Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: China Cha Dao
Tea Description:
Douji’s Riped Puerh Series.
2011 Douji “Nuan Jiang Shan” (Warm River Mountain) Ripe Puerh Loose Leaf Tea 200g
Recommend Douji Product, good for collecting, limited product due to its low production!
Aroma – Mellow, unique.
Flavor – Thick, Smooth and Sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
With my first sip of this 2011 Douji “Nuan Jiang Shan” Ripe Puerh Tea from China Cha Dao my first reaction was one of surprise! I couldn’t believe I was sipping a Pu-erh! This tastes so sweet and fruity! Where’s the earthiness I was expecting from a ripe Pu-erh? After a couple of sips, a slight earthiness does develop, but only after I had the opportunity to explore the other flavors that this unique Pu-erh has to offer.
The aroma of the dry leaf is sweet and mildly earthy. The wet leaf has a stronger earth note, much more like what I’d expect from a Pu-erh. The brewed tea has very little fragrance.
The sip starts out pleasantly sweet – not at all cloying – and the sip is abundant with fruit notes. Like juicy, ripe peaches and melon. There is a distinct vanilla tone to this as well … almost creamy! As I continue to explore the tea, I notice notes of wood.
The earthiness doesn’t reach the palate until I’ve consumed about half the cup, and even then, it is such a faint hint of earthiness that if I wasn’t so intently focused on everything I was tasting … I might have missed the earthy tones all together. This is the kind of Pu-erh I’d recommend to someone who typically avoids Pu-erh because of that earthy/fishy/brine-y sort of taste … because I’m not getting that at all.
After reading TeaEqualsBliss’s thoughts on this tea, I found myself surprised again … because I just didn’t get the earthiness that she experienced from this tea. I got a delicious, delightful sweetness and an incredible smoothness. This is a lovely Pu-erh – one I’d highly recommend to all tea lovers out there!
PS: I’d love to hear any of your thoughts on this tea as well!
Maiden’s Ecstasy Organic from Samovar Tea Lounge
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Samovar Tea Lounge
Tea Description:
Wild-crafted from 30-foot trees in the jungles of Southwest China, this tea is a traditional wedding gift and evening mood-setter. Dark, creamy, and luxurious with notes of bittersweet chocolate and espresso.
Details
Tea Type: Pu-Erh
Origin: Jing Mai Mountains in Yunnan, China
Caffeine Level: Medium-high
Processing Details: Tender, young-leaf, vintage, loose leaf Pu-Erh
Tasting and Aroma Specs: Very balanced, smooth, rich and dark, with a slightly sweet, wildflower honey finish. Deep, strong forward notes of earth and moss with a lingering raisin sugar sweetness.
Food Pairing: Dim Sum and Samovar’s Mushroom Quiche
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It is really difficult to sum up a puerh in a review without mentioning each and ever steep. Especially when it is such an excellent puerh like this Maiden’s Ecstasy Organic from Samovar Tea Lounge.
Maiden’s Ecstasy is one of the first pureh that I ever tried and is still one of my favorites. I stopped drinking coffee shortly before I found my love for loose leaf tea, and this Maiden’s Ecstasy provides such a rich, full, and robust cup that it brings back memories of my once loved coffee, but is so much better, and far more flavorful!
With a creamy, heavy mouthfeel, this tea has notes of german rock sugar, brown sugar, raisins, tree bark, oak moss, and so much more. Sometimes you will taste a more woodsy note, while other times you get a taste of chocolate, and other times a savory note of mushroom!
There is something otherworldly about this tea. It is the kind of tea I like to drink while watching a movie such as Avatar, or The Never Ending Story. I would take this and drink it at the Renaissance Festival every year if I could find a way to keep steeping it! It makes me feel like jumping from toadstool to tree trunk and swinging from branches of friendly tress and cavorting with gnomes but beware of the trolls because this tea does have a sparky, spicy kick to it at times as well! Its not dangerous though, it won’t burn your tongue at all, its just a little spark of playful now and then in the middle of an otherwise dreamy cup.
It does evoke thoughts of sipping on a very luxurious espresso, a good one though, one you could probably only find at one of those quaint cafes in Italy, as you sit writing in your diary at a white linen clothed table, dreaming of a romantic interlude. Flavors of molasses peek through resembling the sweet desires playing out in your mind as you gaze into nothingness, while someone, sitting at a table not too far away can see everything emoting through your eyes.
Yes, this tea is that special.
Cinnamon Swirl Bread from sTEAp Shoppe
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh, Black
Where to Buy: sTEAp Shoppe
Tea Description:
Cinnamon Swirl Bread Puerh & Black Teas touches your tongue with a rich depth of flavor and the bright embrace of cinnamon. Aromatic cinnamon, combined with rich bread like puerh and the sweet honey notes of gold bud black tea. This combination of tea and spice creates the perfect cup to wake up with or as a dessert. Full bodied with a smooth buttery goodness embraced by bright ribbons of cinnamon.
Pu-erh tea is a post-fermented tea, specifically Dark tea, produced in Yunnan province, China. The difference between this and all other teas is that, Pu erh tea undergoes the standard process of rolling and drying, after which it will then undergo a microbial fermentation. This style of processing tea is unique to China. A process created by the Chinese and produced in Yunnan, a leader in quality Chinese teas.
Taster’s Review:Learn more about this tea here.
