Tasting note 600!
It was only like two, maybe three, weeks ago that my tea twin VariaTEA and I were both at 500 – and now she’s nearing on 700 (knowing her, she’ll likely be there by the end of the day). Dang sore teeth! She totally, by a landslide, wins our tasting note competition though. ‘Mad props’ to her, and so forth.
Anyway, for my 600th note I wanted to do something ‘monumental’ – so this note will be marking my first ever taste encounter/experience with the highly complicated tea category Pu’Erh. I decided to approach this as a total tea newbie – someone who might go into a DT store and pick this out, not knowing anything about Pu’Erh (like the fishiness, or how it gets better with age, that it comes in cakes, etc.) and who maybe was just interested in the flavours.
Out of DAVIDsTEA’s Pu’Erh options, this one sounds the most appealing to me.
Dry, the smells strongly of oranges, chocolate, and something else somewhat unidentifiable. A tad “fishy”, I suppose but if I had no idea that was a descriptor associated with Pu’Erh I’d probably be more likely to describe it as “oily”. Sort of like cooking oil.
My parameters for this cup were 1.5 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for four minutes. To play into my “tea newb” approach, I did not do a rinse because this is something an uneducated tea drinker would not know to do and because I know, at least in my area, DT employees do not advise customers to do this.
As far as steeped smell goes, there is a strong presence of orange and a lesser one of chocolate. The same hard to place (likely the Pu’erh) smell carries over into the steeped aroma. I should note that while it smells odd it doesn’t smell bad. I’m interested to see if Tre would be able to smell it (he’s not home, so that’ll have to wait until another time) because his pallet (well, at least in regard to tea) is undeveloped like a complete tea newb’s would likely be – plus he often tastes peculiar/highly different notes in the tea I make him.
Taste wise – it’s really not so bad. Maybe that’s because I went into this with so much trepidation and hesitation, though. Anyway, I most predominantly taste the orange which is like a combination of orange zest/actual oranges and juicy (not sour) orange candy. This is the first taste, and the strongest. In the middle is the taste/smell that is harder for me to identify; likely the Pu’Erh. I imagine as I drink more Pu’Erh this flavour will become less abstract to me. I’m just thankful that the highly oily/fishy smell that I’m totally experiencing hasn’t carried into the taste. Finally, the chocolate kicks in after the Pu’Erh and carries into the aftertaste along with remnants of the orange flavour. I can see, based on this, why this has been characterized by some people as tasting like a Terri’s Chocolate Orange.
Overall, I think this was a good introduction and I’m thankful that I found the cup drinkable – I was very worried I’d take a sip and feel highly compelled to dump it. Now that I’ve lost my Pu’Erh virginity I think I’ll be more welcoming to trying Pu’erh in the future – though it’s not something I want to rush into. I’ll start with the two small samples I currently have already, and we’ll see how it goes from there.
People who liked this
Comments
Yay for 600 and for finally trying pu’erh!! I had no idea I was that close to 700. I will most definitely be hitting that threshold by the time the night is through.
WOOOOOOOOOT! grats on 600!! YAYAYAYAYAY! I’m happy to help with your puerh journey when you’er ready to shift into straight ones :)
I may take you up on that, though it likely wont be for a while. I hardly drink any straight tea – as is (mostly blacks/Genmaicha) so I’m in no rush to branch out that quickly.
Yay 600! :)
Oh. PHEW. I read that as having 500 or 700 teas! Not tea logs! :O
Yay for 600 and for finally trying pu’erh!! I had no idea I was that close to 700. I will most definitely be hitting that threshold by the time the night is through.
WOOOOOOOOOT! grats on 600!! YAYAYAYAYAY! I’m happy to help with your puerh journey when you’er ready to shift into straight ones :)
I may take you up on that, though it likely wont be for a while. I hardly drink any straight tea – as is (mostly blacks/Genmaicha) so I’m in no rush to branch out that quickly.
Yay 600! :)
Oh. PHEW. I read that as having 500 or 700 teas! Not tea logs! :O