SANRAN Aged Pu-erh Tea, Ripe Puerh Tea Cake, Fermented Chinese Black Tea, 100g/3.53oz

I should preface that this was my first time trying Pu-erh, and I was pleasantly surprised. When I opened the package, like the American I am, I was put off by the smell. It was like if i went outside and stuck my nose deep in the grass and breathed in. However! Once brewed properly, (thanks to a good google search) the tea has almost no smell, and almost no taste. It does have a mildly sweet aftertaste. I didn't sweeten it with anything, and honestly, this tea doesn't need it. The smell does come back a little when the tea starts to cool, so if you are sensitive to smells like I am, its best to drink it quickly! I love his tea! Its a wonderful, unique experience.

I love this tea!! It’s rich without bitterness. I will buy again. And again and again!!

This is a very good puerh for the price. It's earthy, mellow and a bit woodsy. After having tasted a wider variety of puerh teas, this is what I would call a "normal" or "everyday drink" type. Some puerh's have some interesting/unusual flavors such as sweet cigar, brown sugar, maple syrup, wet sock, distant fish. When I smell seafood/fish in a tea, it's generally in the smell of the brewed tea only and not in the flavor. This tea has none of those strange flavors, for better or for worse. My main complaint, which is a small one (considering the price) is there is a large amount of twigs/stems in this tea. Which compared to a higher quality puerh cake, brings the value down a bit. One reviewer noticed that the twigs increase the bitterness, but I didn't notice an iota of bitterness, despite the twigs. It's still a very good value. Generally I brew with boiling water. 30s rinse, 60s steep, 90s steep, 120s steep, etc. I get about 5-6 steepings from this tea before it's mostly water. I also purchased this tea because it claims to be organic. In the Q&A section, someone asks if the tea has USDA Organic Certification. The seller responded very honestly by saying no, but to take their word for it that they have high standards and the plants are grown organically. They even reference some kind of Chinese certification about standards, which I've yet to look it up, but my 'spidey sense' is they are genuine and telling the truth, or at least as much as they know of it. On the word 'organic'. In the USA, there is a growing trend of farmers who grow organically but choose not to seek certification. The certification is extremely expensive and thus they have to sell their product for more money to recoup the cost. Plus, if they have a bad crop year, they are still out the certification expense, which affects their bottom line unfairly. So many farmers are choosing to let their customers decide if they trust them or not when they say, "I grow organically," or "I don't use any pesticides or herbicides and use compost for fertilizer". I'm sure there are some bad apples out there abusing customer's trust, but I haven't met them yet.

The flavor on this is a little flat unless you steep it in a cast iron kettle. There's a name for those and I'm forgetting what it is. But if you use one, give your leaves a quick rinse in boiling water and then steep in your iron kettle for 3 minutes. Set a timer because that seems to be the sweet spot. Using this amount of time and you'll be able to steep three times. Pour into your cup, and let melo for about another minute before sipping.

I bought a Pu her cake from a different seller and it was great, you can tell it was aged and fermented for a while but still very fragrant and flavorful. The tea would almost instantly turn into a red-brown color and it worked for what they say it’s supposed to do, then I finished that cake and tried buying a second one but it was sold out ughhhhh! Then I found this one and that description was pretty similar to the other one so I decided to give it a try, but at the 1st cup of tea I noticed it was completely different than the other one, first of all the leafs or whatever it’s called were like sticks but extremely hardened and in a dry sense and once is in the hot water for 3 minutes passed, the leafs turned green, just like any other tea. There was no scent or change of color in the water, absolutely nothing happened. Then I gave it another tries and the same thing, so I decided to give up. Unfortunately it’s going to the trash as it can’t be returned because dumb me, did not check return policy. DO NOT BUY, it’s not pure, or fermented or aged!

For what it is, its decent. An extremely young raw pu'er, its basically green tea as sold and mediocre green tea at that. All things said, it may age well. The flavor is mild and mellow if brewed properly. The seller recomends a WIDLY high amount of leaves to water. I found 3 grams of tea in a 100ML gaiwan to be the most flavorful i could brew this tea without becoming overly bitter. Will see how time treats this tea.

This is a fine tea for the price they are asking and very good with proper gongfu technique, and is a great place for beginners to practice with something inexpensive but still worthwhile. Now some of the really nice (and expensive) pu-erh teas will blow your mind and leave you literally speechless after every steep, and this isn't one of those. Someone who isn't careful about how they steep their tea is likely to think that this is one note and not a very interesting note at that. However, if you use the right ratio of tea per water, take care to time your steeps, and make sure the water is piping hot before every steep, and of course take the time to pay attention to the tea as you drink it, you'll be surprised at how much this has to give. Every steep is a little different, and I found this tea going from sour to aromatic to sweet to bitter and back over the course of seven or eight steeps. Look up how to do proper gongfu style steeps and you'll spend hours enjoying this tea.