Puerh Shop Tasting Group's "Best of Puerhshop"
Posted: May 28th, '08, 19:16
Well, it's the only one of Jim's tasting kits that doesn't have its own thread, so I guess I'll do the honors. I sprang for this most expensive of the kits (but still pretty cheap for all the tea you get) a while back and have enjoyed it more than the "Year of Green" kit, which was my introduction to puerh.
At the risk of starting this discussion off on a sour note, I'm going to begin with my least favorite of this bunch, simply because I'm drinking it right now. I'm talking about the 2006 Tongxing Hao. My first session with this tea wasn't so good, but I figured I'd give it another try this afternoon. I'm still not impressed.
I don't think it's a bad tea, just not very interesting. I'm brewing it in a gaiwan using a fair amount of leaf and steeping it for about 15s after the initial rinse. It's not a pretty tea--the leaves are olive green and rather broken up with some twigs mixed in. The smell of the wet leaves isn't very strong and doesn't really remind me of anything other than sheng. The liquor is a nice honey color. Sadly, though, there just doesn't seem to be much going on here. On the first steep, I got an unpleasant feeling in the back of my throat, but that seems to have passed with more steeps. It really just seems like slightly sweet colored water.
I'm eager to see if this tea has any champions and if they could tell me what I should be looking for. I am a complete puerh novice, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
At the risk of starting this discussion off on a sour note, I'm going to begin with my least favorite of this bunch, simply because I'm drinking it right now. I'm talking about the 2006 Tongxing Hao. My first session with this tea wasn't so good, but I figured I'd give it another try this afternoon. I'm still not impressed.
I don't think it's a bad tea, just not very interesting. I'm brewing it in a gaiwan using a fair amount of leaf and steeping it for about 15s after the initial rinse. It's not a pretty tea--the leaves are olive green and rather broken up with some twigs mixed in. The smell of the wet leaves isn't very strong and doesn't really remind me of anything other than sheng. The liquor is a nice honey color. Sadly, though, there just doesn't seem to be much going on here. On the first steep, I got an unpleasant feeling in the back of my throat, but that seems to have passed with more steeps. It really just seems like slightly sweet colored water.
I'm eager to see if this tea has any champions and if they could tell me what I should be looking for. I am a complete puerh novice, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.