Tea: Psychopomp Cooked Puer Type: Shou Puer (熟普洱） Region: Lincang, Yunnan Harvest: April 2021 Press Date: July 2025 2025 Tasting Notes: Old Wood, Pine Sap, Chocolate, Malt, Mesquite Cooked Puer, or Shou Puer, is a huge staple in the tea world here in China and abroad, from Beijing to Guangzhou, from East to West, it is common to encounter this tea in teashops around the world. We have never carried a cooked puer before because the water here can get very deep. There are a lot of nuances in this dark tea that brews up blacker than coffee. However, it has been a tea on our list for ages, so we called in a favor from our Tea Master in Jiangsu, and brought a dozen potential samples to him to help us taste test and assess the best quality. Through the intensive tasting, we found which ones were worth our time, which ones were visually superior, which ones were blended poorly, which leaves were the most tender, and eventually, which one was the one we wanted to press. This tea was made back in 2021, and has been stored loose in Lincang, Yunnan until we pressed it. As a result, there is little to no ‘duiwei’ or pile fragrance, the more dank and musty or at worst fishy aromas one finds in fresh cooked puer. Instead, what you get in the warm gaiwan when you add the dry leaves is something still musky, but distinctly savory and slightly chocolatey. As soon as the leaves are brewed with hot water, they transform into their more full palate fragrances of old wood, pine sap, and petrichor. The fermentation on this tea is less heavy than others, but still deep enough to brew up black if pushed. We prefer this lighter fermentation as it leaves more fragrances in the cup. The tea is pleasantly thick in the mouth and oily on the tongue, providing a pleasant chaqi or tea energy when drunk in quick succession. The tea gets incredibly sweet as the session progresses, with notes of mesquite and pine wood. The art for this tea cake was done by the talented Anj of Gushu Studios. We recommend brewing this tea gongfu style in a gaiwan or Chinese teapot. We use 6 grams of tea in a 100ml brewing vessel with about 90 degree Celcius water, steeping 5 second for the first few infusions and adding 5 seconds after ever subsequent infusion. We have found this tea able to be re-infused up to a dozen times when brewing in this gongfu style.
