Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
f you’re new to pu-erh, this is a great introductory tea. If you’re not new, you’ll still enjoy its vanilla chocolate goodness. This is slightly earthy and woody, as you might expect from an aged tea. The taste is smooth, rich (there’s mini chocolate chips in this afterall) with a lingering sweetness. Go ahead and try this hot with milk or even as an iced latte.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As I’ve said on several occasions, I’m usually hesitant when it comes to sampling pu-erh. I actually have enjoyed most of the pu-erh that I’ve tasted over the years but if I had to choose between pu-erh and most other tea types, I’d probably go with something else. I’m not a big fan of the earthiness that seems to go along with most pu-erh and especially with shou pu-erh. And as the name of the tea indicates, shou pu-erh is the base tea used for this Choco Shou Pu-erh Tea from Camellia Sinensis which is the last of the four teas that I’m sampling from this month’s Amoda Box.
And while I don’t usually like that earthy flavor of pu-erh, it works with this particular blend. The earthiness actually enhances the flavor of the chocolate and gives it a deeper, richer flavor. So while I may not be all excited about a shou pu-erh, I do get excited about a tea that complements the flavor of chocolate.
Yay chocolate!
So, yes, this is earthy. But not so much that it knocks me upside the head with a flavor that makes me think that I steeped soil instead of tea. This tastes much better than I would assume the steeped soil would taste – I’m going to go with that assumption because I’m not going to steep soil and drink it. Just not gonna do it.
The chocolate flavor here tastes dark and decadent, like an expensive chocolate bar that says 70% cacao on it. If you prefer your expensive chocolate bar to say “milk chocolate” on it, add a splash of milk to make a latte because this tea tastes amazing as a latte!
To steep: I used my Kati Tumbler rather than my gaiwan to steep this tea because of the little chocolate chips in the blend. I felt like the Kati was the better way to go. I did rinse the tea for 15 seconds before infusing though – you’ll want to do this with any shou to help wash away some of those stronger earthy notes. After the rinse, I infused the first cup for 2 1/2 minutes in 190°F. I added 30 seconds onto each subsequent infusion.
I resteeped twice – creating three very flavorful cups of tea – with the first two much more chocolate-y than the third. The third was still quite nice, just not as much chocolate flavor.
So smooth! No bitterness (not even from the chocolate!) and no astringency. Just a deep, mellow, luxuriously chocolate flavor that I would happily drink on a regular basis. As I said before: the chocolate flavor lasts through a couple of steeps – I got two very chocolate-y steeps out of the tea before the chocolate notes began to wane.
This tea gets a thumbs up from me. Quite good!
Vanilla Mint Chai from Rishi Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Rishi Tea
Tea Description:
Creamy, rich textured and inviting, this pu-erh based chai is unlike any other. Its delicate balance of silky and luscious vanilla bean, bright and soothing peppermint and sweet cinnamon transform this chai into something magical.
Tasting Notes: Decadent vanilla bean and sweet Saigon Cinnamon complement smooth, rich Pu-erh tea
Ingredients: Organic and Fair Trade Certified™ pu-erh tea, organic peppermint, organic cinnamon, organic vanilla bean, organic licorice root.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have never had Rishi teas (at least not that I could remember) before nor have I had a lot of Pu-erh. So when I saw this the other day while I was online, I thought I’d give it a whirl.
Steeped this one up per the instructions on the box. 2 tbsp with 1 cup of boiling water on my stove top. Brought the mixture to a boil and then added a cup of almond milk and brought the mixture up to a simmer. Once I was at that point I removed the pot from the heat and let the tea do its thing and steeped for 3 minutes. After I steeped it for 3 minutes, I added some honey to my mug and strained the tea into the mug. Seems like a lot of steps for a simple cup of tea but this is anything but a simple cup of tea.
This chai mixture has pu-erh instead of black tea or green. I can’t say I’ve ever had a pu-erh chai blend before. I am a newbie when it comes to pu-erh so please bare with me.
First sip and I was immediately greeted with this beautiful blend of earth tones and sweet cinnamon spices. Sweet and savory at the same time. The vanilla just added to the sweetness/creaminess factor and the almond milk brought out more of the earthiness and gave the tea a well rounded balance. The mint gave the tea a refreshing after taste. It was very light and faint. I could barely pick it up.
