80

An Ode to Tea, Q entry! (I am missing a tea for Q, but figured this was close enough…)

I am notably not a big puerh fan so I don’t pull them out often. I also very rarely ever have time for gong fu sessions — the only time I can sit down and drink tea in that style is on my days off of work, which severely limits when I can drink certain types of tea. So I’m finally fitting a session in today, on my weekend off…

This was a sample I grabbed from the final Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thanks to all that contributed to that box and tea-sipper for organizing it! I had 3.4g of leaf so I did steeps using only 70ml of water in my little pumpkin pot.

70ml mini pot | 3.4g | 205F | Rinse/10s/13s/16s/19s/22s/25s/28s/31s/34s/37s/40s/43s/46s

My only experience with sheng so far (I think?!) was a very unpleasant one; it was extremely smoky and bitter/sour. The aroma from my first steep had me thinking this would also be really bitter because it had a strong bitter melon/sour plum sort of scent. But it actually was surprisingly smooth, with a stonefruit fruity taste (plum?), with just a slight mineral note at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. Around the 3rd and 4th steeps a muscatel note joined the plum, but the tea lost its smoothness, gaining a slight bite to it. The fifth steep was an unpleasant anomoly; it tasted how I’m used to sheng pu’erh tasting, with a strong “swamp marsh” taste of wet earth, rocks, and vegetation, with a bitter medicinal taste late in the sip and in the aftertaste. The bitterness went away after that, though, and while the marshy notes remained for a few more steeps, it smoothed out, and an anise-like licoricey note crept into the aftertaste, which I found quite pleasant. The marshiness continued to mellow and some notes of cucumber and melon rind came forth, until it eventually smoothed into a very nice petrichor taste. Late in the session, the tea turned very sweet, and some of the stonefruit came back (more of a light apricot this time), as well as some florality and garden peas. I pretty much never carry a tea through this many steeps, but I was really enjoying this one. I’m left feeling very tea-full though, and am feeling extremely relaxed.

Is this the first pu’erh I’ve really enjoyed?!

Flavors: Anise, Apricot, Bitter, Bitter Melon, Cucumber, Floral, Garden Peas, Medicinal, Mineral, Muscatel, Petrichor, Plum, Smooth, Stonefruit, Sugarcane, Sweet, Vegetal, Wet Earth, Wet Moss, Wet Rocks

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 g 2 OZ / 70 ML
tea-sipper

Oh I’m glad you found a puerh you enjoyed!!

mrmopar

Yes ! Puerh to ya!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

People who liked this

Comments

tea-sipper

Oh I’m glad you found a puerh you enjoyed!!

mrmopar

Yes ! Puerh to ya!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer