“An Afternoon Of Meetings Calls for Pu-erh” Forest Song/Global Tea Hut

An afternoon of meetings calls for a sweet, ripe pu’erh, or at least, that’s how I feel about it.

I grabbed this tea for the first time, and it delivered. I got something rich. Something heavy. Something that could help me beat up the opposition.

This isn’t a fishy or old-tasting or spicy pu’erh. It’s a beautiful older woman. It’s basically a bunch of flowers, wisened with age, kind of tough. Like Olenna Tyrell.

This tea is called “forest song” because — as I discovered on Global Tea Hut’s blog — trees respond to sound. It turns out that plants grow best when they’re exposed to the same sort of pitches as birdsong. Birds are the sign of a healthy forest. So when trees hear those pitches, they grow better.

As nature gets trashed by global warming, deforestation, extinction, etc, the songs of the forest are going to change. And tea production is going to change.

That’s right, guys: our planet’s tea is at risk.

Call Captain Planet.

We’ve gotta fix this.


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Leaf Type:  Pu-erh

Where to Buy:  Global Tea Hut

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Mao Feng from Global Tea Hut. . . . .

My holidays started early with the surprise receipt of  Global Tea Hut’s Magazine and tea tin subscription from Taiwan.

I’m the type of person to read the manual first before trying something new, and was a little worried that this 80 page magazine would require me to brush up on my rusty Mandarin, but there were no parts lost in translation! It was both poetic and relatable, mixing Chinese tea history and culture as well as modern processing techniques used for the very Mao Feng Tea I was about to taste.

This months sample of bright colored organic buds and leaves from China’s Yellow mountain brewed into a clear liquor. After brewing there is an aroma of browned butter and a remarkable hint of sweetness – the lingering scent on a lovers sweater.

The sipping flavor was muted, but the long-lasting, sweet aftertaste was wholly unexpected! This is perhaps the purest tea I’ve ever consumed.

Reading the magazine along with my multiple resteeps, I felt a very meditative connection to this experience. There was even an invitation to contemplate the Personality (qi) of the tea. The care that went into its preparation and the lingering feeling of comfort I felt drinking it, led me to think of this Mao Feng as the embodiment of love. A very special surprise indeed!

When you subscribe, they offer to send a free gift to anyone.  This company has won itself a great deal of my appreciation. I’d highly recommend their subscription for anyone who wants to learn more about teas, or who enjoys non-flavored leaves. Recently they’ve also started an App to connect Tea enthusiasts from around the world.

The tea by itself is a treat, but there is something even more beautiful in making a connection to the growers. It’s exciting and grounding at the same time. Is this Zen?


Here’s the scoop!

Loose Leaf:   Green

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Beneath the Pines from Global Tea Hut. . . . .

I had a little bit of trouble getting to this tea. I had to use a combination of my foot and a can opener to wrench the tin open.

Packaging difficulties aside, this tea tastes a bit like what I imagine seafood tastes like. (No, I’ve never had seafood. Of any sort.) This is a flavor profile that doesn’t usually pop up in black teas.

In part, the taste probably differs from a straight black because the tea has been fermented. Fermentation is how a “black” tea becomes a “pu’erh” tea.

To make it more confusing, people in Asia think of our “black” tea as “red.” And they call pu-erh “black.” If that hurts your spirit, feel free to forget I said anything. If that intrigues you, you can read a lot more about this tea and its processing technique here.

Though this tea wasn’t my favorite, I figured you’d get a kick out of my experience of opening it. Plus, the combinations of tea & fermentation types can turn into a wide bounty of flavor options! Who knew? This tea or one like it might be for you!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Puerh
Where to Buy:  Global Tea Hut
Description

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Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

“Calm Fragrance” November 2016 Mi Xiang Oolong from Global Tea Hut. . . .

Every tea I drink is an experience but when I drink a tea from The Global Tea Hut it’s more like a meditation. “Calm Fragrance” November 2016 Mi Xiang Oolong from Global Tea Hut is the tea I am writing about at the moment.

