home and found it to be Sheng. It wasn’t bad, but hubby was not a fan and left me to finish it alone.
Fast forward to tonight. I got this out and informed him that he was going to taste tea with me and it was a type he had before and didn’t like, so he should brace himself. I wasn’t really trying to prejudice him against it, just give fair warning, because he is rather picky and I am not.
I rinsed the leaves for about fifteen seconds, then gave it a short 7 second steep. The tea was pale at this point. It had only the tiny sour bite of young sheng, nothing objectionable. The flavor was very light at this point also.
Second steep was a bit longer and each subsequent steep was increased by only a few seconds. Yet now it yields a golden brew, rather darker than I expected. On about the fourth steep as the cup was being passed to hubby, a strong aroma hit me and it was a really nice one. My first thought was bright citrus, so maybe that is what they call grapefruit, although it reminds me of the white rum flavoring in another that I own. It has a nice medium body. Not creamy, but not sour.
The big surprise is that hubby is constantly holding his little cup out and shaking it at me to hurry up the refills. He kept saying, “This is good!” So now I know it was just the one sheng he disliked, not the type in general.
We have made a full liter of tea thus far and I think I will heat another pot and see how much longer we can keep these leaves going. They don’t seem to be completely spent yet.
Thank you, Wymm Tea, for these lovely samples!
Thank you for the review Ashmanra! glad you and your husband enjoyed the pu-erh:)