I received a free single 7g mini puerh cake of 2018 Smoove Cocoa
with my Black Friday order. Smoove
Cocoa is a shu puerh that is pressed into a coin for convenient
consumption. I really like this idea for
people who are new to puerh and may be intimidated by the larger cake sizes and
the often messy removal of pressed leaves from a 200g or larger size bing. This makes more sense for a tea that is ready
to consume now, like shu puerh, instead of sheng which may require aging. You have to pay a tinny premium on price for
this convenience though. These miniscost $0.16/g for a stack of seven 7g minis vs 200g bing at $0.13/g.
Even at least 20 years ago they were pressing puerh into
smaller sizes for convenience. Dehong Tea Factory was famous for producing puerh iron pressed into 10g coins rapped in bamboo leaf and other
more unconventional shapes - they have been doing it for a long time now. ( I wonder how long it will take Paul to press a melon?) In the mid-2000s I was gifted a few bamboo leaf wrapped
section of these coins from the 90s/ early 2000s from Dehong Tea Factory, and
it’s tasty enough, for sure. I still have a bunch. The very
tight compression is quite deliberate as well resulting in a slow unraveling of
flavours and preserving the high notes in the leaves. They would typically do this for shu
puerh. This is just a re-imagining of
this same concept in a flapjack or mini tong format.
The dry leaf smells more faint wet pile than cocoa but I can
still imagine it. It has an easy feel to
it- smooth almost grainy sweet taste before turning to a very mild cocoa and
wheat taste. Almost a raisin/ currents
initial taste more than cocoa. Mild cognac
taste. Slight tight mouthfeel with
moderate cooling. Slight throat dry
pulling astringent sensation which I’m never a big fan of. Overnight infusion gives off some nice wood
taste and almost berry suggestions.
Interesting that this tea named Smoove Cocoa is neither
obviously chocolate tasting nor is it overly smooth for a shu puerh. It seems that many white2tea ripe puerh have
names that precondition the drinker to find a certain tastes in them but that
this naming convention is not used for white2tea’s raw productions. Is it a certain flavor that they want to
curate?
On the plus, this shu has no wet pile taste thoughout and
feels nice and clean in the body. There
is most definitely better and cheaper shu puerh out there, but maybe none this
convenient in minis form. I think it’s
not fair that my last shu session was the famous 2017 Yunnan Sourcing Rooster King which was a significantly better shu . I look forward to sampling other white2tea
shu puerh in the future to see how their ripe quality is overall. On the whole there is probably better shu out
there for this price, I think.
On this early cold winter morning I enjoy its warming energy just the same and appreciate the complimentary gesture. Thanks for keepin' my morning Smmmoooove...
Peace
You might want to change "Coco" to "Cocoa" to avoid possible confusion.
ReplyDeleteAs for preconditioning - I think that happens both with names, descriptions and with reviews. All prior information is a form of preconditioning, to varying extents.
I think the naming of Smoove Cocoa is partly marketing (I have not bought this tea, but it required me to engage my rational senses fully so as not to be tempted: while you can reasonably expect chocolate notes in some black tea, I know not to expect it in shou) and partly a genuine attempt to make shou tea that has at least some element of a smooth, soothing cup of hot cocoa.
I think marketing is commercially very important for shou because 1) it can give a "premium" feel to what is not usually expensive tea, hence justify a higher price tag and 2) shou, to my mind, does not have as much variety in flavour when compared with all the other classifications of tea. Marketing provides a way to differentiate things that in the end taste pretty similar (relatively).
Jot,
ReplyDeleteIf my readers had a nickel for every spelling error... they'd be rich! Hahaha
Thanks for pointing that out, I think I got them all.
You have some really good points about both marketing and preconditioning.
I had mentioned in a comment recently on anther tea blog about the benefits of being the first to review and the effect that has.
Your points about the effect of marketing on shu puerh is right on.
Thanks
Peace