I have enjoyed all of Bana Tea’s shou puer. At the last winter sale, I bought a whole bunch of teas from Bana Tea. This 2016 Red Sunset Twin Ripe puer caught my eye as it was a Vesper Chan tea and a 2 pack! I felt I didn’t need 2 cakes, so I split it with James TeaDB. It was simply 1 wrapper over 2 x 200gram cakes stacked together, so it was easy to pass the second cake away.
This shou/ripe puer is grade 2-3 Bulang material. The fermented material was rested in Menghai for 2 years before being pressed into cakes.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Method
Red Sunset has a sweet woodsy scent. Oddly, there is no beenghole in this tea. It is a flat uniform disc shape on both sides. Gorgeous appearance otherwise with the golden leaves.
There are these weird crop circle prints in the cake.
I managed to stab myself as this cake is impossible to break. The pick just slid off the side and right into the fleshy part of my thumb joint and bleed violently for a few minutes. That said, I found it easier to use owl strength and snap pieces as it isn’t that thick of a cake.
I went high on the leaf, going 1 gram of leaf to 12ml of vessel size. I always boil my shous, and give it 2 rinses before drinking. Twin Sunset’s hot leaf smells autumn and woodsy.
Tasting of Bana Tea Company’s 2016 Red Sunset Twin Shou Puer
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Red Sunset steeps up beautifully dark and clear. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Bana Tea Company and their ripe puer. Every ripe puer I’ve had from them is fantastic and clear.
The flavor is clean and sweet. Very strong, but that is likely me with my high leaf ratio. The flavor is quite woody, like a piece of dried wood being rained on in the Pacific Northwest rainforest. It isn’t petrichor though, more basic wet, leafy, walnuts, and dank. It probably would have been sweeter if I used less tea, but I am sure it’ll get there.
What sings in this tea is the body, as it is like drinking woody pudding. Red Sunset is thick and coating of a drink, like pure Pepto Bismal.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: Red Sunset is pure smoothness. It just drinks down so effortlessly smooth, rich, woodsy, and sweet. Each sip is clean and crisp, has a mineral, rainfall, and wood notes. As the sip goes on, the sweeter it gets, leaving a sweet mineral taste in the mouth.
In silver, Red Sunset is a different animal. It does look like cherry coke, but the silver removes all the woodsy and leaves a bright mineral sweet with a thick body.
Eighth and Ninth Infusion: The tea is finally slipping with the colour sinking to a light red. The flavor is spring water minerals, sweet, and smooth. It is like drinking candy at this point and it has some crazy salivation.
Tenth and Eleventh Infusion: Finally, the infusions are sugar sweet. Red Sunset never bitter or dry at the end, despite steeping for 20 minutes. I fully enjoyed steeping this till the end as it was like drinking candy.
Comments
Bana Tea Company’s 2016 Red Sunset Twin Ripe puer is a smooth, clean, woodsy sweet ripe puer. This tea is easily approachable and how sweet a ripe puer could get. You could likely thermos brew or grandpa style this tea with excellent results. I like that there is no funky or sour notes, nor dryness or bitterness. They could have thrown in an organic label and I would have believed it, this tea is just so clean and well made. This tea did fine leafed hard, maybe too richly and strong woodsy at first, but tried again with a little less leaf and you still get some richness and sooner sweet infusions.
2016 Red Sunset Twin Ripe puer is $75 for 400grams (2x 200g cakes, at this time of writing) and that price is nothing to sneeze at, but get a friend and split it so that the damage isn’t as bad. This is a woodsy, sweet leaning puer. People who love the forest floor dank or more savory mushroom ripe puer need not apply.
