Xiaguan Tea Factory (puershop)

A sweet comforting cooked (shou) earthy puerh with chocolate milk notes, slightly bitter. A clean good taste with a short finish, nothing special. WATER USED: Nestlé Pure Life

This is a very nice tasting inexpensive tuocha. I would not call it spectacular but it was very nice. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor that lasted about four steeps. There was just a hint of bitterness. And there was an evolving sweet note throughout all ten steeps. At one point I thought of chestnuts but this is only an interpretation. I didn’t use quite as much tea as usual so the brew was a little light but still very tasty, not watery.

I steeped this ten times in a 160ml solid silver teapot with 10.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

This is the darkest shou I have brewed. At 20 seconds steeps it was too strong of a taste for me so I switched over to flash-5seconds. There is a lot of life in this tea to taste. Very smooth mouth feel and the aroma doesn’t linger around which some could say is good or bad. Overall it is a nice shou, but not one that makes me throw my head back and savor what I just experienced.

This is a tasty and inexpensive puerh from puerhshop.com. There is a slight taste of what I would describe as bamboo in the early steeps as well as a fair amount of fermentation flavor. The fermentation flavor went away after about four steeps or so. There was a nice sweetness too.

I brewed this eight times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 8.8g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2min, and 4 min. After eight steeps I would guess the leaves had another 2-4 steeps left had I wanted to continue.

This is a very strong puerh tea, very strong and bitter. I has a lot of fermentation flavor left but then again it is a 2014 tea. It had strong notes of bitter cocoa, not chocolate but cocoa. It had some sweetness behind the bitterness but it was hard to find.

This tea was loosely compressed, so loosely compressed that I didn’t need a tool or knife to break off puerh from the tuocha, I was able to break it with my hands. I don’t know how this will effect aging. This is definitely one to put away for a year or two to see if it loses some of the bitterness.

I brewed this eight times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it one rinse and then let it rest for ten minutes. I then steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. It was very strong in the early infusions, so strong that I gave the fourth infusion less time. It didn’t lose its bitterness until the seventh steeping when it also got weaker. I could have gotten a little more out of this tea but it was near its limit at eight steepings.

From my puerhshop.com order! Surprise! Three things I ordered were NOT mini tuochas. I had no idea that these 100 gram bigger tuochas existed… just the serving sized (mini) tuochas. Well I learned something anyway. I ended up breaking apart these adorable tuochas and putting them in pouches, to save time, messes. I have no idea how else you’re supposed to store them without making a mess. I definitely do NOT regret buying this big tuocha. It is delicious.

Steep #1 // rinse // 4 min after boiling // 2 min steep
When I was done breaking the tuocha into serving pieces, there were a ton of crumbs left, so I used two teaspoons of the crumbs. Nothing but smooth flavor here! I’d like to think that since there were crumbs, this would be the strongest this tea would be (unless I use more than two teaspoons) so this one really can’t have any astringency at all. I swear I had this tea a few weeks ago, but I’m not sure which one. Probably something from Teavivre. It has a really smooth and sweet flavor…. I wish I had bought ten of these tuochas at this price ($3.99!). It really compares to one of my favorite pu-erhs… I just can’t think of which one it is.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
I love when the first steep of a pu-erh is good, you don’t think it can get much better, and then the second steep has even MORE flavor, you’re in love with it, then the third cup is still going strong! I love this pu-erh, this sort is the reason I love pu-erh. It’s so mellow yet seems as dark as a cup of coffee.

Steep #3 // 4 min after boiling (accidentally) // not sure the minutes
This cup was really good too, on the same level of flavor as the first cup than the second, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the steeping to judge if this would keep going in flavor or not. Boiling and the right number of minutes probably would help. I’ll see another time… probably soon! I could drink this every day. Sigh.

A very nice shou to be only a year or so old. Rich coffee like infusions with hints of caramel on later steeps(I added some sugar). Well worth the price on this one a definite winner and the first shou of this tea factory i have had. A good one.