Do you have a tea that you tried once, years ago, which you weren't keen on and so never had again?
This Anicent LanCang raw puer was that tea for my boyfriend! After trying it and finding it bitter, it disappeared t the bottom of the tea chest until I was able to dig it up and give it a go!
He definitely has a bias against the sheng puer's, but gradually I have been bringing him around and we now have some delicious sheng puer cakes that he loves to drink - so I thought it was definitely time to pull this one out and give it (anther) go!
Picked in 2013, this is one of the older puer's that I've tried. The block of tea was pretty solid and I had a real struggle trying to break the tea off (although admittedly I was using a normal knife rather than a tea knife!).
Luckily I was using the smallest tea pot so it didn't matter that i couldn't break too much off!
This tea was definitely on the bitter side. Although this is common for raw puer's, the bitterness did not subside into a sweeter flavor, like good tea's usually do, and instead it lasted across all the brews.
Although there was some of other flavor's coming through, the bitterness was quite pointed, meaning it wasn't the most pleasant drinking experience!
I would give it another try to see if perhaps a different brewing method could sooth the bitter overtones, but it definitely won't become a go-to drink!
Tea Rating:
⭐⭐