Famous Six Mountains Pu-erh

The initial smell was good. Filled with deep earthy notes. The wet leaf smells so heavy! Slight black licorice along with heavy rain notes. The storm approaches! Tastes of compost filled with decaying leaves and twigs and clean dirt. (Apparently, I had a penchant for dirt when I was younger so my palate must know it well). It is smooth on the palate with a unique sweet earthy aftertaste.

I’ve only ever tried flavored puerh before, so I figured I’d try this pure one that was in the tea box. The smell was just so muddy that I had to see what it tasted like. Surprisingly I did kind of like it at first. It matched its scent and was sort of muddy in a pleasing way. I only had two sips the first day, and the second day it tasted more murky and weird. I wish I’d had more the first day since it evolved into something not so pleasant. Anyway, still not for me, but it was interesting, and much better than I had anticipated.

‘Samurai’ Traveling Teabox – Tea #5
I forgot this was the company run by Kaylee from Firefly! haha. I just finished rewatching Firefly about a month ago.  sigh.  I miss it already, yet again.  She was also on the episode of The Magicians I just watched last night. Tea Runners actually have a good sale right now.  A handful I wouldn’t mind trying: like the coconut pineapple oolong.  Though I think I can spot the sources for some of their teas.  This is loose leaf ripe pu-erh.  The flavor is in the middle of the pack of deliciousness for ripe pu-erhs.  It’s not too strong, not too weak.  No negative qualities.  But not too many things that make it a unique one.  A level of starchiness but then a very thin aftertaste? It’s tough to describe.  Now that I’m looking at the steep instructions, it says the first steep should have been for five minutes, so possibly I should have been steeping these leaves much longer than I did.  Not really many flavor notes I can pull from this one!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 5 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep 
Steep #3 // just boiled // 8 minute steep