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2022 Cha Tou “Chocolate Noir” Ripe Pu-erh Tea Heads (TEASIDE 0101)
Tea heads (cha tou) made from spring 2016 material from Thai 200-400-year-old trees. Fermented in December 2022.
The full description of this tea you can find on the “Chocolate Noir” Cakes page. Nevertheless, the heads, as they are supposed to, open up a little differently than the cake.
There are less berry but more woody notes in them. Less chocolate in the aftertaste, but a nice prune. The chocolate is still there though, along with dried cherries.
There appears to be less bitterness even in a strong infusion. At the same time, the tea has excellent stamina. It’s Qi is no less heady -– I'd advise caution.
Below goes the description of the previous batch, fermented in March 2018.
In a dry aroma, there are dairy notes and woody scents with pleasant sea salinity. In rinsed tea, the wood background opens up multifaceted, berry tones of raspberry and strawberry with milk are added to it. The taste of tea is dense, smooth, and rich. Despite the youth (short-time storage after fermentation), this shou pu-erh is easy to drink. The taste is dominated by woody tones with coniferous hints and milky-berry flavors.
Cha Qi has a strong relaxing effect.
This shou holds many steeps, which proves its origin from old trees and accurate manual processing.
See also raw pu-erh tea 2016 "Dragon" made from the same material.
Reviews (7)
Puer heads 0101 - the most delicious and beautiful Shu of all that I have tried! Only years later (!) I tried the recently presented Shu from Laotea, which I almost also liked
Very nice shu, robust, creamy, balanced, pleasure to drink it :)
These are very dense nuggets which I guess formed on the bottom of the fermentation pile. The dry tea has a nice deep sweet smell, with a hint of woody spice! There is some interesting dark orange golden coloration on top of the nuggets. I am brewing 5g in a 60ml Yixing teapot.
The tea is surprisingly clean and balanced, probably due to the special kind of fermentation. It has some nice chocolatly sweetness, a slight astringency in the middle of the tongue and spreads slowly in the mouth, like thick grape juice! Hints of vanilla and oak, but still some refreshing flavors! Even though I am using 5g on around 50 ml 30 sec brews produce exactly the right thickness and intensity!
The later infusions are changing a bit, the brews are a bit more dry and remind me of resin or beeswax. Due to the denseness of the nuggets, the tea does not brake apart during brewing, so I manually helped a bit with a tea pick. The tea nicely fades after 10+ infusions, all in all I was really surprised by the smoothness yet power of this tea, this fermentation hits a sweet spot for me. I am not sure how much of it is the raw material but I think the taste profile is really interesting for a ripe tea.
a great ripe, which for me falls in the "berris" category, since it's flavor is dominated by forest berries..
there is also some chocolate in there, the mouthfeel and longevity are top grade, and the qi is very good and relaxing.
If you have the 'heads' version make sure to start longer, as it takes it slightly more time to open than the 'loose' version.
I hope this one gets back to stock!
One of the fruitiest shou I've ever tasted (dark fruits, very sweet). Smooth mouthfeel and cooling throat sensation too! Plus the heads steep forever.
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