Janet does it again with her Cinnamon Swirl Bread from sTEAp Shoppe. Her blend of 2008 Loose Puerh and Yunnan Gold Needle Black tea, with just the right mix of cinnamon, cocoa nibs, vanilla bean, and maple crystals make this tea taste like you just toasted up some sweet cinnamon bread!
I love her use of organic ingredients and that the tea is not overly sweet, nor overly spicy. This blend is balanced perfectly.
The aroma that fills your home when you steep it is nothing short of delicious.
Earthy puerh gives a flavor and mouthfeel of whole grain bread, while the Yunnan Gold Needle provides provides a smoothness to support the zippy cinnamon. The vanilla plays a supporting role that compliments the maple crystals, leaving a lightly sweet taste on the tongue.
The resulting effect is a delicious lingering flavor on the palate of sweet spicy cinnamon, and a toasty flavor.
Janet really does a great job with her blended teas. She takes great time and care in making sure she has them perfected before putting them up for sale. Her selection has grown slowly but steadily over time and I can say that this blend is masterful. I am not generally a big fan of cinnamon teas, or spicy teas, with the exception of an occasional chai latte, but this Cinnamon Swirl Bread tea is a stash staple.
Chocolate Chai Pu-erh Tea from Della Terra Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas
Tea Description:
This tea has all that you love about chai, the spice and the clove, blended just right with chocolate! Made with Pu-Erh tea it gives it a dark, rich, spicy flavor that, for the chai, chocolate or Pu-Erh lover, will having you steeping another cup before you know it! The chai hits you at first sip and and the chocolate soon follows. Delicious tea for all who love a nice, dark, rich tea!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Chocolate Chai Pu-erh Tea from Della Terra Teas is a very tasty take on the traditional spiced chai blend. It has what I’d expect from a chai – exotic spices that taste warm and comforting – plus CHOCOLATE which you know I am loving … all with a rich, mellow Pu-erh base.
The Pu-erh provides a really solid background of flavor that is earthy and flavorful, without being extraordinarily robust. The Pu-erh complements both the chocolate and the spices here … the earthiness of the Pu-erh works so nicely with the earthy notes of the spices, while the rich flavor of the Pu-erh enhances the rich, sweet flavor of the chocolate.
I am also liking the way the orange comes in to play here. It isn’t a strong orange flavor — it kind of tastes like someone might have squeezed a few drops of fresh orange into my cup. It brightens the cup just a touch without offering a real pronounced citrus-y flavor. It tastes a little bit like someone liquefied one of those chocolate oranges and added a little drizzle of the liquid confection into my teacup along with the tea. Deliciously intriguing.
This is a really well-conceived cuppa … I found it very enjoyable to drink without any additions … although a little bit of turbinado sugar does bring out the spices just a bit and gives a nice sweetness to the chocolate. I bet it would be good as a latte too … but I found it really delicious without the dairy! Try it both ways and see which way you like it best … but you’ve got to try this. This one is a must try for spiced chocolate lovers!
Fengqing Golden Buds Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2005 from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
This Golden Buds Puerh Cake made in 2005 is the high-end products from Fengqing Sanning Tea Company. There’re plenty of highest quality tender buds with white tips. The buds which turned to be golden color after fermentation were combined with other levels Puerh maocha which contain much flavor content so that this Puerh cake has the characteristics of pure aroma, mellow taste and quick sweet aftertaste. This puerh cake is produced in Fengqing, Yunan. Fengqing is the original place of the world-wide famous Dian Hong Tea. And it is also a classic place of Yunnan Pu-erh. It is a place in Lingcang which is one of the four famous Pu-erh production areas. It can be said that this Puerh cake is the most representative and highest quality one. It is quite good for the Puerh enthusiast who has much experience of drinking Puerh tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was a little hesitant with this Pu-erh, because the aroma of the dry leaf is very earthy. And the fragrance doesn’t soften all that much once it’s brewed either … so I was a little scared, to tell the truth. It’s that strong earthy flavor that I am usually puts me off when it comes to Pu-erh, but I remained hopeful and decided to give it a shot! And I’m glad that I did. This Fengqing Golden Buds Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2005 from Teavivre is really quite nice!
The flavor is not nearly as earthy as the aroma suggests. Yes, there are earthy tones, but they’re really quite mild, and evocative of a mushroom-y kind of taste rather than of peat or other less-than-appealing earthy tastes. It also has a really delightful sweetness to it, that reminds me of a cross between molasses and caramel. Nice!
I also taste notes of flower in the background, and these flavors seem to develop as I continue to sip. It never becomes a really strong, pronounced flavor, but, I like how this note sort of teases the palate.
I brewed this Pu-erh the way I usually would, with a quick 15 second rinse, and brewing the first infusion at just 30 seconds, and 45 seconds for the second. The first two infusions were then combined into one cup, and it created a surprisingly dark brew! Darker than most black teas that would be brewed for 3 minutes or more! And like most other Pu-erh, this one is good for many more infusions, I spent all afternoon with this tea and it was a delightful experience.
The flavor is rich and complex yet delightfully mellow, and I appreciated that the earthy tones were much more subdued than the aroma suggested to me. While it does possess some of the flavors that I would expect from a Pu-erh, I found myself happily surprised by this one. If you are one who appreciates a really lovely, lightly earthy Pu-erh – one that’s sweet and pleasantly floral! – this is one you should put on your MUST TRY list!