2015 Old Reliable – Ripe Puer House Blend

First, I must say I’m very happy to have my e-mail notifications back after a number of years! Hopefully I haven’t missed much without them…I have tried to keep up!
Received this from JakeB quite a while ago – an entire cake!  Thank you!  I think it was one of the first tea from W2T I have ever had.  Nothing disagreeable about this puerh in any aspect.  I most love the fragrance of the steeped leaves after the first steep- so biscuity and bready, sweet yet dark… Though the description for this says it’s many years of material from Menghai, this one reminds me of my favorite Teavivre puerh I lost out on in the last sale, Teavivre’s Fengqing Golden Buds Ripened Pu-erh Cake 2013.  So not even the same region, though maybe my necessary (to me) overleafing causes ANY ripe puerh to have these flavors.  Second steep – just as good, with the best notes from coffee and dark chocolate.  Steeps 3-5 also very consistent, gradually watering down but not by much. This IS reliable and it will be very very old by the time I’m done drinking it only because I’ll be hoarding another favorite.
Steep #1 // lots of leaf for a big mug // 32 minutes after boiling // rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 3 min
Steep #3 // 15 minutes after boiling // 3 min
Steep #4 // 10 minutes after boiling // 3 min
Steep #5 // just boiled – half mug // many minute steep

A very nice mild puerh. Delicious nutty and earthy notes linger in the early steeps. A very nice daily drinker that I’m glad I let mellow out for a couple of years.

Sweet and smooth with hints of plumes. Nice Shu.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-old-reliable-w2t

june 7/17 earthy, a bit mushroomy, sour, sweet at times. for the price this seems like a good daily drinker. probably update this tasting note in the future after ive got into this cake a bit more.

One of my first ripes awhile back, it was an affordable introduction to shu.

As expected in a budget tea it didn’t develop through steeps but there were no nasty surprises either, nothing to turn off a newbie to puerh. :-)

A solid, smooth ripe. Nothing wild, not as creamy or sweet as some pricier shou’s, but consistently balanced and relatively long-steeping.

My favorite ripe shou to date, this one is rich and creamy from start to finish. Definitely a solid daily drinker for anyone who would want to replace their coffee with tea. The flavor just keeps getting deeper and deeper for around 10 steeps, but I found that around 9-10 it started dying down a bit.

Sample from Christina i figured i’d try this one out today. I’m only a few steeps in on this but the general feeling i’m getting from this one is that it’s a decent enough every day puerh. There isn’t a lot of complexity to this one, but it’s a solid shu. slightly earth, smooth, tasty.

Another solid ripe from w2t. I went heavier than I normally do on the leaf (I think I prefer to do this with shou) at 8g in 100mL. The dry leaf smelled musty and woody. After a rinse, there was still some wetness on the nose and a more aromatic woodiness – also a bit of sweet vanilla.

The first two steeps had just a tad bit of funkiness to the – not enough to put me off thankfully. They were also immediately thick and creamy, with sweet vanilla and dark cherry notes.

After those two steeps, the tea tasted nice and woody with a sweet finish – I tasted vanilla and tobacco. Not smoky, but like the smell when somebody is smoking sweet pipe tobacco. Sometimes it would be a little bit drying, but that aspect seemed to come and go at random. I did flash steeps for around seven infusions before I had to do longer ones. Got through around 10. Seems like shou is hardly worth drinking once it stops brewing up inky black for me.

Glad I got samples of w2t’s Shou. I think just getting a few samples is enough to satisfy my rare shou cravings though. I don’t see myself stocking up on cakes anytime soon.

um…pretty blah. dark colored water. no flavors, no body, no aftertaste, just…dark colored water. Is there a silver lining? There’s no off flavors, nothing bad. So I guess that’s good? Glad its inexpensive.