’11 Rich-n-Mellow Puerh: Cherry-Vanilla Coke
The ’11 Rich-n-Mellow Puerh lays to rest the assertion that age doesn’t factor into ripe puerhs.
You can smell the minerals and cherries in the lid of the clay pot. It still stinks out of the wrapper. I got this because the wrapper was sufficiently curious. Dry in the pot, there’s the light smell of cherries along with something that I can’t place: the sea, old coffee, feet? As it cools, different notes become apparent while others fade. The target moves so quickly that one is afforded no measure of certainty, though such mysteriousness grows upon this sniffer with each sniff.
Cashed Leaves
Rich-n-Mellow’s minerality is present in the aroma of the broth too. The cherry taste, also in the broth, fades to vanilla. In the rinse, gorgeous I might add, there’s a bit of sourness, along with incense and talc in the huigan. Immensely interesting. The huigan with this puerh potion is real. The fading of the liquor down the throat is followed by a sweet and dynamic coating that stimulates saliva.
By the third infusion, it becomes apparent that this ripe puerh cake isn’t exactly “ready.” Oh yes, by then the sweetness, the cherries-fading-to-vanilla, and the Coke fizz on the tongue and throat are all there, but it’s not the taste. It’s the clarity or the lack thereof to be precise. This should clear up in a few years. I’m moving the remainder of this cake to more intense conditions to see if it can get there in 18 mths or so. Otherwise, a rough guess is that it’ll be there in three years.
Rich-n-Mellow 6th Infusion
The Rich-n-Mellow is surprisingly tasty, seemingly perfect for summer. It’s qi is warming in the belly and tingly in the upper shoulders and back. This Kunming Tea Factory offering differs from the standard bearing 7581 formula in its lightness, cherry-vanilla, and Coke fizz. It’s taken all of eight years and four here in Los Angeles for it to take on a character befitting its name. I down to my last cake and will probably retire it by months (Jul ’19) end because restocking this is impossible and it’s turning out to be a hidden treasure.
