Sipdown no. 132 of 2018 (no. 488 total). A sample.
For the last caffeine of the day, I decided to crack open my sample of this.
I’m not sure what possessed me to buy this. I sort of think that flavored pu erhs are a mistake in general. I’m not an expert in pu erh but that is my uneducated opinion.
However, the BF came down with some awful thing while we were on vacation and he sounds like he’s coughing up both lungs. So he wanted me to make something he could drink and though I’m not sure this would ordinarily be his thing (he’s more of a fruit blend sort of guy) I thought it would kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Making this western style in the size cups we have basically sipped the whole thing down.
In the packet, there’s a strong primary smell of mint, and a secondary smell of vanilla. I have to search for the pu erh.
Because this is so highly flavored, I couldn’t really bring myself to put it through 10 steeps in the gaiwan. It just seemed a bit pointless.
Instead, I heated water to the temperature on the packet, 195F, and steeped for four minutes per the directions. I didn’t rinse, either.
The tea steeps very dark and almost opaque. Not as dark or opaque as coffee, though, and redder. It smells of minty peppermint and beany vanilla. No tea smell that I could discern.
And it tastes pretty much exactly like it smells. I didn’t expect to like this at all, and I have to say that I do like it. But not because of the pu erh, which I can’t taste at all, but because the pu erh makes a nice silent partner for the delivery of the mint and vanilla.
I think this is more aptly named Mint-Vanilla, with a hard to find pu erh base.
Tasty and worth trying, but it’s not the sort of thing I’m going to wring my hands over not being able to have again now that ATR is kaput.
I’d rate it higher but for the fact that the name doesn’t really describe the tea.
Flavors: Mint, Peppermint, Vanilla
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
Did he like it?
He did!
Well, if you did want it again, it’s actually a really common blend, one I’m fairly certain ATR just sourced from Rishi, so it is still out there. I actually really like this one and tend to always keep a bit in my cupboard, but since Rishi only sells it in bulk sizing, I usually hunt it down from other tea shops that just wholesale it, (often) rename it, and slap their own shop name on it if I can order a smaller-ounce sized package.
Pretty sure I have the Rishi, too! Lol
Did he like it?
He did!
Well, if you did want it again, it’s actually a really common blend, one I’m fairly certain ATR just sourced from Rishi, so it is still out there. I actually really like this one and tend to always keep a bit in my cupboard, but since Rishi only sells it in bulk sizing, I usually hunt it down from other tea shops that just wholesale it, (often) rename it, and slap their own shop name on it if I can order a smaller-ounce sized package.
Pretty sure I have the Rishi, too! Lol