I think I finished the cup in about 2 minutes flat. I really enjoyed this. My first voyage into pu-erh chai was a success. I think I may have to check out some pu-erh blends now.
2011 Mahei Sheng Ancient Tree Pu-erh from Wymm Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Wymm Tea
Tea Description:
This is a sheng pu-erh that brews bright yellow liquor with a delicate taste and silky texture. The tea is full-bodied with minimal astringency, and brings back a prolonged honey-like aftertaste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This 2011 Mahei Sheng Ancient Tree Pu-erh from Wymm Tea is quite a wonderful tea! It has a really lovely honey note to it that I don’t usually expect when I drink pu-erh. It’s not often that the first thing I really notice about a pu-erh is the strong honey tones!
This has a light vegetal flavor that is – to me – reminiscent of a buttery green tea. I get a slight creaminess from this cup: a light, buttery vegetative note. It is wonderfully smooth with no astringency and no bitterness. It’s mellow yet flavorful and really quite pleasant to sip.
My second infusion was a little less smooth than the first and I’m picking up on some citrus notes as well as a hint of astringency toward the tail. The creaminess of the first cup has waned and while I’m finding this tea to be different than the last cup, it’s still quite lovely!
The vegetal notes are a little more defined now and I’m not sure if that’s because the creaminess has waned or if it’s because these notes are emerging. They are lightly herbaceous.
My favorite thing about this cup is the aforementioned citrus notes and the honey notes – I like the way these two profiles taste together. There is a nice balance to the flavors of this tea and this is something that remains consistent through it’s many infusions.
Later infusions maintained their honey-like tones. As I continued with the infusions, I noticed that the vegetal notes that I noticed especially in the second infusion began to transcend into a fruit-like note, reminiscent of melon. Some floral notes began to emerge.
What I didn’t get – throughout those many infusions, I lost count after about six! – was a briny or fishy flavor. I didn’t taste a strong, earthy quality that I normally associate with a pu-erh. If you’re someone who tends to shy away from pu-erh because you don’t care for those strong flavors, you really should try this one! This is a really lovely pu-erh and a very interesting tea – one that’s well worth trying!
Organic Pu-er Tuocha from Tao of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Tao of Tea
Tea Description:
Made from the large leaf ‘Da Ye’ tea plant varietal, better known as Camellia Sinensis ‘Assamica’. The Tuocha refers to a family of bowl shaped teas, commonly available as Green tea Tuocha, Black tea Tuocha and Puer Tuocha. Made at one of the few organic tea gardens in Yunnan, this tea is popular among strong, dark tea drinkers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! This Organic Pu-er Tuocha from Tao of Tea is seriously awesome. It isn’t often that I’ll say that about a pu-er! Oh, I may enjoy a pu-er, but I don’t often say the word “awesome” when describing a pu-er. But this … this is AWESOME.
And I think I know why. This tea was actually made from an Assamica plant! That is to say, it’s made with the same plant that makes an Assam tea, but the tea is grown and processed in Yunnan. And the result is something that I could happily curl up to any day.
My first cup is oh-so-smooth. It tastes a lot like a black tea only smoother. I’m not getting the same astringency that I’d get from a black tea. But I get that delicious undertone of molasses-y caramel and even a malty note. It’s sweet. And my first cup disappeared before I could finish coming up with words to describe what I was tasting.
The second cup was darker in color and deeper in flavor than the first, and the first word that came to mind as I took my first sip of that cup was “robust.” Another word that I don’t often use to describe a pu-er! Smooth, yes, I use that word often to describe a pu-er, and this tea is definitely smooth. Mellow, yes, another frequently used word to describe pu-er, and yes, this tea is mellow. But it’s also robust! It has a flavor that reminds me SO much of a black tea that I find myself questioning it! So sweet, notes of fruit and flower, notes of molasses, hints of leather and a lovely note of malt.
