Ripe Pu-erh

This aged Ripe Pu-erh tea cake delivers a profound and grounding experience. Expect a smooth, thick body with deep notes of damp earth and ancient wood. Its mellow character and rich aroma offer a tru. It leans earthy, woody and mellow.

Water around 95–100 °C (203–212 °F). In a mug, steep 3–5 min. For gongfu, use 5–7 g per 100 ml, 10–20 s steeps (10–20+ rounds). You'll get to see how the flavor changes across multiple rounds. Rinse the leaves once with boiling water before your first real steep. It cleans off storage dust and gets the flavor going.

Grown in Yunnan, China. This batch is from the 2009 harvest.

Starts at $7.50 from Yunnan Sourcing, or about $0.15/g. A 25g package gets you around 4 gongfu sessions at ~6 g each, which works out to about $0.90 per session. Compare dark prices across vendors on Teadar.