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Happy Father’s Day! Today the prompt is to “drink a tea that reminds you of your father.” Just like during the Mother’s Day prompt, I’m the only tea-drinker in my family so I don’t simply have a tea they favor to drink, and have to think a little outside the box.

My Dad’s morning drink of choice is Tang… yes, that extremely fake tangerine-flavored powder you dissolve in water. I think he’s been drinking it since he was 16, and he still attests that “if it’s good enough for astronauts, it’s good enough for me!” I used to have some strongly tangerine-flavored teas (I remember a green one in the past) but since I’ve been going gangbusters on sipping down and strict about not reordering anything, I couldn’t find any in my current stash. But I did find this pu’erh stuffed in a tangerine, which I thought would be a good choice, both for the “Tang” inspiration tangerine flavor as well as the earthy notes of the pu’erh, since my Dad is a very “down to earth” sort of guy.

I actually got this tea for free from a barista working at Snake River Tea one year during my yearly trip there during a local anime convention; my friend and I ordered tea there every day of the convention, and on the last day I made a $100+ loose leaf order, and he just tossed this shrinkwrapped puerh-stuffed tangerine into my bag. It was easy for me to find the same one on Yunnan Sourcing, so if I like it, at least I know where to get it… because Snake River Tea closed down during COVID, for good. I was pretty upset about that…

I know I’ve tried a “tangerine stuffed pu’erh” before and I had a WICKED time breaking it out of the shell… the inconvience sort of offset the enjoyment I had from the tea. This one was SUPER easy though; the top was scored off, and after pouring out the tea, the rest of the shell was easily crushable to get little eggshell pieces of it distributed throughout the tea. I brewed this cup western with about 3.5g of the leaf and the tangerine “lid,” for 5 minutes in 205F water.

The brewed tea is thick and dark, with a sort of medicinal/peppery citrus scent. The cup is quite nice! The base pu’erh is strongly earthy but doesn’t taste like dirt in a cup, which is my typical experience with pu’erh. There is a hint of smoke, and a noticable peppery taste. The tangerine itself is not overpowering, but leaves a slight citrusy note in the cup which definitely makes the flavor more pleasing for someone like me, who typically avoids pu’erh. I also loved how easy it was to open and break down compared to the “Xinhui Green Mandarin Orange Ripened Pu-erh” by TeaVivre that I’ve tried in the past.

A satisfying cup… which I’m going to sip on while I call my dad.

Flavors: Citrus, Earth, Medicinal, Pepper, Smoke, Smooth, Tangerine

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 350 ML
tea-sipper

ha, love the Tang inspired choice here.

derk

Sorry to hear your Idaho tea shop went out of business but happy you enjoyed another puer!

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Comments

tea-sipper

ha, love the Tang inspired choice here.

derk

Sorry to hear your Idaho tea shop went out of business but happy you enjoyed another puer!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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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...

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