Cooked Puer, or Shou Puer, is a huge staple in the tea world here in China and abroad, from Beijing to Guangzhou, from East to West, it is common to encounter this tea in teashops around the world. We have never carried a cooked puer before because the water here can get very deep. There are a lot of nuances in this dark tea that brews up blacker than coffee. However, it has been a tea on our list for ages, so we called in a favor from our Tea Master in Jiangsu, and brought a dozen potential samples to him to help us taste test and assess the best quality. Through the intensive tasting, we found which ones were worth our time, which ones were visually superior, which ones were blended poorly, which leaves were the most tender, and eventually, which one was the one we wanted to press.
This tea was made back in 2021, and has been stored loose in Lincang, Yunnan until we pressed it. As a result, there is little to no ‘duiwei’ or pile fragrance, the more dank and musty or at worst fishy aromas one finds in fresh cooked puer. Instead, what you get in the warm gaiwan when you add the dry leaves is something still musky, but distinctly savory and slightly chocolatey.
As soon as the leaves are brewed with hot water, they transform into their more full palate fragrances of old wood, pine sap, and petrichor. The fermentation on this tea is less heavy than others, but still deep enough to brew up black if pushed. We prefer this lighter fermentation as it leaves more fragrances in the cup. The tea is pleasantly thick in the mouth and oily on the tongue, providing a pleasant chaqi or tea energy when drunk in quick succession. The tea gets incredibly sweet as the session progresses, with notes of mesquite and pine wood.
The art for this tea cake was done by the talented Anj of Gushu Studios.
*Note for the those interested in purchasing a whole Tong of this tea, it is not wrapped in bamboo leaves, but processed as five individual tea cakes, though they are still offered at 10% off!
