Monday, November 28, 2016

2006 Mengku Pu erh Shou Brick











Ripe or shou pu erh tea is my 'turn to' tea in the evenings when I have a tea session.  The earthy, aromatic smoothness of the tea remains one of my favorite Chinese tea.  I had not been blogging about ripe tea in the recent months as I had been revisiting and opened ripe cakes and bricks which I had written in this blog over the years.  

I recently opened a 2006 Mengku ripe brick.  I enjoy the signature taste of Mengku ripe pu erh and I had broken up this brick into my tea caddy and allowing it to 'breathe' for 2 weeks before drinking the tea.  The terminology here is 'xin cha' (aka awaken the tea).  I would also urge you, the reader, to try brewing with boiling water and adding a bit more leaves.  I had been chatting with a few new friends via email and discovered that the water used by my friends was not very hot.  They either used a thermos or a kettle of hot water that should preferably be boiling or reboiled in later infusions.  Boiling water does makes a difference in brewing pu erh (raw and ripe).  The flavor and aroma of the tea 'comes out' better.

Brewing this ripe tea with slow boiling water could get me about 8 good strong infusions.  There are 3 things I look for in a ripe pu erh tea - smoothness, sweetness and mellowness.   This 10 year old brick passed with flying colors.  


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