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2003 Golden Sail Brand Yunnan Pu-erh Tea Cake | ||
| Genre: Compressed Shu/Black/Cooked/Ripe | ||
| Factory: China Tuhsu Guangdong Tea Imp. & Exp. Corp. | ||
| Vendor: www.puerhshop.com | ||
| Reviewed by El Jefito on 06/29/2007 | ||
| Background | This is a Cooked/Ripe round cake (Beeng Cha) net weight of 357 grams. It is compressed. Iron or stone compression is unknonw. The vendor claims it is organic with moderate caffeine. | |
| Dry Leaf Appearence: | The dry leaf look is that of small puerh tea leave that were once loose leave and have now been compressed into a cake. 70 percent of the leaves are of a nice dark brown/light black color & 30 percent are of a light brown or gold color. The colors are strong indicative of a wet production and wet storage. The cake was compressed enough where it could not be easily borken by hand; but it did not give much resistance to a Puerh knife. | |
| Water to Leaf Ratio: | 20 gr of Leaf in 200 ml of water | |
| Brewing Method: | GONG FU Brewing. Yixing Zisha (Purple Clay) Tea Pot, glass serving vessel, and strainer were aquired through Scott Wilson's YunnanSourcing Ebay Store. Cha Dao instruments, drinking Yixing Gaiwan, and cloth tea pads were aquired through Ebay store ChineseTeaPotGallery. The spring water was boiled to 200C-208C with a very good metallic 110volt electic kettle made for USA customers through Mr. Gordon's ebay store Dragon Tea House. I personally brew my tea soup strong in order to cover the taste of store bought water. Thre are no natural springs or clean rivers in my location. The only option is store water or water from a filtering station. Regardless, the water here sucks because it is processed with chemicals, thus a strong brew is needed. | |
| Wet Leaf Appearence: | The wet leaves take on a strong dark brown to black color. All the leaves now have a uniform color and no light colors are detected. The leave are small and mostly cut or broken. The leaves soak up water well and plum up well. The emit a good aroma. | |
| 1st Steep | 20 seconds for washing. 60 seconds of priming. 1 minute brew. Poured Tea through strainer into glass serving vessel then into Gaiwan which had been warmed with boiled water. The brew/soup was very strong brown to almost black in low lighting. The tast was strong but the feeling in the tonge, gums, and pallet was that of silky smooth. Smooth in the throat. Good taste. Chocolate and caramel. It covered the teeth with a silk screen. | |
| 2nd Steep | 2 minute brew. Poured Tea into glass serving vessel then into Gaiwan. The brew/soup was strong brown. The tast was strong but the feeling in the tonge, gums, and pallet was still that of silky smooth and smooth in the throat. Sweeter taste. Sweeter Chocolate and caramel. It still covered the teeth with silkiness. | |
| 3rd Steep | 3 minute brew. From tea pot to serving vessel to Gaiwan. The brew/soup was still a good brown. The tast was good The feelings in the mouth were still smooth. The taste was still sweet. Like Chocolate/Caramel heading to an earthy taste but never getting there. Yummmm | |
| 4th Steep | I left the last brew in the tea pot for a few hours. I want for the tea pot to have a good puerh smell and not a smell of water chemicals. The brew and leaves were then taken out. The tea pot was then dried with a gong fu towel without any water and allowed to air dry. | |
| Subsequent Steeps | ||
| Conclusion | For Western standards the tea was good to very good. In the West we do not have truly aged teas like in China. Thus we have to be happy with what internet vendors give us. With this in mind this tea was very good and drinkable now. Also, as I breathed out the taste or smell came back up through mouth and nose. It caused saliva to start flowing. I felt a light and fast vapor like feeling move from the stomach to the back then up the back towards the head. But it disappeared when I paid attention to it. This happened with the first two brews. I guess I was enjoying the Puerh to much. The silk feeling in the mouth lasted for about 30 minutes after the last drink. | |
| Sorry, no Photos | ||