Imperial Dark - Bu Lang Gong Ting 2009

I am a little timid going into the world of straight pu’erh but here I go! I have so far likely not had very high quality other than Teavivre. I have been scared of the fishy/mushroom taste.
This tea is nothing like that though. It is very smooth and not fishy at all. It is smooth and earthy with notes of dark chocolate. Creamy, nutty notes develop in later steeps.
I followed the steeping parameters on the bag including a rinse first. Steeped for 30sec, 1min, 1.5, 2
I wish I could have resteeped all day but my body maxes out on caffeine at 4 steeps. I might save the leaves and steep again tomorrow

Drowning myself 6-26-15 #1

The title of this tea had me thinking it was going to be real brisk and dark, however what I found was this had a typical color for a ripe pu’erh. The taste is quite nice, but there is some dry notes that come the first few steeps. I did flash brew this one (5s roughly) and found a great liquid to come about from it, but for my own taste for ripe this just wasn’t something I craved enough to put a cake in my wishlist. Thanks to whoever gave me a sample, this gave me 11 nice strong steeps!

Brewed gongfu-style with a yixing pot. 10 second rinse. Steeping times: 5, 5, 5, 5, 20, 30, 60, 120.

The wet leaf has a very enjoyable aroma, sweetly smelling of fertile damp earth and of bitter cocoa. The liquor is full-bodied, rich with notes of earth and sugarcane, and creamy in texture. Warming and comforting on this icy, rainy day.

This shou is not entirely clear, it’s a little cloudy, and remained so for nearly the entirety of the session. Also, I think it is best suited for being brewed Western-style. The leaf weakened only after the second steeping, hence the wide change in steeping seconds. Kind of disappointing. Because I only had enough for one helping, I’m not rating. Still, I do recommend.

This isn’t bad, but it’s not as good as I hoped. I like Special Dark a whole lot better.

This is one of those teas that I’m glad that I was able to sample before committing to buying it. It’s was actually really good on the first steep and pretty good on the second steep, but after that I found it difficult to get a good amount of flavor out of it, even when steeping for several minutes. So while it does taste nice, I prefer my teas to have a lot more stamina than that so I doubt I’ll be purchasing this one.

Its not a first time try. I wonder why i didnt log it. I thought i did.
Anyways, since its not a new tea i made it in my Yixing. i decided to use more than usual because i think my Yixing “steals” some flavors.
its great tasting shou and its really hit the spot.

http://instagram.com/p/vmrVPzhwvS/

Brewed this western style this morning. This is another winner of a loose ripe puerh from Mandala Tea. I did not realize I had already written a tasting note on this one. This has notes of chocolate and is very creamy in texture. It is sweet. Evven brewed western style in the first steep there is almost zero bitterness, just a barely perceptible amount. Adding a little sugar to this makes the chocolate notes taste like hot chocolate. This is good.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 6.2g leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.

Sample from an order from who-knows-when. I’m not very good at keeping track of samples— they just sort of turn up in my tea trunk when I’m not expecting it.

Just on my first steep (about 30 seconds), I swear I can taste banana bread with a hint of dark chocolate chips. Glancing through others’ notes, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned anything about bananas, so I’m a bit baffled as to where that came from.

I have no idea what’s going on with my tongue, but I’m definitely enjoying this shu so far!

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #14
I could be wrong but I think I’m starting to taste that the high quality pu-erh has a mellower, sweet flavor than the lower quality pu-erh made with tiny leaves that has a very dark deep flavor. I like both types of pu-erh and I’m actually glad that they are different but I REALLY like the deep dark (I guess low quality) pu-erh. I could have been using too many leaves then though. Of course, I’m not finding any of that darkness with any of Mandala’s pu-erhs. Even with Special Dark that I tried months ago, I was surprised that I wasn’t finding it as especially dark as some other pu-erhs I’ve tried. Of course it’s a delicious pu-erh, but not necessarily dark. I’m just glad every pu-erh is slightly different from the next!

This one is very mellow and sweet, it tasted like butternut squash but there was a crisp, bright and fresh flavor to it as well. Even though there was hint of pond scent to the dry leaves, there really wasn’t any in the flavor. The second cup was much of the same on a slightly deeper level, but not really anything like dark chocolate. Never astringent, as pu-erh isn’t usually anyway.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp // few mins after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Brewing this in my yixing, which is thankfully seeing more use than it was a week ago. Unfortunately, I realized that the glue on one corner of my tea tray has been splitting, due to the hot water, and pu’erh has been seeping through the seams. Thank goodness for a tile countertop being underneath. Still…

These infusions were very loosely timed. The first one was supposed to be for twenty seconds, but I think it ended up at about thirty. The tea is not incredibly dark; despite a rinse of a couple of seconds, I think the leaves are still awakening. The tea does not smell too rich, but there are some cocoa notes with the earthiness. It tastes very smooth, if a little less intense than I would expect, but this was only the first steep. As I sip this steep, I already started and completed brewing the second steep. The cup finishes with some dark chocolate/cocoa notes.

Steep two is darker in appearance. The flavor has deepened a bit but not quite as far as I usually enjoy. I think I will run the third steep for forty-five seconds to a minute, rather than just adding ten to fifteen seconds. This one was steeped for thirty.

Third steep for a minute – dark and delicious. Still very smooth, not super earthy.

We shall see how long this can go.