Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
This raw pu-erh cake is grown and produced in Fengqing, Yunnan, which is the origin place of DianHong black tea. This Wild Tree Yesheng Raw Pu-erh Cake is harvest in spring of 2013. Between March to May, after harvesting the fresh leaves, tea workers will process them: fixation, rolling, drying, sifting, and then store the leaves in carton boxes.
As the workers use iron pan for fixation, and roll the tea with their hands, the leaves do not have good looks as machine-made leaves. Yet regarding on quality, this Wild Tree Yesheng Pu-erh Cake is a green food from nature, in the mists and clouds on high mountains. It is a tea worth being in your collection list.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf aroma of this 2013 Fengqing Wild Tree Yesheng Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake from Teavivre is almost non-existent. This surprised me, only because I’m used to Pu-erh having some aroma, but I didn’t smell much of anything when I smelled the dry leaf.
Conversely, the wet leaves have a strong vegetal scent to them that immediately made me think of peas. Granted, peas are not my favorite vegetable (that’s putting it mildly) and because of that, they are not a food that I’m smelling on a regular basis. But when I smelled these wet leaves, green peas is what came to mind.
For those of you who are like me: timid when it comes to Pu-erh tea because of that strong, earthy and sometimes fishy taste and smell, you can rest assured that you won’t experience that with this Pu-erh. This is a very young Pu-erh, and it tastes much more like a green tea to me than it does a Pu-erh.
It has a vegetal taste, but it’s a remarkably smooth vegetal note. It doesn’t have that “crisp” or “lively” sort of vegetative taste that you might experience with a typical green tea. Instead, this has a very mellow vegetative taste. It doesn’t taste grassy. It tastes like mild steamed vegetables: like spinach, perhaps, only milder and sweeter.
There is a buttery note to this too, something I don’t typically experience with a Pu-erh. So, imagine that aforementioned extra mild, sweet spinach, topped with mushrooms that have been lightly sauteed in butter and then topped with thinly sliced almonds … only the almonds are raw. It has that sort of creamy, buttery taste that you might experience with a raw almond.
Later infusions brought out more savory flavors to the vegetal tones. Notes of salt and seaweed were contrasted by some newly emerging fruity notes. The flavor becomes deeper and more complex with each new infusion.
I like in “wild tree” teas like this that I can almost taste the “wild” in them. There is a note to these teas that I don’t often find in the more conventional farm grown teas.
I would recommend this Pu-erh to those new to Pu-erh so that they can experience some “different” Pu-erh teas, as well as fans of green tea. It’s a really unique tea experience … one definitely worth trying.
White Guava Tea from The Persimmon Tree
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where To Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
White Guava tea brews a light infusion with a beautiful, rich scent and a delicate tropical flavor. It comprises an exotic blend of white peony loose-leaf tea leaves, strawberries, ginger, and natural flavors, and as with all of our white teas, White Guava tea prepares nicely both hot and iced.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
As I sip this White Guava Tea from The Persimmon Tree, I can’t help but think of summertime! Specifically, I’m thinking of summertime in Southern California, when the strawberries are in season and you can buy fresh, ripe strawberries right from the field from which they were grown.
Well, it’s been well over 10 years since I’ve been in Southern California, and for all I know, all the strawberry fields are gone now in favor of “city improvement,” which means more buildings and less strawberry fields. That doesn’t sound like improvement to me. But I didn’t come here to get all political on you, so I’ll stick to the tea.
This tea is bursting with guava and strawberry flavor and I love that the flavors taste true to the fruit. This doesn’t taste artificial. There is a hint of ginger to this, just enough to provide a little interest without it becoming too intrusive of a flavor. It is sweet, fruity and delicious.