“Calm Fragrance” November 2016 Mi Xiang Oolong from Global Tea Hut was part of the November 2016 Issue and Package. This oolong is a gently roasted oolong that – indeed – does have a calm fragrance. This oolong hails from the Mingjian, Taiwan area and is a 2016 Mi Xiang Oolong. Elevation-wise we are talking roughly 500 Meters!

Once the leaves unfurls in the strainer I was shocked at how BIG the leaves actually were. This just proves how tightly rolled the leaves were to begin with! I know it would be even more stunning to see if infused and unfurled Gongfu Style. Next time I will surely try it that way!

The color of the post-infused tea liquor was a lightly-tanned brown. The natural flavor is absolutely delicious! This will certainly be going on a future Top Ten List of mine!

The flavor on the tongue is of medium strength but there are equal parts woodsy and sweet happening. I can’t decide which part of the sip I enjoy more!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Oolong Tea
Where to Buy:  Global Tea Hut
Description

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Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Tea Surprises From Global Tea Hut

Here at Sororitea Sisters we review a LOT of tea and tea related products…and I mean A LOT…we have over 5,200 reviews so far and we are NOT slowing down any time soon. So much so that we average 4 posts each and everyday for the last several months now.

So needless to say when we receive something unique to review we like to make a BIG deal about it! When a company sends a little extra something with the order we purchased and/or receive – we get really excited, too! It literally can be ANYTHING…an additional free sample, a hand written note, a beautiful scenic photo/postcard of the tea fields or gardens…you name it!

Over the past couple of months we have seen some really wonderful items come our way from The Global Tea Hut. I wanted to share with you one of the many SURPRISES from them that we saw come down the pike.

Of course – when you see one of the Global Tea Hut packages in the mail you often get at least 1 tea along with a gorgeously printed issue of their tea magazine! The quality of their magazine really is TOP NOTCH! The full color printing is amazing, the photography is outstanding, the articles and information cannot be matched!

But recently I was blown away by another item I found in one of their mailings. It was a tin that was labeled BONUS. After much research I’ve come to an educated guess that it was their Daughter of the Forest 2016 Dian Hong Red Tea that was featured with the July 2016 installment.

The majority of the leaves are medium and longer in length, winding fairly tight, and tri-colored for the most part. There are a few leaves that were not tightly quasi-twisted but a more loose and flowing leaf even tho it was still dried to perfection.

The aroma of the tea leaves was lovely…airy, crisp, a bit malty, and gave off a subtle sweet wood aroma. Once infused the malt came to fill the air a little more. There were fruity notes and cocoa-like sniffs that came into play, too!

The liquor left in the cup post-infusion was dark brown with a bit of cloudy texture to it. The flavor was rich, malty, fruity, sweet, and even a little savory in a way. The end sip and the 2nd infusion I could pick up the woodsy notes more.

This BONUS Tea – what I concluded could very well be Global Tea Hut’s Daughter of the Forest 2016 Dian Hong Red Tea from their July 2016 installment was a pure delight! It was a tea that really stood out to me…a diamond in the rough so to speak.

It’s tea surprises like these that keep me on my toes and have me wondering what’s next in the wonderful world of tea!


Here’s the scoop!

Where to Buy:  Global Tea Hut
Description

Global Tea Hut is a full-color magazine, featuring in-depth articles on tea wisdom, tea science, tea processing, tea brewing, tea history and Cha Dao. It’s produced entirely by volunteers. It’s completely free from advertisers and endorsements. And it’s filled with a love for Tea that far surpasses what you’ll see in any other magazine!

Each and every month includes visits to tea and teaware producers, articles and tea info translated from Chinese, spiritual articles on Cha Dao and coverage of topics rarely touched in the West. Plus, it has full-color photography of tea farms, rare teas, tea ceremonies, handmade teaware and more. As membership increases, we plan to travel more, covering tea stories in Korea, Japan, China as well as Taiwan.

Every issue contains a “Teawayfarer” section, introducing a Global Tea Hut member to the rest of the community, center news, upcoming events and other ways to connect.

We want to share all of this with the world, so all our past issues are available for free on this site!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!