Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Della Terra
Tea Description:
Pu-erh is a type of tea that has been fermented after the black tea leaves are dried and rolled, giving it a very unique, sweet and woodsy taste. Our Mother of Pearl Pu-erh is blended with strawberry and mango flavoring and pieces, along with rose hips and faux pearl pieces. The flavor you will have in your cup after brewing is a perfectly fruity and sweet tea with a slight smoky undertone.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mother of Pearl from Della Terra Teas is lovely yet intense. I love this tea. Purists may cringe but this is a wonderful puerh blend!
Now I truly do love a good puerh so I am not one that needs a blend or starter puerh to get through the cup but this tea here, I feel will appeal to just about anyone for various reasons. For beginners it is a great way to get introduced to puerh. For your kids, if you want them to have the health benefits of puerh but know they won’t go for a pure puerh, this has all the fruity goodness and sweet vanilla notes they will love. For the purists, okay maybe you won’t enjoy this as much as I do, but trust me, the base is lovely even if not from an aged cake that has been stored correctly for the last 10 years. Hey even purists need a little sinful delight now and then!
To make the purists cringe even a little more, if you add just a touch of rock sugar, the flavors in this tea really pop, not that they need the boost, they are so excellent on their own.
I had eaten some mexican food earlier today and it was sitting heavily on my tummy. I was getting to that food coma stage and knew I was about to drift off. So I made a cup of this. It had been a while since I had reached for it. I am so glad I did. Not only is it so delicious but the aroma wafting from my cup was igniting all of my senses. I had taken a few sips and my cup was sitting about two feet away from me on my tea table (okay coffee table but whatever), I was almost asleep on the sofa but the aromas beckoned me to take another sip, and another, this tea will fill your home with such succulent smells.
Vanilla, Strawberry, Mango, Roses, Sugar, and Aromatic Woodsy scents. It smelled like a cake made out in the woods in a log cabin. Something very reminiscent of the holidays in a way. I drifted of to sleep with a relaxed tummy, happy taste buds, and visions of an old log cabin in the wintery woods, with smoke coming out of the chimney drifting over the tops of hundred year old tress.
A lovely tea that evokes lovely imagery!
When I woke, I immediately reached for my cup to make a second steep. Yes this does re-steep wonderfully.
You really must try some!
CNNP Yellow Mark Ripe Pu’er from Mandala Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Ripe Pu’er
Where to Buy: Mandala Tea
Tea Description:
I love this tea. Spring of 2003 CNNP Yellow Mark ripe pu’er. Brew this up in your gaiwan or favorite yixing pot and enjoy a creamy, earthy and well-aged tea. We first had this in Kunming, China in autumn of 2008 and fell in love with it, buying all we could get. Since then, it has been stored (as all of our pu’er teas) in our climate and humidity controlled vault and we have tasted some nice changes since then.
The selfish part of me wants to keep it all for myself, but this is a tea that needs to be enjoyed by as many people as I can get it out to! If you are a lover of well-kept (never wet-stored) ripe tea, this is a heavy hitter… a must try. I am drinking some right now!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
CNNP Yellow Mark Ripe Pu’er from Mandala Tea has a lovely heaviness to it in the flavor notes. So much so that I could have possibly been fooled into thinking this were a high quality coffee had I not made it myself. Now granted, a thin coffee, but then again I used to drink a very thick turkish coffee before my conversion over to tea. So for most, this probably is exactly the heaviness of a coffee.
This tea has a lovely earthiness to it without being too earthy. The mouthfeel does have a creamy texture which is quite nice. I get hints of notes of vanilla, and butter, but its not too intense on those notes. There is a nice woody taste to the cup as well.
One does not need to use much leaf to get the full effect of this tea. When steeped it has a deep red tone to it. I find the aroma of the tea to be heavier than the flavor itself.
There is a subtle sweetness to the tea which is nice, it is on the dessert end of the pu’er spectrum.
