Bitterleaf Teas' Raw and Ripe Puer Gift Pack

A little while back I made the decision to start drinking more puer tea so this post is an update.  Bitterleaf Teas was the brand I decided to start with for several reasons...the first being I wanted more than half of what they were selling!  Their teas sounded great and their teawares were so beautiful.  If you check out their website or Instagram, almost every photo gives off a feeling of serene calm, beauty, and quality.  I have to admit, I can be swayed by pretty things (lol!). But, I also like to read reviews and there were also many positive online reviews.  What I also liked was how well they described the teas and steeping suggestions which makes it a little easier for someone new.  Prices also seemed reasonable - I'll have to buy and taste more teas from different sources to really made a judgement though.

Thus, I ordered a number of teas from Bitterleaf Teas and one of the items was a gift pack containing a raw (sheng) and a ripe (shou) puer.  These teas were a great introduction to puer for newbies like me and thought I'd share my experience.

First up was the ripe puer, Black Beauty 2009 Meng Hai Imperial Ripe Puer.  I'm still getting familiar with the different areas/mountains as each area produces certain characteristics but I have to admit it's been slow learning for me right now.  If you're new like me, Teadb is a good resource and here is a link to some info about Menghai County.

I'm not exactly new to ripe (shou) puer but am new to quality ripe puer so this was an easy one for me.  For those that have not tasted ripe puer before this one would still be nice to drink but would be unlike the usual teas available in the North American market.

Brewed using 1g per 30ml as suggested.  

Boiling water.

Rinse: quick.

1st steep: 3 secs.

Subsequent steeps: +3 secs and then +5 secs.

First off, this is very fast brewing!  I'm used to brewing at 45 secs to 1+ minutes for other teas so it took some getting used to.  The colour of the tea soup is very nice deep red. The tea was earthy, malty sweet, and smooth; very refined.  My personal experience is each infusion wasn't too different except the first was lighter than the 2nd and 3rd as expected, but my palate is not as sensitive as more experienced drinkers.  By the 3rd steep my tongue was tingling!

3rd steep, beautiful deep red tea soup

I brewed this for my mom but at a much higher ratio of leaf to water, just extended the steeping time and it still was very good.  Even oversteeping doesn't yield a bitter cup which she again was surprised at as she was for sure thinking it would be bitter.

Definitely recommend this ripe puer for easy brewing and the smooth refined taste.  Very drinkable!

Now onto Hummingbird 2013 Meng Hai Old Arbor Leaf Sheng Puer.

Love the initial smell of the leaves...they are so fragrant and sweet, I couldn't wait to get started on the brewing!

I haven't had sheng puer in a long time and the first time I didn't really have much guidance or knew what to do.  This time after reading more blogs and reviews on steeping and since a guide is provided with the tea, my tea session went pretty well.

The tea was pressed into mini cakes which made it easy to brew as well, about 8-9g per mini cake.  I brewed this following their instructions:

1g to 20ml water
Boiling water
Rinse: 10 secs
1st steep: 7 secs
2nd steep: 10 secs
Subsequent steeps: + 5 secs

1st steep:  Really lovely!  Light apricot colour tea soup.  Floral, mildly sweet taste.
2nd and 3rd steep: The bitterness hits but there is an underlying sweetness.  
4th steep:  The bitterness starts to mellow down and the sweetness is rising.
5th steep:  Sweet notes of apricot or maybe raisin, it's thicker and the huigan is stronger.  Really nice!  Slightly more drying in the mouth though.

Paired with sugar cookies at about steep 6.

6th steep: Similar to the 5th.
7th steep: Grassy and sweet.

Unfortunately I had to stop here.  The aroma of the wet leaves was very sweet like raisins so I'm sure it could have given more.  Loved this raw puer as it changed several times in taste and feeling!  The bitterness was also not too strong that someone new to raw puer could still enjoy this tea.

Pretty nice looking leaves

If you're new to puer this would be a good starter pack. They also sell each individually and the Hummingbird is offered in mini cakes or a full sized cake.  There are a few other starter packs I've seen and also sets that have been curated to give you a sense of what different mountains/regions taste like.  Thinking about getting those too.  Especially good since there is so much out there that it's hard to decide what to get.

So far this has been a great beginning!