As I mentioned before, it's fresh sheng pu erh which is packed into a fragrant bamboo stalk that grows along the Yunnan Chinese border with Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Burma) by the Dai minority people who live in the area. After packing into the green fresh bamboo stalks, it is slowly roasted over a fire to dry the bamboo (and tea) out, and in the process imparts the bamboo fragrance into the tea. While originally green, the tea (seeing that it's been aging since 2003) continues to oxidize and changes to a darker brown color which also changes the taste (from more vegetal/potentially astringent to a smoother, earthier taste).
We have the video on the camcorder (unfortunately not on my camera), but mom had a fun time splitting open the bamboo stalk to access the tea
Pu erh is compressed tightly into the bamboo and aged inside - pretty cool! At this point, the dry leaves are not very fragrant
But after we infused the leaves, the bamboo fragrance really came through.
My thoughts? The taste was distinctly pu-erh ... really familiar and yet at the same time totally different than what I expected. In the past when I've had aged pu-erh it's been really dark, earthy, mossy, peaty, and "damp" tasting. The smell is that way too. But this bamboo fragrance pu erh is really unique - the fragrance is obviously bamboo but it's the taste that was surprising. Rather than the earthy pu-erh people are familiar with, this one is much more "crisp" and "clean" tasting (if that makes sense). It still has a TINY bit of astringency to give it the tiniest bite on the tongue, but that could also just be the distinct side-of-the-tongue (to use Bryan's description) feeling and "dry" aftertaste that is distinctly pu-erh. And like all good pu erhs, it lasted through many, many infusions - I stopped counting after about 10 brews in the gaiwan.
I love the fun of breaking off a little chunk of compressed pu erhs - be it from a bamboo stalk, or from inside of a pomello, or simply from a pu erh brick or cake - and, like oolong, I love how the taste changes with time. I want to explore some more pu erhs in the future. For now I've also started to really learn to taste the 2010 Spring Alishan and each time I brew it, I understand more and more what tea merchants say when describing "high mountain floral" taste in the leaves. Yum!
Sipping this unique tea, chatting, and enjoying some Castella cakes from Japan ... 'twas a fun evening.
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