1996 Championship Pu'er (PeLi Teas)

Pu’er is an aged tea. I haven’t reviewed many Pu’er teas here yet as I simply just don’t have very many. This magnificent Pu’er was provided to me by Lily and Peter over at PeLi Teas. It won 1st place in the 2009 World Tea Championships.

There wasn’t much of this tea left, so I’m extremely excited they were willing to provide me some of this tea.

This Pu’er is loose, not pressed into a cake. Its leaves a mixture of light and medium brown. The aroma is light and earthy, more of dirt than moss with some hints are a woody quality I thought similar of a tree bark.

The liquor steeps to a wonderful dark motor oil brown and has a smooth airy aroma with similar earth overtones as in the aroma and more mild wood notes. The second steeping is equally aromatic and flavorful.

The texture of the brew is extremely smooth. There’s almost no astringency or acidity at all. The flavor profile is also more of earthen qualities and less mossy than I expected.

I recommend this pu’erh to every fan should PeLi find a way to bring it back! Feel free to call and see if you can special order it, I know I couldn’t locate it on their website, but they may have some tiny quantity left.