Teavivre always has such great Black Friday events! Love Teavivre. I haven’t written a tasting note for this one yet. I used 2/3 of a sample packet. The leaves are very dark and have a rich bread fragrance. There is barely any small particles in the mug after a rinse, which means a lot less small particles of tea than I usually see in pu-erh. The flavor is lovely, though doesn’t have as much depth as my favorite shu pu-erhs usually have (like most of the pu-erh that Teavivre carries.) The deep burgundy cup has a very sweet flavor, thirst quenching, with a slight hint of biscuits. All three steeps stay pretty consistent in flavor, despite the vastly different steep times. This is a high quality shu, but I prefer a deeper flavor, especially for the amount of leaves I used. (Though I have certainly tried less flavorful shu!) The leaves from the cake were definitely unraveled by the end of the third steep, but I’m sure I could have kept steeping.
Steep #1 // 2/3 sample packet for a full mug// rinse // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 5 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 8 minute steep