And then I taste the White Peony tea flavor, which is sweet and delicate with subtle earth notes. Everything in this cup is really well-balanced: it’s not too fruity, it’s not too spicy. It has just the right amount of flavor to complement the tea without overpowering it. It isn’t bitter. There is a faint astringency to the cup but I only started noticing it when I started focusing to find it. The aftertaste is lightly sweet with just a barely-there hint of berry tartness to it.
This is wonderful served hot on a chilly winter’s evening, but, it’s even better served iced. Cool and refreshing!
Mengku Arbor Tree Ripened Puerh Cake Tea ZhenMu LingYa 2007 from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
With a century-old history, abundant rainfall and sunlight, Yunnan owns a reputation as “South of the Colorful Clouds”. She feeds her people and the land they live on with her own stream. This time TeaVivre brings you Pu-erh lovers the ZhenMu LingYa, within which the passion of Yunnan Pu-erh people you can feel. This Ripened Puerh Cake Tea ZhenMu LingYa uses fresh leaves of Mengku arbor tree as material. The tea workers have years of experience in making Pu-erh tea. With their hands and professional experience, they made the fresh tea leaves into this beautiful ripened Pu-erh cake. Using the Mengku arbor tree of high quality as material, this ZhenMu LingYa has the pure and mellow flavor of ripened tea. You could see the golden pekoe covering on the dry leaves. As the cake was suppressed just fine in tension, you could enjoy breaking the cake.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Like I do with most Pu-erh … I put off trying this Mengku Arbor Tree Ripened Puerh Cake Tea ZhenMu LingYa 2007 from Teavivre for a little while, but, I’m glad to be sipping on it today.
I brewed a chunk of this cake in my gaiwan, and I managed quite a few infusions from one small chunk. The first infusion was earthy (most Pu-erh teas are!) but I liked that the earthy notes were subdued. The flavor is deep, rich and mellow. Really smooth without any astringency. The sweetness is reminiscent of molasses!
My second infusion was a little more earthy than the first, but it was still very sweet and smooth. By the third infusion, I found that the earthiness had really subsided to the point where I really found myself enjoying this Pu-erh. Sure, I liked the first and second infusions just fine, but, my palate was much fonder of the third infusion!
The fourth infusion produced a slightly smoother taste – the taste was still very smooth in the first three infusions, but here I notice that the flavors tend to meld and become more unified. It becomes a very smooth drinking kind of tea, with lovely sweet notes, hints of earth, and a sweet, caramel-y, molasses-y kind of taste all coming together in a seamless flavor. It was really nice and mellow – the kind of cup that you like to enjoy after a meal.
I could have very easily taken this tea through even more infusions … although it was getting late. My personal tea time had come to an end before this tea was ready to quit! A really enjoyable Pu-erh … not my favorite, perhaps, but, certainly one I’d be happy to enjoy again!
Lotus Green Tea from The Persimmon Tree
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where To Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
A unique combination of hand-harvested fresh lotus blossoms blended with green loose leaf tea in an ancient scenting method comprises our Lotus Green tea. Prepared in small batches by Vietnamese traditional artisans, the unique essence of these spring-harvested flowers is released and absorbed directly into the tea. The Lotus green tea brews a pleasant, slightly sharp flavor similar to star anise, with a subtle vanilla finish. Be sure to steep multiple times to fully appreciate the flavor of these sweet, aromatic lotus blossoms infused in our Lotus Flower tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Lotus Green Tea from The Persimmon Tree really is a lovely cuppa!
Both the aroma and the taste is delightfully floral. I think that the above description describes the flavor perfectly – it is sharp, with notes that remind me of the licorice-y notes of star anise, and as the sip nears the tail, there is a hint of vanilla. It is sweet, exotic and creamy, and makes for a truly lovely tea time experience.
I like also that this tea offers multiple infusions! The first cup was sharper than the second infusion, which was a little softer, but still so sweet and creamy! I think that the second infusion was my favorite. The third infusion was also quite nice, the flavors became more unified with my third and final cup, making for a more refreshing, lighter taste, but still really flavorful.
