Ripened Rose Pu-erh Mini Tuocha

O pizza, I hate myself for loving you so, with your piles of hot melty cheese. Your greasy pepperoni and sausage should make me run away, but I do just the opposite. I wake up feeling such shame ;)

As you might suspect yesterday’s food is killing me today. I need puerh to restore by digestive system. I have one of these little rose touchas left. The leather is very prominent and the rose, though I can’t taste it, smooths out the rough edges. I don’t know much about the differences between shus but I know this is my personal favorite. I can already feel it working its soothing magic.

My eldest daughter gave me this tea for Christmas. I haven’t had any of it in about three years, although I have had lots of other Teavivre shu. The amazing thing about this tea was its staying power.

I used one tuo cha in a small pot, and made pot after pot after pot, often combining steeps. It was lovely after the meal, a little earthy and not too horsey (as my daughter put it), and the rose scent is strongest in the first steeps but is not a big player flavorwise. it adds a nice sweetness to the tea without being heavily floral or peppery as rose can sometimes be.

I love how one little piece made enough tea for five people to drink for two hours.

I haven’t ordered the tuo cha teas from Teavivre in quite a while for myself, although my son gets a big bag every year for Christmas by request! I am glad to have this on hand. It is a reliable old friend.

*Thanks to Angel & Teavivre for this lovely sample!

There are 2 of this adorable mini tuochas in the sample bag. They are wrapped in white paper, and opening one, I find a little birdnest, with a rose petals pressed into the bottom of it. The smell is similar to the other shu puerh’s I’ve tried thus far: earth, mineral, ocean.

I’m brewing the first tuocha americano style, in my cute little glass pot, so I can watch the tea fall apart & swim around, & really see the color. The disintegration is spectacular, with particles almost exploding in all directions! The tea was finely chopped before being tightly compressed, or so it seems, as the pieces are very small.

This made for a very dark & potent cup, & although I was hoping for a little more rose flavor & aroma (as I do like that), it isn’t really there. What is there is a deep, satisfying puerh that brings to mind an old, old forest with ancient trees & layer upon layer of decomposed leaves, acorns, wood, & moss. I have to leave the house for the afternoon, but when I return, I shall re-steep!

There is only one middle eastern restaurant in town, and the food is decent, but they use waaaay to much raw garlic in their tzatziki. Coming back from lunch today I knew I needed a tea that would have a strong enough flavor to cut through the garlic, but also not clash too badly with it. Ginger might have worked, but I don’t have any gingery teas here. Then I thought of puerh, but again all of my puerhs are at home… until I remembered I had a few of these little tuochas stuck in a drawer.

Shu puerh, especially ones like this, are not my favorite. I mean, I don’t dislike the earthy, woody flavor, but it’s not really my favorite either. I talked about changing tastebuds yesterday, but my tastebuds have not changed favorably toward this tea. It’s still very earthy, sawdusty, woody, barn-y, and I still can’t taste any rose in it. Is it killing the garlic taste in my mouth? Kinda. But I still don’t know when I am going to get around to drinking the last two tuochas that I have. They’re just not really my kind of tea.

Thank you Dinosara for sending two of these tiny bird nests to try! The leaves here are very dark and there is a rose embedded in the bottom of the nest. I don’t know why I’m trying this one now, as this apparently never expires and I have plenty of other teas that will expire! But the bag this came in is very handy and I’m planning on putting other teas in it.

Steep #1 – Boiling – two minutes – Immediately the rose left the nest like a baby bird and flew to the top of the steeper. The color is very dark. I’ve never seen a darker cup – black until held up to the light and it turns a cranberry red. There is a bit of the fishy fragrance but the flavor itself is not tough… it’s actually very addicting for some reason and tough to explain the flavor itself. It’s a bit cedar like while still maintaining some sweetness. A little spicy.

