KUURA 2025 ‘Snake Oil’ Raw Pu’er Tea

Softer says: Calling this immediately as Softer’s Pick of 2025. We got into raw pu’ers by tasting them as strong and as bitter as they come. 

Big bold raws have a huge range of body, texture, intensity, and flavour that makes brewing them up an extremely dynamic and rewarding experience. Subtlety is nice too - but if that’s what you're after you better dial back your leaf content here and keep those infusions fast. (Or check out some of KUURA’s equally lovely and more restrained raw pu’ers - happy to point you to some!) 

If you want to know how deep the bitter-young-raw rabbit hole goes, please join us in brewing up a strong one of Snake Oil. 

See also: 2020 Dissolver, 2023 Unison, 2023 Exotic Other

KUURA’S NOTES:

For lovers of bold, powerful, and unrepentant raw puerh teas, ‘Snake Oil’ is viscous and vicious.

This raw puerh is comprised of a blend of high-end, old-tree tea material from some incredible pockets of forest across Menghai. We designed ‘Snake Oil’ with a focus on multidimensional, rich bitterness and an uncompromisingly thick body. When brewed, this tea releases a punchy, sugary-sweet fragrance that’s followed by a potent dose of mouth-coating bitterness and astringency.

Successive infusions will release a long-lasting impression of sweetness (回甘 huígān) in the mouth that builds in intensity and longevity with each re-steep. Tread carefully as this is not a raw that’ll play nicely if you’re prone to tapping out of a brewing session early, and there's absolutely no mercy if you drink this on an empty stomach. 

'Snake Oil’ is the tea to reach for when you need high octane fuel and a volume knob that goes to 11. Get a lot of stuff done or get nothing done at all, it’s all a part of the plan. You’ve been warned, there’s no anti-venom.

Grab a cake and get a taste of your own medicine.

Wrapper artwork by ERODUCTIONS.
Pictures by Pingle Pictures.

2025 tea material produced in Yunnan, China.

200g per compressed cake, with 5 cakes per traditionally wrapped bamboo tong. 25g samples are broken from the cakes and sealed into bags.