Ripened Rose Pu-erh Mini Tuocha

Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review

(See previous tasting note for a more thorough review)

I couldn’t get to sleep so I made a big pot of puerh with one of these tuo cha. Even with the extra water, it still full on flavour and tastes very nice for ripe puerh. If you’ve ever been burned by this sort of tea before, it’s worth checking out. There is NO chemical or fishy flavour here at all.

2-3 cups of water in a big teapot, 1 tuo cha, rinse + 3 steeps

I am very patiently waiting for the timer in the kitchen to go ding, yes it goes ding when there is stuff. Today’s stuff is Sushi rice, and by patiently I mean HURRY UP I AM HUNGRY!! While waiting I thought to myself, this is a perfect time for day 2 of Pu Erh week to come into existence.

Today I am reviewing Teavivre’s Ripened Rose Pu-Erh Mini Tuocha. Initially I reviewed this tea about a month ago and stored it in my notebook, but I decided to toss that review out the window (I actually did tear the page out of my notebook) and taste it again using my new Gaiwan. I want to be fancy while waiting for food! The aroma of this little Tuocha is fairly sweet, mixing faint roses with an underlying yeastiness. There are also notes of leather, earthiness, and a touch metallic. It has that slightly fishy ‘Asian Market’ aroma that I associate with Pu Erh (and really is my favorite thing about them) and makes me feel all tingly with anticipation. Time for some fancy Gaiwan action!

The steeped leaves look a lot less like a Tuocha now, as expected, with a little rosebud resting on the top of them, it is quite pretty. The aroma is intense! Rich earthy and mineral notes mixing with leather and heady rose. The liquid (in my little bubble cup, no less) is rosy, earthy, and a touch of that market aroma.

The first steep is a bit bitter, kinda like chewing on leather. It is earthy and rich with delicate notes of rose that smooth out the edges as an aftertaste. The bitterness is not unpleasant, it is not the ‘too many tannins, turn your mouth inside out’ bitter, but the same kind of bitter you find in certain wood. Yes I have chewed on wood, I like tasting random things. It specifically reminds me of oak. As it cools it gets much smoother, almost becoming buttery with a mildly metallic aftertaste.

The aroma on the second steeping is less like leather and more oak and rose, it is very mild and smooth. The taste is also much more oaky and sharp, this tea certainly lets you know it is there in your mouth. There is a slightly mushroom taste as well as a loamy note. The second steep has transported me to an oak forest and that is wonderful.

The third steep’s aroma is bringing in more of the market smell with a touch of underlying sweetness, like pipe tobacco. The taste is a touch milder, still very oaky but with more sweetness, like baked bread and pipe tobacco. Oddly this steep transports me to a Victorian Gentleman’s library, though oddly he has a few roses in his library. The rose sneaks in as an aftertaste and is very subtle.

The fourth is oak and roses and not much else in its aroma. The same can be said of the taste, mostly oak wood with just a hint of roses. There is a slightly metallic aftertaste and a hint of leather as well when it cools.

The fifth and final steep, only final because my kettle is on empty and my rice is almost ready. I am almost positive this tea has quite a few steeps left in it. The aroma is heady roses and sweet tobacco. The taste is very mild, subtle roses, oak, and a hint of loam. As an aftertaste there is a honey sweetness with a hint of roses. I noticed as I was sipping this tea that I started feeling kinda odd, like sitting in a sauna or the like. I am pretty sure this tea is making me sweat out all impurities (does Pu Erh do that?) and it is making me feel refreshed. This was an awesome tasting experience, I certainly must do it again!

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2013/12/teavivre-ripened-rose-pu-erh-mini.html

I don’t actually have much experience drinking Pu-erh, but it has been on my to-do list for awhile. Drink more Pu-erh Check! Thanks one last time to Angel at TeaVivre for providing me with this sample and helping me to check one item off my to-do list.

I began with a very fast rinse before moving on to the first steep. The first steep is not nearly as dark as I normally associate with Pu-erh. This is the first time that I’ve used a Gaiwan so I am sure the color will darken on successive steeps. The tea has a very light mellow earthy taste, but is not nearly as strong as my previous experience with pu-erh.

With the second and third steep the tea continues to darken in color and the flavor becomes more bold. The third steep is when the tuocha completely broke apart. As I continued on with steeps 4, 5, and 6 I was surprised that although the color continued to darken, the flavor remained very similar. It is very possible that I could have gone past 6 steeps, however, I had unexpected (but very welcome) company today and one of the kids thought my pu-erh looked yummy tasting.

The flavor of this tea is very mellow and doesn’t have the depth of other Pu-erh that I have had, which is why I think it is perfect for someone just starting out with Pu-erh. I find that the less complex teas are a great place to start. I do wish that the rose flavor would have been present, I didn’t taste it at all once the tea steeped.

Advent Calendar from Kaylee: Day 16

My partner and I shared a few pots of this pu-erh on Sunday night, and it was a pleasant way to wrap up the weekend! I’m pretty new to pu-erh, but I really enjoyed the earthy, almost mushroom-y scent and flavor of this one. And the cute little “bird’s nest” shaped cake didn’t hurt, either!

I didn’t get much rose at all, either in scent or taste, although I could see some petals peeking through the cake.

I was very curious to try this tuocha. I used the Chinese gongfu method and the recommended steeping times on the Teavivre website (rinse, 20s, 15s, 15s, 30s, 50s, 80s, 150s). After an initial rinse and upon the first steep, I was left with a very pleasant experience. The rose notes leave the taste buds with a light, sweet floral finish.The color is rich, the aroma is earthy, and the mouthfeel is smooth. It was a pleasant experience to say the least.

Half a cake used for infusion.

Brewed tea has aromatic notes of meaty-savoury, sweet, and fruity.

Flavour notes of smoked wood and jujube candy sweetness.

A very pleasant tea. The aroma is complex: it does have some puerh earthiness and roses but also some hard-to-differentiate sweetness. Fruity, perhaps. The same with taste: it is a complex, comforting sweetness.

Also, there are multiple tiny particles of rose petals floating around: it looks good and creates a very interesting sensation when you drink the tea, adding some “volume”. In general, it is one of my trusty, “comfort food” type of tea. You are likely either love or hate it, but surely need to try.

Drank this one hot, yesterday.

I had actually kind of resigned myself to fact that this was probably just going to taste like rich, earthy Shou and not be rose-like at all, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. Of course, it was very smooth and earthy with sweet notes of dates too. However, the rose was actually noticable this time! Very sweet and fragrant, and definitely not part of the body profile, but it snuck in smoothly with the finish, and then danced on the surface of my tongue in the aftertaste.

It was delightful, and added a really interested aspect to the overall flavour! Now that I know that it can be detected in this tea, that makes me a lot more excited/hopefully for the rest of the tuochas. I just wonder why I noticed it this time, but not in the past with prior mugs of it…

Got a sample of this one from a Steepster friend. Thanks!

Nice clean rich shou with a delicate rose scent. Not a lot of rose flavor but I actually prefer it this way!

This reminds me of the other floral tuocha I tried from Teavivre. It’s dark and earthy, with some hinted flower scents. There isn’t much rose flavour in the brew. Mostly earthy, dark, and some leather. Not really what I was expecting, so off to re-steep.

Edit- I did steep too long for my taste. At three minutes, I get more of the floral flavour, with a bit of sweetness, and still earthy. I even get some rose.