Sipdown
This was a gift from Nicole – many thanks!
We went to a Mexican restaurant for my brother-in-law’s birthday Friday night. The food is awesome but every time I go, the high salt and fat content in the food makes my hands swell up and leaves me with a bloated feeling and reflux. I decided not to indulge too much in the chips and salsa. I gave away my quesadilla that came with my meal. I felt great.
Ashman also tried to restrain himself on the chips and salsa but he had worked late, was famished, and the food took a long time coming since we had a crowd. Also, he doesn’t eat beef and changed his mind at the last second on what he was ordering and accidentally ended up with a beef burrito, which he ate but probably lacks the enzymes to digest well since he never eats beef.
This meant that on the way home he was groaning. I had him drink a glass of cold puerh from the fridge before bed but he still felt that bloat Saturday morning so I made a light breakfast of English muffins with jam and a huge pot of this puerh.
By lunchtime he pronounced himself cured but we have continued to make pots of this tea and drink it throughout the weekend, especially since we returned to heavier breakfast fare today of breakfast burritos made with my friend’s chickens fresh eggs, our homegrown cherry tomatoes, sautéed onions, and cheddar cheese.
They call for a four minute steep and I never let it go that long, although I do like really strong shu. This one is more earthy and definitely smooth and forgiving of absentminded steeping. It was darker in the cup than black tea but so easy to drink. It lacks the strong farm poo odors of many shu puerh teas. There is a sweet minerality to it, as well. I also keep the second and third steeps shorter than the first, going by color instead of time.
Overall, this is a super easy to drink pu, easy to steep like most shu, and lacks some of the stronger notes that put some people off, notes that I generally don’t mind. This would probably be a good intro to puerh tea for the apprehensive.
