Friday, May 2, 2008

70's Vietnamese Liao Fu San Cha


This tea was with my samples in an unmarked baggie. Wasn't sure what it was, but figured I'd find out later and tossed it in the pot.

Well. Damn.

Had I known at the time that this was a Vietnamese puerh from the 70's, I would have paid a little more attention to it, perhaps a bit more caution in brewing it. As it were my tastings notes went about like this.

First Infusion: Whoa, that tastes like dirt.

Second Infusion: Still tastes like dirt.

Third Infusion: Yep, dirt. Fuck this tea.


Don't I feel silly.

Perhaps I was too hasty in judging this tea and missed hidden subtleties and nuances it had to offer. Perhaps if I had more experience with puerh, I would have appreciated this one more. Or perhaps by not knowing much at all, I was able to give a more direct, unbiased opinion.

(Shrugs)

For a second opinion: Houd De.

9 comments:

MarshalN said...

So how did you figure out what it was?

Lewis said...

:)

I have some Vietnamese oolong coming. You've made me so very excited.

Alec said...

I had a $40 5 gram serving of Pu-erh once given to me by a tea distributor (I own a Tea and Coffeehouse) and I couldn't deal with it. I had to brew up some sweet, buttery Silk Oolong to wash the taste out of my mouth.

Space Samurai said...

Marshal, I found the list of what samples were sent to me and figured it out by process of elimination. Wasn't compressed into a cake, wasn't shriveled shupu from Rishi, must bet the Vietnamese.

Wes Crosswhite said...

Fukk aged pu smells SO good.

Anonymous said...

dirt, eh? :)

Anonymous said...

Hahaha, I burst out laughing reading this entry. I recently bought a pu-erh from Red Blossom Tea--my first one--and my reaction was pretty much the same as yours. "WTF, this tastes like dirt. Maybe I brewed it wrong? . . . nope . . . dirt . . . still dirt . . . screw it."

I went back to the web site to read the description, and found it had said, "Rich and loamy, with a malty character that brings to mind barrel-aged bourbon, fresh earth, cocoa and chocolate."

Heh. Well, they weren't kidding about the 'fresh earth' part! I still can't decide whether to try it again hoping I'm missing something or presume I've had a practical joke played on me. ;)

Anonymous said...

Inspired by the conversation here, I tried again, and found the problem: I wasn't brewing it hot enough. Brewed at 180 degrees, it tastes like dirt. At 205 like it's supposed to be . . . well, it still tastes like dirt, but now it's sweet and interesting dirt.

Zeto said...

lol I just found this now, but it's just as funny as the day it was written.

Pu always tastes like wet campfire/decaying forest, and is most pleasing if you grew up doing some serious outdoors roughing. It's an acquired taste