10 Year pu'erh

20s(rinse)/3s/3s/3s/3s/3s/4s/4s/4s/4s/4s/4s/4s/4s/4s/5s/5s/5s/5s/5s/….

Loose puerh which does not come in a cake and whole leaves are few and far between. It is mostly broken leaves and bits, though larger than dust. The rinsed leaves (not sure a rinse is totally necessary here, but I do it for consistency) are black with small moments of mahogany and smell like fresh soil out of the bag when you’re starting a new garden. A clean, almost dry earthiness, rather than the earthiness of compost of a forest floor which have some elements of decomp.
Rinse broth emerges as a strong red but quickly deepens to a coffee-like rich sable brew, which persists across the next 10-15 infusions before starting to lighten up, and has a little swirl of something that runs across the top like the fat layer in a bowl of good ramen—some of that viscosity and opulence. The flavor is also hearty, like compost and rich dark earth with some clove spice on the back end and it holds onto that intensity of infusions for a ridiculously long time and doesn’t have a hint of astringency regardless of brew times, although it brews almost instantly in a gaiwan or yixing pot. This is my daily drinker since its incredibly affordable for a puerh, it goes for ever with a nice hit of caffeine, and it does not require attentive steeping. I’ve never met someone who doesn’t react well to it after I coax them into a sip and its the tea I use to seduce coffee drinkers onto the dark side (pun intended).