To me, this is more of an every day pu’er – and that is not an insult by any means. Usually when I take the time to sit down and enjoy pu’er it is a process, an event if you will. To me, this is one of those pu’er that is not so complicated that you can’t just make some up and enjoy it every day, on the go, or while working. While it is quite good, very good, it is not so complex that I feel I need to do nothing else but sit down with my yixing pot and dissect it.
Now of course you do get multiple steeps from this tea and you need not steep it for very long. I find that about 20 seconds on the first steep, 30 on the second, about 45 on the third and so on do just fine. This makes it even easier to make while you are working, cleaning, multitasking, and so on. The water temp you can use is also very forgiving. I have made it with water anywhere from 212 degrees to 180 and it fairs well however the recommendation is between 208 and 212. Still if you are on the go and need to use a coffee station somewhere and the boiling water they offer its perfect and you need not steep long so it truly is my favorite “on the go” pu’er, tea for that matter, as it has a real deep flavor that I tend to crave when running errands. Now I dare to say it, but I have actually enjoyed this tea iced as well!
The notes come over as direct and are unassuming. Creamy, full, robust even, woodsy, perhaps a hint of mushroom, buttery, and warm. Simple enough to enjoy every day but delicious enough to savor and appreciate in the moment without it taking too much time to figure it out. I will not say it is my all time favorite pu’er, nor even my favorite from Mandala Tea, but for what it is, it is hardy, and delicious!
Organic Japanese Puerh from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Looking for something completely different? Then we highly recommend giving this puerh a try. Our Organic Japanese Puerh originates from the Isokawa region of the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. This unique tea was invented fairly recently and is made artificially with an organic malted brown rice culture and a combination of first and second flush harvest tea leaves. The leaves are pan fired and fermented for 3-4 days. After that period, a small amount of fresh leaves are added for 2 days. The aroma of the liquor has roasted chestnut notes with a lingering sweetness. This puerh is a strong smooth tea with a drying sweet after taste and buttery quality. Strong notes of roasted chestnuts can be detected. Cacao, tabaco, and brown rice notes are also present with a hint of fruitiness. This tea is somewhat coffee-like but not nearly as strong.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is wickedly good Puerh!
Now, I hope you know by now that I wouldn’t just say that if the puerh didn’t move me to say such a thing, because I’m very cautious when it comes to Puerh. Even though I’ve had far more positive experiences with Puerh now than I’ve had bad experiences, those first few bad experiences with Puerh have managed to shape my future Puerh experiences with an initial feeling of dread when it comes to actually even trying a Puerh. Although, I must admit, things are improving – there was a time I wouldn’t even consider ordering a Puerh, and I now actually DO order it! Who’da thunk it?
Anyway, back to this Puerh … when I sniffed the dry leaf, I expected some of that Puerh earthiness … but there was none! Actually, the dry leaf is fairly void of any strong aroma, it is really quite a mild scent that reminds me vaguely of the smell of dry, aged hardwood. The brewed liquor also is quite scent-less, I pick up hints of tobacco and a toasted nut scent, but it’s a very distant smell.
So, I took my first sip … a very apprehensive sip. And WOW! It tastes like coffee. Did I accidentally brew coffee beans instead of Puerh in my gaiwan? I really hope not, because that could taint my gaiwan. But seriously … this tastes like freshly roasted coffee but without that coffee bitterness… it’s kind of like a weakly brewed coffee that has been enhanced with a couple of spoons of sugar. It’s got a sweet, caramel-y tone to it. And it is also coffee taste that comes without the coffee jitters (and for me, without the coffee sickness that I feel a few hours later).
It has a rich, sweet taste, somewhat nutty, like roasted chestnuts, and with a slight earthiness but not the typical earthiness that usually comes with a Puerh, instead this earthiness is more like damp wood and dry tobacco, with a faint note of cocoa. As I continue to sip, I notice a smoothness, slightly buttery, and it’s really quite delightful.
