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15 Years Aged Golden Melon Ripe Pu-erh Tea Tuo | Yunnan Sourcing Tea Shop

15 Years Aged Golden Melon Ripe Pu-erh Tea Tuo

by Jiu Wan Tea Factory
$6.50 - $183.00
$6.50
$6.50 - $183.00
$6.50

This tea was pressed 15 years ago (in 2005) by a small Menghai tea factory.  These are 25 gram Golden Melon tuo cha (金瓜沱) made from a blend of Gong Ting, Te Ji, Grade 1 and 3 ripened tea leaves.  They were stored in Kunming for 12 years in relatively dry conditions.

The dryish aging conditions have preserved the character of this tea, while allowing it to mellow and gain complexity.  The tea is sweet, creamy and very thick and expansive in the mouth.  It's a very active and textured ripe tea that has all attributes a good aged ripe pu-erh should have.

Each melon is roughly 22 grams, and can give you 3 to 5 good sessions. Please Note: 22 grams is the average size of each tuo. Some tuo may vary +/- 5 grams. 

Each Melon is individually wrapped in off-white gold-flecked paper.

Brewing Tips!

This tea it requires careful preparation.   When breaking apart be careful not to break into dust, as too much broken leaf will result in a muddy texture.  This can be tricky as it's very tightly compressed.  If possible break a chunk off, instead of scraping off.

We recommend using about 4-6 grams per 100ml brewing device and 95-100C water.  Keep the steeps short.  Short 10 second wash, then 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, and so on.   This tea is easy to overbrew, particularly in the beginning.  

Enjoy!

We have two offers going for this tea!  See below:

Spend $80 or more and get 3 Tuos of 15 Years Aged Golden Melon Ripe Pu-erh Tea Tuo FREE! Click on link for code and details!

Buy 1 Basket of 2001 Basket Aged Ripe Pu-erh Tea from Yi Wu and get 5 tuos of 15 Years Aged Golden Melon Ripe Pu-erh Tea Tuo FREE! Click here for code and details!

Overall rating: 4.5471697 / 5 from 106 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

This 15-year-aged Golden Melon Ripe Pu-erh Tea Tuo is dense and challenging to break apart without producing dust. Customers appreciate its rich, earthy, and long-lasting taste, as well as its great mouth-feel and pleasant aftertaste. However, opinions on its bitterness and aroma vary, with some finding it mellow and others overpowering or fishy.

Summary topics

  • Tuo Density: 7%
  • Taste Quality: 34%
  • Bitterness Level: 7%
  • Mouth-feel: 10%
  • Aroma Quality: 4%

Review topics: ["size","taste","feel","order","quality","value","shipping","tea","price","packaging","aroma","tuo","bitterness","chocolate","texture","notes","smell","energy","aftertaste","brew","liquor","puerh","steeps","compression","experience","pu-erh","piece","coffee","pu erh","profile"].

Review highlights

  • "I get no bitterness which I prefer, just a nice earthy flavor (no IPAs for me either :-) )." — LARRY H.
  • "It has a rich earthy taste and a robust feeling." — Darbie K.
  • "Great taste, very nice feeling for raining day brewing" — Nguyen K.

Reviews

Excellent

"The delivery was fast, and the quality of the tea is excellent! Thank you as well for always including a small gift — it has become the most intriguing part for me. I always look forward to discovering which tea you chose to include."

— Yuliya I. (5/5)

Really really love this Pu-erh tea.

"Really really love this Pu-erh tea. I have brewed it only Grandpa style in a Stanley Flask. Works perfectly and last almost 3 days. Very tasty and satisfying Pu-erh. Smooth with a great finish. I will be buying more and it will be a staple in my collections. I think the review by Tealend says it all."

