Today's battle of the teas was between three ripe puerh's.
Last year, I visited XiShuangBanNa where I got to really explore the different flavor profiles across Puerh teas. Raw, or sheng, pu'erhs are definitely my favorite as they can have a sweet honeyness to them, where as the ripe puerh tend to have a very medicinal flavor and muddy appearance to me!
However, that hasn't put me off trying a few different ripe puerh's and I was excited to explore the different nuances of the tea. For this comparison, I used my Chinese tea cake, and two samplers from MeiLeaf.
What I find really interesting about all these teas is that they've been aged. Aging ripe puerh doesn't have the same impact as it would on the raw, as aging is seen to greatly benefit the raw puerh and enhance the sweet flavors. However, despite this all three of the ripe puerh's were aged - varying between 8 and 16 years old!
Introducing the Contestants:
From oldest to youngest:
Gong Ting (Imperial Palace)
From Menghai in Yunnan, this tea was picked in Spring 2006.
Fire Pheonix
Another Menghai tea, this one was picked in 2008.
Fig Dipper
From Bulang in Yunnan, China, this was picked in 2012.
Battle of the Teas
These three teas had quite different aromas. The Fig Dipper had a fishy aroma to it, that reminded me of being a fish market! The other two had more standard puerh smells, but the Fire Pheonix had a dryness to it
The liquor of the three teas was quite similar, however the tastes were not!
I would describe the Fire Pheonix as quite a standard puerh taste. I don't really know how to describe it beyond this, but it is a solid puerh for ripe puerh fans. The Fig Dipper was similar, however it had some sweetness to it, which reminded me of the flavored cough medicines you give to children. Finally the Gong Ting tea has a sherberty high-note to the puerh flavor.
Tea rating:
As I mentioned I am not the biggest ripe puerh fans, so these definitely wouldn't be my go-to drink. However, as far as ripe Puerh's go they are pretty solid!
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