This tea needs no additions … I think that sugar would overwhelm it. It is one of those teas that you want to spend a leisurely afternoon with … infusing and infusing again … experiencing the many layers of flavor that the tea has to offer.
The more I get to know the teas of The Persimmon Tree, the more I like this company. I have recently been checking out their blog and found some yummy recipes and lots of other fun things! And you can keep up with their happenings on Twitter or Facebook.
On The First Day of Christmas … Della Terra Teas Sent to Me …
It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to have a 12 Days of Christmas box to help me count down the days until Christmas Day. This will be the third year that I’ve done this, and this year, I chose the 12 Days of Christmas tea box from Della Terra Teas … the same box, incidentally, that we featured a couple of weeks ago in our Season of Giveaways!
Here’s how this works: every day from now (December 14) through Christmas Day, I’ll be reviewing the tea of the day from the Della Terra Teas box … starting with today’s tea.
But before I get in to today’s tea, I want to talk a little bit about the presentation of this box … because it really is fabulous. It’s a gift in itself! The package arrived wrapped up in Kraft paper so that we couldn’t see the festive box inside (see the photo above!). So on the outside, it appeared kind of ordinary and maybe even a little boring (although, it’s never boring to receive tea in the mail!) but as soon as you open the box, you’re greeted with this very bright and cheery box warning you NOT to open the box until December 14. Ahhh … the anticipation!
Inside the box, there was this lovely sight! 12 little sparkly boxes, each with individual tags telling us which day to open the box. There was a note tacked on the inside of the lid of the box telling the recipient how to proceed with this 12 Days of Christmas Tea celebration. This is a really awesome presentation … I am really overjoyed. It really IS going to be like a little present each day leading up to Christmas!
Day 1, Day 6 and Day 12 are to feature teas that are available exclusively to the customers who purchased this box, which makes it even more special and exciting to me!
Which leads me to today’s tea …
Partridge in a Pear Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas
Tea Description:
On the first day of Christmas a tea was given to me, and that was Partridge in a Pear Tea.
On this first day of your 12 Days of Christmas, please, sit back, and enjoy a cup of this delightful, fruity pear tea that is exclusive to this set of twelve! What a lovely way to start!
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf is beautiful! Lots of white cornflower petals amid the black tea leaves and pieces of dried pear, and little golden candy bits that add a nice bit of sparkle to the dry leaf … what fun! It smells very much like pear, and I do love a good pear tea. 
Although, I must admit, that it seems more often than not that I am disappointed by pear teas, because the pear flavor is just … off … somehow. I’ve found a few really good pear teas, but I have also had some disappointing pear teas. I’m hopeful that Della Terra Teas won’t let me down. I’ve been really impressed with their teas thus far, so I think I’ve every reason to be optimistic.
And I can say that my faith in Della Terra Teas is not misplaced! This is really quite good. The pear flavor is delicious and sweet … even juicy, reminiscent of a ripe pear. It tastes very authentic to me, this doesn’t taste like an artificial pear taste.
It is a bit sweet, and I am sure that has a bit to do with the candy bits in the blend that melt when coming in contact with the hot water while it brews. But I don’t mind the sweetness, and I’m not finding it to be too sweet or cloying.
And I like that even though the pear flavoring is strong here, it doesn’t overpower the black tea. It is a mellow, pleasant black tea with a moderate amount of astringency, not overly robust (I think a stronger or bolder black tea would have overpowered the more delicate notes of the pear, and I really like the way the pear flavor is represented here), and very satisfying to drink. Not something you’d want for that eye-opening, first cup of the day, but, more of a tea that you’d want for an afternoon pick-me-up … it would also make a great dessert tea!
Overall, a really good pear tea, and an excellent way to start off my 12 Days of Tea countdown! Be sure to stop back by tomorrow at about the same time to see what tea Della Terra sent to me for the Second day of Christmas!