2 Tasting Notes
Note: this feedback is taken directly from the review on my tea blog.
The 2014 Mangnuo Tengtiao is a beautiful tea. And the leaves kept delivering delicious bowls of liquor. I used water that had been boiled then cooled. The first infusion was 30 seconds and I added 10 seconds for each subsequent steep. The color of the liquor progressed from a pale green to a deep yellow, even darker than the liquor pictured on the right, then gradually lightening to a pale yellow. And what of the flavors?
The first infusion yielded a light green color and a licorice finish. The second infusion dry like minerals and rocks and sweet like cassis. The liquor was noticeably darker at the third infusion. The flavors were more intense and raisin was a dominant flavor. I thought, “Boom!” after sipping the liquor from the fourth infusion. The astringency kicked in; there was a lot of fruit flavors including a bitter note like a grapefruit peel. The fifth infusion produced a dry liquor with apricot and stone fruit, raisin, and grapefruit flavors. The liquor smelled a temperate rainforest or a wet woodland. By the sixth infusion, the liquor had begun to lighten in color. The dominant notes became wood and raisin. I would definitely drink more of this pu-erh!
Note: this information is taken directly from the review on my blog.
I started off with three 5 sec rinses. The fourth steep was 30 secs long in 195F water. The fifth steep was also 30 secs but in 200F water. The liquor was flavorful. I detected sweet notes of dried fruit and dry notes of conifer sap and juniper needles. My cup was aromatic even after I had drunk all the tea. The same experience for the sixth and seventh steep. The eighth steep was 45 secs long in 200F water. Stone fruit emerged alongside dried fruit in the eighth steep. There was a mineral finish with a touch of astringency like an unripe hachiya persimmon. The ninth infusion at 1 min in 200F water yielded a milder, peach-colored liquor. The tenth and final steep was very similar.