— John M. (5/5)

Good if you don't mess up

"First session, I pulverized my Tuo too much while breaking a piece off. You really should follow the advice to break a piece off and leaving it whole. What I did my second session was then to rinse it and while it soaked hot water, I carefully worked it with a puerh needle to loosen it a bit. Then I steeped 15 seconds first time. Difference between first time and second time was giant. First time it was muddy, earthy, bitter, not enjoyable at all. Second time - creamy, pleasing, just a tad of bitterness to round it off. I love it as a learning experience and now, also as a very calming, comforting shou in the evening. If you're new like I am, do yourself a favor and do it the wrong and the right way, to really experience the difference. It makes other dos and don'ts in the tea world more relatable as well."

— domanz (4/5)

Too big

"This is delicious! It’s too big and too compressed to break apart I wish it came smaller. Complex, thick, vibrant and definitely taste the age."

— Don (3/5)

Good tea

"Surprisingly low infusion time needed compared to other pu'ers. Also it does not last for many infusions."

— Simona (3/5)

Tea

"Very unique tea"

— nicholas d. (3/5)

Great value

"Tried breaking off and brewing gongfu style and it was okay. Where this tea really shines for me is grandpa style. I threw 3/4 of one in a 48oz thermos with boiling water and just kept drinking it until I felt the flavor wasn't great which took about 3 days after refilling the thermos like 2-3 times each day. Not a whole lot of nuance to this one but very reasonable price for a dark thick brew reminiscent of coffee with almost no bitterness, astringency, or wet pile taste."

— Taelend (5/5)

Taste is nice, but it

"Taste is nice, but it was quite difficult to separate leaves"

— Vjacheslav M. (4/5)

Brew it heavy

"Be careful with your tea knife. This is Iron Cake dense. I use half a tuo in a 140ml gaiwan for a session. Makes a nice, thick tea. The flavor is not especially long lasting and it's not the most complex. But it is very pleasant and viscous, thick, comforting, just the right bitterness reminiscent of coffee."

— namespyne (5/5)

Tight tight tight!

"I am convinced this tea was pressed under a 100 ton hydraulic press or under the CCP’s T-59 spaceship tank , as i find no other way the tea could have gotten as hard as the metal plate i bent while trying to open up the tea tou by smashing it ( in a bag ) for about on average 20 times across the 3 i got . Anyhow after i got it into 5-3 gram pieces and a mix of loose leafs and powder that i sieved so that only larger leaf pieces remained , i brewed it in a 110 ml gaiwan ,with about 6. 5 eyeballed grams , 100C water ,briefly washing twice for about 7 secs ( as long as it takes me to pour the water , mix it a bit with the gaiwan lid and pour the water off ) , then steeping for 15,30,45,50,60,60… and so on seconds . The first steep is very dark, slightly bitter and overall what you’d expect out of a cheap good pu erh , but as you move onto the later steeps it starts getting sweeter and you start picking up other flavors that i do not have enough tea experience to describe accurately but might be a age-y taste . Overall worth it if you’re getting it for free as part of a BOGO deal , but if you want to buy yourself a good ripe pu erh go look at YS brand certified organic pu erh’s , as they do not take as much force to break apart , as they are not pressed by a T59 tank . Thanks for reading this XD"

— Godo (5/5)

Q&A

Is this still 12 years aged or 14 years aged since its 2019 now but kept in Kunming for 12 years?
14 years old and 14 years in Kunming.
12 years or 14 years right now?
Produced in 2005. I'm not going to change the product title with each year. ;-)
Can you disclose which tea factory produced this?
Jiu Wan Tea Factory.
Can this be steeped in a large tea pot or is it meant for gaiwan? I'm new to pu-erh.
It's 25 grams... I'd recommend breaking it in half for a large pot, or into a quarter or third for a gaiwan.
I've found this particular tea very effective for some mild health issues I have, whereas other Pu-erh teas I've tried did not have the same effect. I was curious if there are other teas by this same tea factory I can purchase?
We don't offer other teas from this tea factory. I have to imagine the benefits you are getting has to do with it being dry stored aged ripe pu-erh. Maybe try some samples of some other aged ripe pu-erhs and see if they also are beneficial?
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