Steep #2 – Boiling – must have went for three minutes – I think I left this one steeping a little too long since the flavor was very woody. Not terrible but I really liked the mystique of the first cup. The color of the cup is even deeper.

Steep #3 – Boiling – two minutes – The leaves in the bottom of the steeper are actually very tiny. The color of the cup now looks like root beer. The sweeter flavor is back again. I wouldn’t necessarily say there actually IS a rose flavor to this tea, but the flower is a nice touch and it isn’t just a plain pu-erh.

Steep #4 – Boiling- two minutes – I think this one is losing a bit of flavor now, unless I just steeped it wrong. So I’ll just stop here!

Really very nice, as almost everything from Teavivre is! I’m really looking forward to trying more pu-erhs in the future.

Second Review. Sample thanks to Angel at Teavivre.
I mentioned in another review that Sunday the temp. here in the Rockies was 81 and today when I woke up it was SNOWING! Good Grief! Right away I know I wanted a great Pu-erh and decided to review this one a second time. I used my PIAO I glass pot which is easy to brew Pu-erh and observe all the color and action of the leaves. I sat my tray by the patio window watching the snow when a huge robin joined me…sitting and watching for a long while. (later the snow went away and turned into light rain…the first in 7 months…and the forcast for the next 10 days is back to the 70’s). All the steep times 4minutes.

1. The small Toucha with the rosebud on top has a hidden world inside. Who could guess what after one quick rinse and a 4 minute steep such an extra-dark beef-broth colored liquor could extract from such an innocent looking pebble. There isn’t a fishy-foul smell or sour odor or bad taste to this clean, gentle Pu-erh. For the first time ever I am NOT running to add sweetening or milk to temper the earthiness on the first steep. This is very clean tasting and has an bit of earthy, dark and musty cave scent and flavor with a slight mineral finish. I can’t taste any rose but I do taste a little caramel.

2. The leaves now smell like hot, wet leather.(That will get you to buy Pu-erh!)…so now that I have your attention, the liquor is still dark Chocolate Brown. The rosebud is floating at the top of my steeper like a submarine and the Pu-erh leaves are heavily sinking to the bottom like wet mulch. Oh the flavor is beautifully mellow even more than before. Slightly sweet with the perfect level of Pu-erh earthiness that lovers of this type of tea crave. Straight up this is a delight. The slightly astringent finish is not bitter or dry. I added sweetening to see what would happen and the caramel jumped out as a surprise. I added cream and decided that this is THE perfect choice for latte’s…the one I would share with my best friend!

3. The color has changed to a lighter Whiskey Brown…with a very light and gentle taste. Hints of earthiness are now very fresh and clean straight up. The flavor is sweet and medium juicy with a little tannin. There is a little smoke. I caught another scent and had to think about it for awhile….hum….the scent is like when I wash and clean Kale…when I am ripping off the leaves from the stem. (Sorry, best I can do on that one).
This was a nice morning ritual. Great tasting snowy/rainy day Pu-erh. Delicious!

I just drank about 24oz. of Pu-erh in less than an hour so I’m done at 3 steepings for now…gurgle…but this is so delightful! Teavivre is sending me some more Pu-reh’s to review which is exciting for me! I do so want to learn more about them! I have found that they take my appitite away and I need to drop some weight. Good side effect!

Last Note For lunch I made a Vietnamese Sweet Yellow Curry Soup with coconut milk and green peas and cilantro for color. I needed some added richness, ah ha! I still had Pu-erh from the morning brew. I steeped a quick one in the pot and poured about a cup of weakened Pu-erh into my soup. Um! Then I sprinkled some very dark black Urfa smoky chili flakes on the soup and the belovely bowl was ready. Yellow and bright green, noodles and speckles of black smoked and sweet chili, an undertone of Pu-erh and coconut curry. Come on over and have a bowl!

