An Ode to Tea, X entry!
Squeezing in another gong fu session during my weekend off. This was also a sample I grabbed from the final Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thanks to all that contributed to that box and tea-sipper for organizing it! I had 5.38g of leaf and steeped in my 100ml shiboridashi.
100ml shiboridashi | 5.38g | 205F | Rinse/10s/15s/20s/25s/30s/35s/40s/45s
The rinse smelled so strongly of dirt that I admit that after having such a pleasant pu’erh experience yesterday, it was right back to dirt, swamp water, or nasty tobacco for me. And the first steep did pretty much just smell and taste like dirt. The aroma reminded me of dirt, mushrooms, and a faint BBQ smoke quality. In taste, it had that strong earthy dirty flavor, but it was much smoother than I’m used to… a “fresh” tasting dirt. A bit of a mushroomy note as well, and a flavor I can only describe as plantain (though I’ve only tried dried plantain chips once… as someone with strong banana aversion, they aren’t high on my list of must-have foods). It was almost a banana-like flavor, but veered just enough toward a potato/yam note to not trigger my extremely strong “Danger! Danger! Banana present!” gag reflex. It was easily the worst steep, because after that, the tea mellowed and tasted much less like dirt to me, and instead a smooth and refreshing petrichor note. It was a wet earth and rocks taste but crisp and lacking the vegetal “pond scum marshiness” I’m used to accompanying such flavors in pu’erh. About mid-session, a very strong oat/grain flavor popped toward the end of the sip and lingered in the aftertaste. As I approached the end of the session, I noticed the plantain/yam note creeping back in subtly amidst the petrichor.
I enjoyed this one as well! Not as much as the sheng I drank yesterday, but this was a nice session. I think the cha qi for this one is sitting with me better than the tea yesterday, which knocked me out for several hours; I feel a mellow but alert awakeness right now.
Flavors: Dirt, Earth, Grain, Mineral, Mushrooms, Oats, Petrichor, Wet Earth, Wet Rocks, Yams
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Pu’er two days in a row?! What is happening to you? I like the stuff but there’s is definitely some funk floating around out there. Glad you had a few positive experiences.
I can’t brew gong fu style during the work week (all I can do before work is western brew up a 16oz thermos which will last me all day, then after work I have to switch to herbals only) and just figure that is the best way to brew a small portion of pu leaf, so I knocked a few out over the weekend while I’m off. I’m as surprised as anyone to have two good experiences in a row after years of disappointment, heh.
Pu’er two days in a row?! What is happening to you? I like the stuff but there’s is definitely some funk floating around out there. Glad you had a few positive experiences.
I can’t brew gong fu style during the work week (all I can do before work is western brew up a 16oz thermos which will last me all day, then after work I have to switch to herbals only) and just figure that is the best way to brew a small portion of pu leaf, so I knocked a few out over the weekend while I’m off. I’m as surprised as anyone to have two good experiences in a row after years of disappointment, heh.