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gurdymonkeySometimes a cup of tea is not my cup of tea and this is one of those times.
Pu-ehrs are aged teas. Raw or sheng pu-ehrs are harvested, processed (withered, fired or steamed, etc.) and then pressed into cakes and allowed to age in a process that dates back to the days of Lu Yu and the Tang Dynasty, when tea might take months or even years to get to its final destination. Ripe, shou pu-ehrs are a 20th century development: when demand for sheng pu-ehrs became high, growers looked for a way to accelerate the aging process. The tea would be sprayed with water and left to ferment in a hot, humid environment for several weeks, then made into cakes.
My first pu-ehr was some loose leaf abomination in a foil bag from Cost Plus World Market several years ago. It tasted fishy. I ended up throwing it out.
When Jade sent me that amazing tea sampler, she included two very nice sheng pu-ehrs that have "Like" checked on my tea spreadsheet.
Yunnan Sourcing has sold me some very nice teas, this was marked "premium grade," came in single serving mini-cakes which is convenient and appealing, and for four bucks, it ticked the "cheap enough not to feel bad if I hate it" box.
Fired up the kettle for a 200F brew after looking up what to do with caked tea. Broke up the little cake with my fingers easily enough, then rinsed the leaves twice with hot water (the first pour looked surprisingly silty from tiny fragments of tea). Short steep of 20 seconds still produced a dark red-brown cup of tea.
It's earthy, complex and weird as opposed to rich, mellow and smooth (the qualities that made sheng pu-ehrs the choice of Emperors). You can taste and smell a sort of grass-clippings-left-out-in-the-sun thing going on, simultaneously green and a little musty at the same time.
I'm glad I gave it a shot, but no, this is not a tea I am going to reach for again. Prices for sheng pu-ehrs are eyewateringly expensive, so there's obviously a difference.
