I had a quiet hour or so to myself so I decided to try one of my puerh cakes that I had purchased from YunnanSourcing.com….
I have to admit that I haven’t stored the puerh cake very well in that it is just wrapped in its paper towel-like wrapping and stored in my tea cupboard in the kitchen. Not really the best place to store puerh tea as it could take on the flavours from the kitchen – like the spices from the many curries I cook etc. I wasn’t holding out for anything special.
However, looking at the cake itself, you can see that the leaves are high quality Silver buds and they have been compressed slightly and therefore I was able to remove buds so that they didn’t break up or crumble when you take them away from the cake to infuse.
I caught the water just before it boiled as even though this is a puerh, it is silver buds and therefore I didn’t want to use water that was too hot.
After a quick rinse of the leaves I infused them for 30 seconds in the first steeping.
Aroma and taste was of a slight smokiness with apricot undertones. This surprised me as I thought it may have been ruined by my “not so good” storage conditions.
The liquor was a golden hue, darker than that produced by the Bai Hao Yin Zhen (China White Silver Needles) from Fuding or Zhenghe in Fujian Province.
I managed 6 infusions increasing the length of each infusion by 15 to 30 seconds.
The flavour was there until the 4th or 5th infusion.
I tried using an Yixing teapot to see if it made any difference. There wasn’t any discernible difference.
I have now stored it in a more sensible place in the hope that it continues to age nicely and hopefully retains the smokey apricot flavour that I actually enjoyed.
I will leave it for a couple of years and then try it again. Definitely worthwhile purchase costing $USD6.50 (approx. £GBP4.05 at the time of purchase).
Looking at my records, I apparently purchased two cakes so I’m not sure what I did with the second one. I don’t remember drinking it so I’ve either given it away as a present or stored it somewhere completely different to this one!
I’ll update you if I ever find it!