Mother Of Pearl

hmmm… dry blend is very pretty. alternating woodsy fruity smell…. …. ….? what? SO COOL!!! when my timer went off and i went to pull my tea basket there were sparkles roiling with what i can only describe as tidal eddies… i can admit it: i firmly believe that sparkles fix a great many things, lol.

i taste light fruit, cinnamon… no puerh. a metallic echo—perhaps i oversteeped? i taste sandalwood, but smell mango. although as it cools i detect more fruit.

the dry blend is lovely to look at, as are the eddies of sparkles, visually the tea is striking… aaaaaaaaaand i was going to say that the taste is not as striking, but as it cools it changes completely and becomes a true fruit puerh!

i find myself bewildered… so i steep it at one temperature, watch it at the same temperature, but give five or six minutes before drinking it? how remarkable!

if you are an ingredients puritan where everything has to be vegan then this will not be a tea for you, but if you’re looking for a visually striking surprise then this may suit you!

i will forgo rating with a number until i order some of my own and experiment. thanks to ShortSorceress for this!

SIPDOWN! Thank you fiddling for sending this my way a while back. This isn’t a bad puerh/flavour blend. I can taste both the strawberry and the puerh without either one overpowering. There’s also a sweetness at the end of the sip, which i suspect is the mango coming through.

What i don’t like about this? Same as usual – get the bits of shiny crap OUT of my tea. I don’t need glitter balls to make me want to buy a tea!

I don’t think this is a re-order for me, not because i don’t like the taste but because i prefer lupicia’s chocolate strawberry in a flavoured puerh. Still though, happy to have tried this one :)

Thank you Ellyn! This tea has sparkles in it… I love sparkly teas :] The aroma is very sweet and earthy. The flavor is extremely tasty! I love the mixture of fruity sweetness and the earthiness of the pu-erh. Such a lovely tea :] Thank you again!

I’ve been curious about this tea for a while, so I was excited to receive it as part of a swap package from Dinosara. Thank you!

The smell of this tea reminded me of a country store I used to go to when visiting my grandparents during vacation. The woman who owned the store would always have several candles burning. There were one or two strawberry scented candles and then various other fruit scented ones burning at the same time. The smell should have been overpowering, but to me it seemed homey and warm. Plus, the woman who owned the store always called me “honey” or “sugar”, and I loved that. Happy times.

Once brewed the fruity scent of the tea lingered. I was getting lots of strawberry, but the mango was more subtle. The taste was a bit of fruit, not near as much as I was expecting given the smell, and rich, dark, tea with a hint of smoke. The pu-erh was not as earthy or woody as I was expecting, but I do not have much experience with pu-erhs yet. The richness of the tea and the fruit flavors combined to make an enjoyable tea.

It’s not something I can see myself reaching for everyday, but I can see how this could occasionally find it’s way on my shelf.

I must be a purist when it comes to Pu-erh but I’m just not liking the favored ones. While I enjoy this tea I just know I’d enjoy it more as a black or green tea.

Finally on the mend from the Cold of Death (also known as a wicked combination of bronchitis and pneumonia) and I can finally dive into the box of teas that arrived a week ago! Is there anything more cruel than having a box of 20 new teas arrive that you cannot smell or taste? GAH. Anyway, I think the proportions were a tad off in this one, the mug it was made in was larger than expected so it didn’t have my usual ratio of sugar in it. Still, I very much enjoyed it. Let me put it this way. I felt it needed a touch more sugar, but not enough to get me off of my lazy duff to get up and add it, ha! I really liked how the earthiness of the pu-erh balanced out the sweetness of the fruit…I definitely need to try this one again.

Fixed myself a cup of this to drink in the bath with a good book, and oh my gosh the leaves alone are just so pretty with the pearls and everything. The taste is light and sweet, and I don’t get that earthy/fishy pu-erh taste that I get with the others I’ve tried. Lovely!

Intense natural strawberry flavor. I also taste the rose, but the mango seems to be lost. The pu’erh flavor is also very much hidden – I don’t taste any fishiness or dirt taste – maybe I added too much sugar in anticipation of that taste. I am not a fan of pu’erhs, but this was a delicious dessert tea.

I’ve been curious about this tea for a while now for a number of reasons. The ratings are so high and I really wondered if it was as good as everyone said. The combination just seemed like it wouldn’t work, and the pearl pieces seemed odd, but sometimes things just all come together and are amazing. This is one of those times.

This is my first Pu-erh and I almost put off trying it because it is a blend and I wanted to taste Pu-erh in its natural state first. I’m glad I didn’t wait, this was really good. In fact, I think that if I had just started out with a plain Pu-erh I wouldn’t have liked it and may even have given up on it. The Strawberry and Mango really add a wonderful flavor to this and help with the wet moss smell. I really don’t like the way this tea smells at all, but after a few cups it’s growing on me. I also find that I enjoy the second steep more than the first because it mellows out a bit. I like that the pearls are for more than just show, they add a subtle sweetness that brings out the fruit flavors.

I don’t think this is a tea I could enjoy drinking every day, I think it will become another fall tea for me like Lapsang Souchong. Something about the smokey, earthy flavor just screams fall to me.

This is my first Pur-eh tea, and I am impressed. Just sweet enough, just savory enough, and with an absolutely AMAZING smell that reminds me of chocolate covered strawberries or cherries. I am in love. It might be one I get more of just because its brilliant.