I bought this LongRun 2007 HeXin Shou Puer Tuocha while I was at the World Tea Expo 2016. Similar to my other purchase from LongRun teas, this tea was stamped one year, but they stated it was another. They had explained to me that these were rewraps from a factory they had purchased, and they couldn’t stamp it older than when they acquired it. I’ve reviewed LongRun (also known as Spring Teas) before – they are of interest to many as their teas are available on Amazon.
I mostly bought this puer as the price was right (showroom price) and the packaging is super cute – the tuocha has its own little satchel with a strap.
You can go swing it around and hit people with it. The tuocha bag also makes a nice purse for jumbo Big Red Tea Owl.
Dry Leaf
This is straight up almost all beenghole of a tuocha. I can almost feel my fingers when I touch the insides…. and that is pretty freaky.
The leaf broke apart easy. The scent is quite low, kinda like paper and babywipes.. uh oh I hope that’s not a bad sign!
Steeping Instructions
A tea buddy of mine also purchased this tea and gave me the heads up it was kind of weak and thin. That said, I went with 1gram to 13ml ratio. I used boiling water, a ruyao gaiwan and two rinses.
Tasting of LongRun 2007 HeXin Shou Puer Tuocha
The shou tuocha steeps up a rich ruddy brown. It smells very nice, while I was doing the rinses I was oooing and awwwing as it had a hazelnut scent.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: LongRun 2007 HeXin Shou Puer Tuocha sips in with a bittersweet chocolate and hazelnut flavor. It got some malty elements too. The finish is sweet and mineral in flavor. This is straight up a coffee converter shou. The texture is slightly oily on the lips, but the sip is pretty thin on the body. This tea lacks richness many other shous have.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The colour got really dark – that almost black brown look with the red highlights on the edges. I want that hair colour!
The flavor is strong nutty and bittersweet chocolate. The nutty went into overdrive and giving off a powerful taste. This shou in flavor coats the tongue, however the thin body doesn’t physically feel like it. The aftertaste is clean, mineral, sweet dark chocolate.
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: LongRun 2007 HeXin Shou Puer Tuocha’s rich flavor faded. I’m left with a clean, mineral and watery hazelnut flavor. The flavor is slipping fast. The body is still pretty thin. Very easy to drink.
Eleventh Infusion: I did a 15 min steep and the colour is so light! The flavor is more or less dead. It has a bit of nutty and malt, but mostly I just taste water. Damn, this died fast!
Comments
LongRun 2007 HeXin Shou Puer Tuocha has a really nice flavor, one that would win over a coffee drinker with a rich taste and nutty. The tea never got bitter or dry, and had an excellent sweetness. However, this LongRun shou has a pretty weak body, sporting a texture is quite thin and not many resteeps. This would be a good new-to-tea tea for a coffee drinker or a daily drinker for the more seasoned puer drinker.
I used to drink coffee. When I was an animator one needed caffeine desperately. If I had this shou puer tea back then I would of switched instantly – LongRun 2007 HeXin Shou Puer Tuocha tastes 100x better without any milk or sugar as the sweetness is there. Hard to say if the caffeine hit on this tea is potent. I already had 5 matchas today and I drank this shou to calm my gut down.
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