Shu (ripe) pu-erh #0201 Ancient trees of Thailand, Oct 2016

This is a “border tea” that I had received a little bit ago. I use the term border tea to define those that are made as puerh; however, they are made outside of Yunnan. The dry leaves are a bit curled and give off subtle scents of earth and dry leather. I warmed up my gaiwan and scooped some inside. The leaf opens up and gives off some stronger aromas of dark chocolate, espresso, and black cherries. I can already tell that this is going to be a heavy hittin’ Shu! The flavor was pretty consistent with the scent of the gaiwan, for it was punchy and bitter. The flavor began with dry cacao and moved into salt and mineral with lasting tannin. This was a chewy and sharp broth. The later steeping brought on some semi-sweet choco. chip flavors, and the qi was smooth and warming. This was an interesting tea, but it was a bit too aggressive for me. I would categorize this leaf as the “espresso” of puerh.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxFrISpHobN/

This is very young shou, it’s not really drinkable right now. While the fermentation is evidently quite light, it does not taste good. It tastes a bit alcoholly, wheaty, salty, and some sort of .. I want to say it tastes like bleach a little, also with hints of raspberry in the aroma. its still thick in the throat, but as of April 2017 it does not taste good. I forced my tea pets to drink most of this session. Uck