I write this on US Thanksgiving at 7pm on my phone. Dinner is over, the family has left and I feel like I’m rolling around about to burst a turkey pumpkin alien out of my gut. I never ever drink a caffeine tea this late but since I ate way too much thanksgiving food I need something to keep me awake and get the digestion flowing. I usually reach for the herbal chrysanthemum or chamomile tea but that’ll make me pass out. However, I do have this cute 100 gram 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Puer and Snow Chrysanthemum cake. I’m fight the turkey drowsy so a bit of caffeine might be a good idea. Maybe.
Dry Leaf
The 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Puerh and Snow Chrysanthemum has a pretty deep brown puerh pressed cake with flecks of yellow and rose pinks.
Steeping Instructions
I went with a gong fu style infusion using boiling water. After a rinse I did quick 5 second infusions, adding additional time with each infusion – around 5 to 30 seconds. With the final infusions I added 1 minute to each infusion.
Tasting of 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Puerh and Snow Chrysanthemum
First Infusion: My tea steeps up a rich brown with the scent of chrysanthemum flowers.
First impression of 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Puerh and Snow Chrysanthemum is savory and and floral. The flavor of this puerh blend reminds me of thyme, mushroom and red wine laced beef gravy. The pu’er base is heavy, savory, thick, and mushroom. The chrysanthemum adds a herby aspect to the tea mid sip, but finishes more floral end of sip, a 4/10 on the Floral Meter.
Second, Third and Fourth Infusion: The pu’er is now pitch black, like coffee, in appearance.
The tea has mellowed with each infusion, but still with a rich, savory, thick brew with a chrysanthemum finish.
Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Infusion: After drinking all this tea I feel less stuffed that I just ate a leftover dinner roll that I didn’t need to eat. Oops. The tea is shifting to a more mellow, rich, woodsy like mahogany (“Katniss, that is mahogany!”) with bella brown mushrooms. 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Puerh and Snow Chrysanthemum is still mysteriously savory with a herbaceous floral finish. The tea drunk have started as I starting feeling pretty wacky about turkey pumpkin aliens and that I need an Owl gravy boat. Owls like gravy right? While steeping I can see the floral buds float and burst off their sheer petals – pretty cool!
Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Infusion: The final infusions with long extended steeps as I’m battling to keep the flavor and color going. I’m making a huge mess as the petals in the tea jammed up my easy gaiwan so I have misc stamen chunks in my tea. Wait aren’t those like flower naughty bits? I am still tea drunk.
The tea now has a dominate chrysanthemum flavor over a background of earth and mushroom. A mushy chrysanthemum flavor that you may of experienced if you steep it too long. I’m feeling good, pretty alert not as full and weird. Post tea session I ended up wired till 3 am!
My poor tea set up all smushed to a corner of my kitchen island as I had to make room for turkey and dishes.
Comments
I found 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Ripe Puer and Snow Chrysanthemum cake very different than other chrysanthemum teas. I often see chrysanthemum cut with white tea, which compliment florally together. I’ve had a few chrysanthemum ripe puerh mini tuochas, but they tend to be lighter and more herb in flavor. I’d say the contrast of mushroom earth pu’er with floral and herb is an interesting one and probably not for a new pu’er drinker, moreso a pu’er drinker who likes a more vegetal mega earth pu’er. I generally tend to get pu’er in the creamy or camphor territory, so having a herby mushroomy ripe was a nice change of pace. At the time I write this, this pu’er has a nice price of just under $6 for the whole 100 gram cake.
I highly recommend if you are going to gong fu steep this tea like I did to use a normal gaiwan. The flower petals steep up mushy with multiple steepings it caused some pouring issues as it would plug up pouring holes in the easy gaiwan. Next time I drink this will be after a heavy lunch so I’m not awake until 3 am!
