This was a surprise bonus in my order. Being new to pu-erh, I really appreciated being able to sample something that I wouldn't have picked out, giving me a little extra variety to figure out what I do and don't like. The first thing I noticed about this mini cake (and the other ripe pu-erh I got from White2Tea, Old Reliable) wasn't what it smelled like, but what it didn't: fish. That's already an improvement over my first ripe puerh, which took a while for the fish smell to fade. After that I was a little worried about buying shou that wasn't even a year old, but I had heard a lot of good things about White2Tea, so I took a chance. I was glad to find out that both Old Reliable and this bonus mini cake lacked the unpleasant fishy, wet dirt odors and could be enjoyed immediately. Still, I waited a few days before brewing this, since I only had one mini cake. It mostly smelled like wood, with a clean earthy aroma in the background.

I put the whole mini cake in my gaiwan, rinsed twice, then started brewing. It had a smooth woody and earthy taste and moderately thick mouthfeel, just like it's described on the website. Later infusions just got thinner rather than changing noticeably. I think it would probably be best brewed western style. I don't see any benefit to using a gaiwan with this tea.

I can only compare it to White2Tea's Old Reliable and some Rishi pu-erh with questionable storage (the tea shop I bought it from sold it as "aged", but from my understanding, properly stored aged shou shouldn't have any wet or fishy odors left). Compared to those, this has a somewhat lighter body, but a similar smoothness and earthiness. It's a simple, mellow, woodsy tea that won't blow any minds, but that I can't imagine anyone hating unless they dislike shou in general.

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