Does this look familiar to anyone?

If you only found me this year, here’s the history behind this tea: last year, I bought some raw puer (my first time buying!) and found that I quite liked it. If you’re interested, you can find my original review here. Since it’s been about a year and raw puer is suppose to change as it ages, I thought it would be interesting to drink another ball and see if I can find any differences.

First Impressions

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Is it just me or does the dragon ball look slightly darker than before? Well, the difference doesn’t seem as obvious in the photos but to me, it’s a tad darker. This smells very sweet and slightly floral, a lot like an oolong actually.

Tasting Notes

The first three steeps were very light as the leaves hadn’t really opened up. The tea was sweet and floral, and I didn’t notice any bitterness or astringency. It’s a pretty big change from last year, where I managed to get a bitter note almost immediately – I regret not adding more information about how I brewed the tea last year! This year, I used a gaiwan and started with short steeps that only lengthened towards the end, which may explain why the tea was a lot easier to drink (that and the ageing process);

The tea liquor had deepened quite a bit to an amber colour by the fourth steep, and I started getting a bitter note. That bitter note was replaced by some astringency in the fifth steep, but I got both in the sixth.

The sixth cup was interesting because the bitterness and astringency were very obvious. It’s pretty nice that it took much longer for it to show up, but I think I got this mainly because I got distracted with work and let the tea cool down. In the seventh cup, I noticed the same bitter and astringent notes but they seemed less intense – possibly because I drank the tea while hot!

The eighth steep was the last time that I got the bitter note. For the last two steeps (I was thinking of stopping at 10 because of the caffeine overload), the tea was mostly sweet and grassy and the bitterness and astringency was pretty minimal.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, I found this to be a lot easier to drink (and easier on my stomach) this year compared to the last! I’m really not a fan of teas that are very bitter or astringent, which is why I generally stay away from raw puer, but I love the sweet and floral notes here. I can’t wait to see how the tea will continue to change in the coming years!