Tasting: 2020 “Tibetan Flame” Ripe Puerh Brick
“Tibetan Flame” is a sub brand of the famous Xiaguan Tea Factory. The factory is most famously known for their productions of Toucha shaped Puerh (bowl shaped or sometimes referred to as bird’s nest). The sub brand known as Tibetan Flame, produces Puerh meant to be sold to the Tibetan market and is used for making Tibetan Butter Tea. You can find a quick homemade recipe for butter tea in my blog.
This 250g brick comes well packaged in a tight wrapper and box for easy storage. The aroma of the brick is noticeable as soon as the brick is slipped out of it’s box. It’s got a little bit of green still present on the leaf when you look up close and still has presence of both golden downy and a little silver downy as well. It is quite a tightly pressed brick so breaking a piece off took a little extra time and care.
The dry aroma in the warmed gaiwan is rich with a sweet brown sugar and malt aroma with a smokey presence of tobacco. Very warming and comforting on a cold days, or sitting close the the AC as the temperature her starts to heat up. The wet aroma is earthy with damp soil notes, malt, cocoa powder and a mellow but not overpowering smoke aroma, maybe even closer to a camphor smell. It also has some nice fruity notes of cooked berries, and sweet purple grape.
The first infusion comes with a thick and heavy malt, astringent, mineral rich soil, aged parchment and raisins. It also showed a very woody earthy side of cedar and notable camphor flavor. This woody side of the tea became the prominent profile on the second infusion with strong and filling notes of cedar wood, camphor, while the notes of mineral and raisin seemed to disappear. The malty flavor remained but the astringency faded.
By the 3rd and four runs the tea was all powerhouse of wood and camphor with an aroma similar to a lumber yard. Fresh cut woods of all types filling the air with a clean and comforting scent. The thick remained think and robust. A perfect sessions for a cold winter day, a weekend evening at the cottage or to compliment a juicy protein and potato filled meal. Actually reminded me a lot of Yunnan Sourcing 2020 “Cozy” cake.
This brick is a great example of how a good, flavorful tea doesn’t have to be expensive. $15 Canadian for a 250g brick that left me wanting a couple more to store for the future.
