Hey there, tea drinkers! I hope you’ve had a great weekend. Today’s post is another Taste of Tea entry in which I’ll relay my tea-tasting journal entry for the Ancient Wild Tree Pu’er tea from High Garden Woodland Tea House and Sipping Apothecary in Nashville, TN. I purchased some of this tea on a previous visit to High Garden’s shop. It is only the second pu’er tea that I’ve tried, so I was excited to give it a taste.
Type of Tea: Dark Tea, Pu’er, mini tuocha
Tasting Notes
Dry tea: This pu’er came compressed in a mini tuocha.
Unwrapped, the scent off of the tuocha was light, but had an element of moss and a general sort of forest floor quality. In its compressed form, the dark brown and almost black colors of the tea looked a bit like compressed mulch, or maybe even a rich dirt. I just broke the mini tuocha apart by hand.
After breaking up the tuocha, the tea had a little bit of a fishy and somewhat earthy scent. I warmed the teapot and added the dry tea to help further activate its scent. The activated scent again had a forest floor quality, a light earthiness, and some light fishiness.
Preparation: After a quick rinse – 1 mini tuocha (broken) in 473 mL (16 oz) of roughly 95 C (203 F) water for 4 minutes
Tea liquor: After infusing, the scent coming off of the liquor was much more fishy, but it also had a light coffee-like earthiness. The color of the liquor was a deep and dark reddish-brown that was very coffee-like.
The tea liquor had a light and smooth flavor and feel with some astringency and minerality on the back-end. The taste only had a very-light touch of fishiness. The taste also had a light earthiness with a moderate minerality. The finish had a slow-acting and slightly drying effect. I made a second infusion which was brewed for 3 minutes. The color just a little lighter than the first infusion. The flavors were also a little different than the first infusion: a little more subtle (I think I probably could of let it infuse a little longer). The flavor was also a little warmer, and the elements of fishiness and minerality were lighter. And the flavor had some elements that reminded me of old, wet hay.
Quick Summary
- Tea: Ancient Wild Tree Pu’er, compressed, dark tea
- Origin: China
- Retailer: High Garden
- Flavor Notes: earthy and mineral, light fishiness, wet hay
- Finish: slow dryness with light minerality
Final Thoughts: With subtle earthy, fishy, and forest-like qualities in the scent and flavor, and its smooth texture followed by lightly mineral and dry finish, this tea made for an interesting tea-drinking experience. And although I only recorded the first two infusions, I suspect you could probably get at least a few more out of this tea. Overall, I enjoyed this tea and look forward to trying more pu’er teas in the future.
Thanks for reading! As always, these are my tasting notes, and since the perception of taste and aroma can be quite personal your experience will likely, and indeed probably should, differ from mine. But regardless, I hope this post inspires you to get out there and to keep trying new teas. And if you don’t already, I’d encourage you to try making your own tasting notes as you do!
What tea should I try next? Drop me a line down in the comments and share your suggestion.
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That’s it, tea drinkers. Until next time, keep enjoying the wondrous taste of tea! — Blake – the tea drinker behind Blake’s Tea Journal
Blake's Tea Journal 
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