I’m on to my third infusion now and it’s even darker than the second. This is the first cup where I’m noticing a slight “earthy” mushroom note and the first cup where it actually tastes more like pu-er than black tea. But even so, I’m getting a lot of those black tea flavors too, the malty notes are still there and there’s a really pleasant sweetness to this. I love the way the aforementioned fruity notes mingle with the leathery notes and the notes of mushroom. It’s a deep, complex cup that’s really very enjoyable.
My fourth cup is very much like my third, only deeper in flavor. This is very much what I think I would expect if I were to mix a cup of Assam black tea and a cup of pu-er together. It’s not nearly as earthy as I’d experience with a pu-er, there are some earthy notes but it’s more like a mushroom flavor with notes of leather. It isn’t fishy or briny. There’s very little astringency to it and it’s not bitter. It’s just really smooth and pleasant. Notes of plum mingling with molasses, malt, and mushroom. It’s very different, quite unlike any pu-er I’ve experienced until now.
I’d recommend this pu-er to any tea lover – even those that don’t usually like pu-er because this is so similar to black tea, especially in the earliest infusions, that it eases you into the earthiness of pu-erh slowly. And even when it does start to become earthy, it’s not overwhelmingly so.
This is one of the best pu-er I’ve tried, ever.
Honeysuckle Pu-erh Tea from The Persimmon Tree
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
The Honeysuckle pu-erh tea delivers a deep red infusion with a sweet woodsy, floral aroma. The finished brew is mild and earthy, with a lingering hint of honeysuckle. This honeysuckle tea can be steeped multiple times in a sitting without becoming bitter. This particular pu-erh is cooked and has been aged for about 4-6 years.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first opened the tin of this Honeysuckle Pu-erh Tea from The Persimmon Tree, I got worried. The earthy aroma was STRONG and this is the kind of earthy that I find very unappealing when it comes to pu-erh tea. But, I tried to keep an open mind. So I brewed the tea.
To brew it, I grabbed my gaiwan. I measured a bamboo scoop of tea into the bowl of the gaiwan and heated the kettle to 190°F. I poured just enough of the hot water to cover the leaves and I let that steep for 15 seconds and then poured off the liquid and discarded it. (The rinse!) Then I filled the gaiwan with water and let it steep for 30 seconds. Usually, I let my first infusion steep for 45 seconds, but the tea had gotten really dark by 30 seconds, so I decided to stop at 30 seconds. I strained the tea into a teacup.
The fragrance of the brewed tea is softer than the dry leaf. It still has some of that unpleasant earthiness to it. I’m not getting a “sweet woodsy, floral aroma” as the description above suggests. I’m getting a damp wood and earth aroma. So, the worry that I felt before when I first opened the tin, it was returning.
But I took a sip and hoped for the best.
And fortunately, this tastes far less earthy than it smells. I’m getting those sweet, woodsy elements and hints of flower that I’m missing in the brewed aroma in the flavor. It’s a mellow tasting pu-erh with notes of earth but not overwhelmingly so. Mostly what I taste is a nice, sweet caramel-y undertone with a top note of flower. I don’t know if it’s honeysuckle that I taste during the sip, but I do taste a distinct floral note. And the aftertaste, yes, I do taste the honeysuckle there.
The aftertaste is my favorite part of this tea because I am really enjoying that lingering flavor of honeysuckle. It’s sweet, floral and really quite pleasant.
I only steeped my second infusion for 30 seconds as well, because it had already become even darker than the first cup was at 30 seconds. This is a tea that I recommend keeping an eye on while it’s brewing!
This infusion was deeper in flavor. The earthy qualities were a little stronger but not so strong that I found it off-putting. In this cup, I noted flavors of leather, mushroom and raw cacao. I still got that honeysuckle note in the aftertaste. I’m tasting a little less of a caramel-y taste and a little more of a molasses flavor, instead. Very deep flavor, very mellow and pleasant to sip.
Later infusions got deeper in flavor until they weren’t. When I started to realize that the flavors were becoming lighter, I stopped steeping. I lost count after six, but if I had to guess, I’d say I got nine infusions out of one measurement of leaves.
So this tea started out questionably with a rather unpleasant dry leaf aroma and even a slightly uncertain brewed tea scent, but the flavor is quite enjoyable. I’m happy that there wasn’t a briny, fishy or overpowering earthy flavor to this pu-erh. Nice.