Tag: Bitter Leaf

Tea:  The company lists Black Beauty as a Gong Ting (imperial) ripe puer (宫廷熟普洱). There is no information as to whether the trees are young or old, but given the price, I suspect the trees are fairly young. The tea had been aged about 10 years by the time I tasted it. There is no other information about the tea on the website.

Company: Bitter Leaf Teas

Price per gram: 18 cents per gram ($4.50 for a 25g sample).

 

Brewing Method:  I followed the brewing instructions on the package. I used 3.3 grams in a 100 milliliter gaiwan and brewed the tea at about 95 degrees Celsius for 3 seconds. I added 3 – 5 seconds for each infusion after that. The flash brewing got a bit tedious, but Bitter Leaf must have had a reason for including those instructions, so I intended to humor them. A small leaf brews faster than a long leaf, and it tends to get bitter. Bitter Leaf tried to save me.

 

Appearance of the Leaf: The leaf was surprisingly small. I’m used to very long, elegant leaves so seeing the small pieces was a little off putting. Black Beauty appeared to be made from leaf pieces rather than full leaves. Seeing as I know next to nothing about ripe puer (but I’m learning!) I figured the small leaves are probably okay.

 

Despite the size of the leaf, the colors were quite promising. Black Beauty’s leaves were about the color of milk chocolate, with some light caramel notes mixed in. I didn’t  see any black leaves mixed in, rather, the leaves were all varying shades of brown. They looked like piles of various forest twigs.

 

The leaves smelled like dirt to me, if I’m being perfectly honest. I know that ripe puer is supposed to smell and taste like dried fruit and baked goods and even pudding depending on the type, but for some reason I just can’t smell or taste it. I’ve had only one good ripe puer before, and it was a random hole-in-the-wall shop product. I’ll never find it again. (T_T) I smelled a little bit of fudge on the leaves, but the dry leaves smelled like wet soil. After a quick rinse, the chocolaty notes got stronger, but so did the “soil” smell. The wet leaf smelled more palatable.

 

First Steep

Black Beauty’s liquor was gorgeous. It was a deep brown-red color, something like mahogany. I’ve had red teas (also called black teas) that were a similar color. The liquor simply smelled humid. The flavor was not nearly as bad as the smell. I still tasted the dirt notes, but Black Beauty was incredibly smooth. Still, I don’t think I could call it tasty. It tasted like wood and dirt and furniture polish. I emptied the tea into my tray.

 

Second Steep

The second steep was less abrasive. It was shocking. I like the smoothness of the tea, if not the flavor. The smoothness might get me into ripe puer, but ripe puer still feels like a grandpa tea to me. The session ended  quickly.

I really want to understand why people like ripe puer. Of course, I know that not everyone will like everything, but I feel there must be something I’m missing. I won’t give up on it until I’ve thoroughly explored it, but for now I’m going to keep saying that I don’t really like ripe puer.

 

Here’s an older installment of my ripe puer adventures. I loved the company but not the tea: Teasenz Chocobar Puer