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Mastress Alita drank Sticky Rice Puer No. 111 by Portal Tea (formerly Tea Chai Té)

1217 tasting notes

I’m migraine sick and since the nausea is doing a number on my appetite, I didn’t feel like much more than a bit of white rice for dinner. But then I got the weird idea that maybe I could “spruce up” my Minute Rice a bit if I used tea for the water that the rice sucks up to give it some flavor, and figured, what better to try this experiment than the Sticky Rice Pu-erh I have yet to try?

So I brewed up a cup of the pu-ehr, strained it, brought it back to a boil so it would be warm enough for the rice, added the Minute Rice, covered it and let it do its thing. My kitchen smelled heavily of the nuo mi xiang herb, and that actually did improve my appetite slightly. The rice was a nice tea color after it had sucked up the tea liquor, and it was pretty good, too; still tasted mostly like white rice, but I was definitely getting a sticky rice herb flavor in the after taste that made it quite nice. I think next time I’ll try adding a little salt to the tea broth before adding the rice, too.

I also resteeped my pu-erh leaves, since the little mini tuo looked like it still had a lot more to give and I was curious to try the tea as a tea as well. The cup had a slightly earthy mineral/metallic scent to it, as well as nuo mi xiang herb aroma. No hints of fishiness. The pu-erh itself was quite sharp at the beginning of the sip, with a very mineral-tasting lead, with this sort of warm, brothy finish of the nuo mi xiang herb that closes out the finish and lingers on the tongue afterwards. Later in the cup, I was getting a very subtle camphor flavor. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it as a tea and bought it originally just to try as a rice flavor/ramen broth, but this actually is a really nice tasting cuppa. A little odd on the tongue at first, but the finish is so satisfying and relaxing.

Flavors: Camphor, Earth, Herbaceous, Metallic, Mineral, Rice, Smooth

Preparation

200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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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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