One of the very best Puerh teas I’ve tasted yet! This one gets two enthusiastic thumbs up, and a big recommendation from me to anyone who has tasted Puerh and disliked it … this is one for you to try. Also, if you were a coffee drinker and like me, have found that you need to steer clear of it, but do sometimes still miss the taste of the roasted bean, try this!!! You’ll love it!
Another Verdant Tea Giveaway!
Hello Everyone!
This is not a giveaway that we are hosting, but, since the Verdant Tea giveaway last week was so immensely popular, I thought I’d let you in on another giveaway that Verdant Tea is hosting themselves! This is a great opportunity for those of you who still want that taste of Verdant Tea!
Here is a copy/paste of what David from Verdant Tea sent to me:
By the way, we are starting a giveaway today for the last ounce of our 1996 Mengku Sheng Pu’er. If anyone who doesn’t win the Tea of the Month subscription wants to participate, it is another chance to try Verdant Tea. Here is the product page for that Mengku: http://verdanttea.com/teas/1996-wild-picked-mengku-sheng-puer/ And here is the link to the giveaway: http://verdanttea.com/giveaway/
This was sent to me this past Friday, so, the giveaway has only been going on for a few days.
Best of luck to you! And don’t forget, we have a different giveaway going on every week during our Season of Giveaways! How long will this season last? I don’t know for sure, but it’s going to be a very happy, generous season, indeed!
Four Leaves Ripe Pu’er from Mandala Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu’er
Where to Buy: Mandala Tea
Tea Description:
We are proud to offer our very own blend of ripe pu’er tea! We (and our customers) are very happy with the finished product. While we love this tea now, we can hardly wait to see what 2 or 3 more years of aging will bring to the flavor of this tea!
Also available in a 250gram cake!
The four leaves used in our ripe tea are from the Jinggu Tea Factory in Simao. The Jinggu tea factory used to be part of the CNNP state-owned tea factories. They started fermenting Pu’er in the mid-70’s and was the third factory ever to produce ripe pu’er!
The leaf used was spring picked and processed in 2009 and is quite ready for enjoying now. We chose the material and pressed the blend in April of 2010.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
One thing I love about Mandala, other than their excellent quality of tea, is their 5.00 shipping! Its just something note worthy as I know when I am considering trying a new tea company their shipping rates do matter. Also Garret at Mandala is one of the most guanine people I have ever spoken with. He takes time with people. That is something we need more of these days.
Four Leaves Ripe Pu’er is a loose leaf pu’er which for those of you starting your pu’er journey may find a little less intimidating. However you can also get it in a cake as well, which is a condensed version of the tea. Steeping instructions are right on the packaging.
I always give my pu’er an initial rise, okay not always but most always anyway. With this tea I did do an initial rinse.
The initial aromas from this tea when steeped are fruity, and leather. There is a sweetness lurking behind these initial aroma notes.
This tea has a crisp bright mouthful, which surprised me as I was expecting something more rich and earthier from the aroma of leather. The flavor of leather is there but the sip is thinner than I anticipated, thin but not lacking flavor!
The sweet berry note is also noticeable.
One note that jumped out at me that took me completely by surprise was a buttered toast flavor! I swoon at anything buttery!
Now don’t get me wrong, this is absolutely an earthy tea, pu’er as a rule is earthy but the other notes bring forth a delightful cheery cup.
I really feel this would make for a good starer pu’er although maybe not a for your very first pu’er. This would be like a level 2 pu’er. Perhaps starting with something flavored first then working up to this.
On the flip side it is not as complex or mature as many pu’er so for the more advanced pu’er drinkers this may not be as exciting.
There is room for growth in this tea but it is young and as much time yet to develop. It does however have a wonderful starting point and if you are one to buy and store pu’er for later drinking I would absolutely recommend grabbing a cake of this!