Big thanks to CHAroma for this sample! wow, it is amaaaazing.
Ok, well more like the third and fourth cups were that good. First one was just ok, second I had with milk and sugar which made it super tasty…
Third was really salty so I added some sugar to balance it out. Almost a salty paste. Imagine a really salty hummus, but without the hummus. I know that makes no sense but there you have it.
There was a leathery note as well that I loved in later steepings, along with another note that I am having trouble defining.
It was very smooth, velvet even. It was as if someone took very soft leather and translated that into a flavour, but deeper.
And was that a hint of rose in the third infusion? just barely, but yes, it was there!
Ahhhh, to be tea-high once again. It’s a glorious feeling :D
Thanks again CHAroma!!

Thank you to Angel and Teavivre for this sample. I bought a pack of mixed tuocha anyway before tasting them which is a little crazy but I think I’m going to love them.

My sample pack comes with 2 tuocha pieces that look so pretty and delicate. The Pu Erh is nice and darkly brown and the rose petals are notable on the top. In smell they have a slight sweet rose scent which mixes well with the woody Pu Erh.

Brewing in my gongfu with Teavivre’s instructions. I have been told to continue 30 second steeps though instead if it’s too strong. I will see what happens.
Tea:2 pieces 4 steeps:30s,1m,2m,3m 100ºC/212ºF

Steep 1 – 30 seconds
Golden brown and almost treacle like in colour with a strong Pu Erh scent with only a subtle touch of floral sweetness. The taste is smooth with a woody and malty smokiness that is finished with a gentle kiss of sweet rose. The rose seems to be keeping it lighter than usual.

Steep 2 – 1 minute
Colour is now very dark brown almost black. Also now the tuocha have broken up. Considering the colour has changed quite significantly the taste is still very similar. It’s a little richer but still mellow and with only a slight floral sweetness. There is also a leather like charm about it which I am seeing as being a positive thing (despite being vegetarian).

Steep 3 – 2 minutes
Even after a 2 minute steep it remains mellow and refreshing. The rose has blended in a little more but at the same time the Pu Erh has toned down ever so slightly to keep it at a fair strength. I’m still picking up that leather finish.

Steep 4 – 3 minutes
The flavours are very subtle now compared to the strongest steep (number 2). All that remains is the smooth wood finish that has been consistently mellow throughout.

Overall I really enjoyed this Pu Erh and it was exactly what I was after at this time. It was ripe yet mellow and so lightly sweet whilst keeping with the traditional Pu Erh flavours. As a whole this tea is: mellow, leather like, earthy, woody, floral, sweet, musky, rich and smooth. For me it’s perfect.

Thanks again, Angel!

This is a backlog from Saturday afternoon and……..I really, really, really hope I steeped this wrong. Truly. I don’t even want to put a note out yet, but feel it can pass as my cry for help. Because………..I couldn’t even stand to drink this. It definitely had that fishy smell and it tasted like that. It was just….not good.

I’m not rating or reviewing this until I know I have it right. So this is my call for help. HOW DO YOU MAKE THIS RIGHT?? Please. I’m begging. All of the other Teavivre teas have been awesome so far, and I don’t want to mess this up.

AmazonV was good enough to share some of this with me…thank you! I’ve been hitting the coffee every day this week. The reason being I’ve been staying up late at night prepping for vacation and general goofing around. Anyway, I had to remind myself why I stopped drinking coffee and opted to bring this to work with me instead.

Now we don’t have a proper kettle or anything like it here in the office. Just a water cooler with HOT water spout and a Keurig. So I worked with what I had with the hot water spout thing. I have to say it didn’t turn out too bad! I loved the little nest shape with the rose pressed into the bottom of the nest. This pu-erh smelled like others I have tried – earthy. But I love that about pu-erh. However, I can taste something extra as I sip this tea in my very quiet office..which I assume must be the rose. All in all it is a really nice tea and being a pu-erh I’ll get at least three more steeps out of it this morning. Why was I drinking coffee again?