Pu'erh Ginger (Organic)

Lest we forget. It’s Remembrance Day in Canada today, so please take a moment to remember the sacrifices made for our freedom.

I am having a travel mug of this tea while at work, it’s tasty and very warming, it’s getting to be soo cold out..about -14 C this morning! Brr! Thank goodness for automatic car starters and hot tea. See previous notes!

I’ve been suffering from a nasty stomach ache all day. This morning, I wasn’t thinking right and made mint green tea, and a regular black tea. D’oh!
To be fair, this was my last resort, since I only had one cup left of my meager sample. Well, that’s my fault because I only ever have any of this one when I’m ill, which isn’t often, so I don’t want it to go bad and don’t keep much on hand.
Sad thing is, I can’t even consider it a real sipdown, cuz I’ll be going by the DT store asap to pick up another 10g… maybe 15g. That’s what I did last time and it lasted me nearly a year. Still it’s an essential part of my cupboard and one of the very few blends I actually enjoy from them.
Bah! It is what it is. Right?! (ie a delicious blend that I adore when sick!)
My tummy feels a bit better now, but I fear it’ll get worse again once the effects of the tea wears off. Too bad I have a conference call in a few hrs, and lots of housework to get done before that!

My mom loves ginger, and had expressed an interest in pu’erh, so when we were trying to come up with $20 worth of teas to purchase to get the free 50g of tea, I saw this on the tea wall and hoped maybe it would be a winner. Turns out, I think I’m right! I didn’t actually taste the first infusion of this one, but my mom definitely liked it better than the black teas I’ve had her try, and I think she enjoyed the ginger as well. There was a bit of a fishy smell to the dry tea, so I gave it a literal rinse (poured hot water through the tea in the infuser basket into the sink) before infusing it, although it still had a little bit of a fishy odour when brewed up. I didn’t find it terribly bothersome though, and as she drank the whole cup, I don’t think she did either.

The second infusion (next day) which I’ve made for myself smells more of ginger, and less of fishiness (if at all). The pu’erh gives it a nice, smooth base, and the amount of ginger is just right for me – a bit of a kick, but not too much. For me, this one’s just ok; I’d drink it again, but wouldn’t seek it out unless I was craving ginger for whatever reason.

I picked this one up because it smelled GINGERY to me, and I love ginger drinks.

I rinsed it with 1/2 cup of hot water, dumped that out, then steeped for just over 3 minutes, and added a stick of honey.

It’s pretty good. There’s a lot of warmth from the ginger, I can’t really tell that there’s any orange in it, and the puerh isn’t fishy now that I’ve rinsed it. Not sure that I need to have this in my cupboard, but I’ll probably finish the sample I got within a couple days. :)

OK. Last one from the pu-erh sample pack.

The dry tea smells super gingery, very similar to David’s super ginger which I really like.

After brewing, the smell is of ginger and fish pu-erh. I almost had to throw it out due to the smell. I let it cool a bit and tasted. It initially has a moderate ginger flavour. It is enough that you can feel the burn on your tongue. At the end of the sip, I am getting that fish/seaweed/canned mushroom pu-erh flavour.

Overall thoughts on the David’s tea Pu-erh sampler: I am glad it was only a sampler; I do not like David’s tea pu-erh base, or the pu-erh tea blends (with the exception of Berry Good which looks to contain not much actually tea leaf); I found most of the blends to not really blend together and each flavour came out at a different point in the sip; I’m glad its over and have congratulated myself for trying even though I knew I most likely would like and ended up not liking.

I feel like I have conquered a mountain. I would like to say that I am now more sophisticated and worldy, but I know that is far from reality, I am still going to pretend though.

Rinsing this tea did wonders for removing the fishyness from the pu-erh, so I highly recomend that anyone else who has an issue with it do the same. That along with an increased steeping time seemed to bring out a more pleasent, softly earth flavour that had been lacking the last time I tried this tea.

SICK MODE!
Ugg, sick. So sick I messed up this steeping, so I have no idea how long I did this. However, I was slightly crazy and added a cm or two slice of fresh ginger to the steeping.

The taste? Uhh ginger mostly, the taste buds are shot! It’s making my throat feel better though!

Hmmm… after the 2 previous flavored puerhs from David’s I didn’t think this one was gonna be any good either, but i’m surprised to find that I like this. I do LOVE ginger and the ginger in this tea is super dooper strong and spicy. There’s a hint of fishy puerh at the end, but it is otherwise totally unoffensive! Yay! Thanks (AGAIN!) Shmiracles!

yummy puerh after a big lunch.

i’m answering a question a day for journaling purposes…

yesterday’s questions was:
If a doctor gave you five years to live, what would you try to accomplish?

I like the Ginger in this Tea its nice and spicy and the Orange zest is a nice touch too, this to me is quite a perfect Ginger Pu’erh other than making one from scratch at home. I have many times made this myself with Pu’erh and fresh ginger tea that’s the way I like to use Ginger and I’m fond also of adding Orange zest/peel to some teas, if I needed this tea and did not feel like making it myself this one would be the one I would want. You can really feel that good burn from the Ginger(because it’s tore up with shreds and not just chunks and slices,imo) and the orange zest is a great touch the Orange spice mellows the Ginger bite some giving it a really nice balance in flavor. The Pu’erh seems decent its earthy but clean and seems to have a thick black liquid but I think the Ginger and Orange zest take away from some of the Pu’erh’s flavor(meaning I can’t pick out many other flavor notes in the Pu’erh itself for all the other flavors), the Pu’erh could be a little better in this one. It is a great tea overall.
P’s I forgot to mention the aroma it pretty much just smells like Ginger.
Photos here :)
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2012/11/organic-puerh-ginger-by-davidstea.html