Chocolate & Strawberry Puer

If anyone is afraid of puer or even actively dislikes it, but wants to drink it, here is the tea for you.

Rich, decadent, dark chocolate aroma fills the room and courts your tastebuds. Then fruity, grown up strawberry flavor follows, not candy like, but think of real dark chocolate covered strawberries. The puer adds a dark, rich note without being being musty and absolutely not fishy – not even a bit.

Tunes: Accidentally Like A Martyr, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner – by Warren Zevon.
(Perhaps I should explain – we were listening to Roland to help my daughter remember some facts about African history, though there are several errors in the song, and it made me remember the other song, which I used to love!)

I’ve officially had a terrible day. I decided it was time to break into some comforting tea that does not require thinking. I just need something tasty and uplifting.

This tea is doing very well. It’s definitely puer, but mildly so. The strawberry is of the creamy frosting-like variety. The chocolate is sweet and delicious. Comforting indeed. It reminds me of those Japanese candies that are kind of cone shaped chocolates, half pink (strawberry) and half milk chocolate.

This might actually make a good latte, though I wouldn’t consider making puer into a latte under normal circumstances, today’s apparently a day for rule breaking.

I’ll report back on the latte.

EDIT: Almond milk added. Tastes okay, but better plain. Tasty stuff.

mmmm another backlog from yesterday. I decided to open this one up since it’s been ages since i had it and i wanted to see if i still love it. and i do. :) I like the subtleness of the strawberry flavour and how well it blends with both the chocolate and the puerh. It really is just a great cup of flavoured puerh :) i’ll have to try it as a latte before i finish it up, as i think that might be pretty tasty!

Thank you Ashmanra for this lovely sample! This all came about after a review of Spice and Tea Exchange’s Chocolate and Strawberry Puer…and Ashmanra (probably others also) were wondering if Lupicia was close to the same flavor or markedly different. Generously offering a sample for a side-by-side comparison, she sent me a sample.
So, I have 2 cups by my side and have taken time to sip and reflect on what I taste in each.
To be fair, this listing is under LUPICIA and this Puer is super fresh tasting Strawberry! More than anything this is dominant. I wish I could taste some chocolate but I don’t. No mocha, no chocolate at all. I could smell Puer when I placed my nose close to the wet leaves in the steeping basket but I realize the Puer flavor as richness and body in a general soft caramel way. I added sweetening and cream which made a latte which is very delicious. I consider this bright, robust Strawberry Puer. Tasting the Spice and Tea Exchange afterwards I noticed that the Chocolate is definately present up front with a more muted Strawberry woven around it. You can taste the Puer in the background and is more complex.

Both tea’s are worth having as unique flavor profiles. They are not the same at all. I am giving a rating for the Lupicia.

Another tea from the gracious Ashmanra
My oh my!
This is on the totally opposite side from my first taste of Puerh tea.
Obviously, this is flavored so it should be in a different category, however the Puerh is still present in this tea.
But, I just want to talk about the smell of this tea for a minute.
It is incredible.
I mean, if I could I would walk around with two mugs of this all day, one to drink and one to make any area that I am currently occupying smell utterly divine.
The strawberry in this tea literally smells like a French Strawberry Cream Tart I had one time.
So fresh, and so creamy!
I only get a little chocolate, which I am totally okay with, since I am not huge into chocolate tea.
More like a chocolate drizzle over the creamy tart.
The puerh in the background is bringing a bit of earthiness to the whole mix.
Taste is a little different.
It moves from Strawberry Tart to Strawberry Field.
Strawberries warmed from the sun with a bit of field dust on them.
Thats what this tea tastes like to me.
Which as I sit, looking out my icy window at the frozen landscape, this tea feels a little like a promise.
Thank you, Ashmanra, for giving me a bit of summer in the middle of January.

This is the sample that I received with my Lupicia Newsletter, and it is SO GOOD! OMG!

The chocolate and puer are perfect together, the chocolate is deep and dark and decadent, the strawberry sweet with a hint of berry tartness, and the puer is not as earthy as I’ve come to expect from Puer (and that’s a very good thing).

I love this!

My first puer! Or possibly my second – I feel like I may have tried one at Samovar a long time ago, but if I did I can’t remember anything much about it. Also the first tea I’m trying from my swap with Rie!

So, this tea – the dry leaf smells mostly like strawberry candy (a bit artificial, but not in a bad way) and also a bit chocolate-y and earthy. Rie suggested doing a brief rinse, but in my excitement to taste this I completely forgot about it. So no rinse for me.

For the first steep, I (accidentally – the more I get into different kinds of higher-end teas, the more I realize I am terrible at brewing properly) used less-than-boiling water and steeped for about (yep, my attention to detail could use some improvement!) 45 seconds. Flavor-wise, the first steep is mildly – and very pleasantly – earthy. There’s no fishy smell or taste whatsoever, thankfully. I’m not quite getting the forest floor/horse barn kinds of notes I often see mentioned with puers either, but I’d say this one leans (very slightly) in that sort of direction. There’s also a hint of chocolate; fortunately, it’s quite natural-tasting and blends well with the base. A lot of chocolate teas veer too close in flavor to the abomination that is chocolate soda for my liking, and I’m pleased to report that this one does not. This chocolate flavoring is nicely subtle. I’m not really getting any strawberry notes, although the brewed tea does smell rather like strawberry syrup or pie. I see a lot of mentions of strong strawberry flavor in other reviews, so it could be that my less-than-stellar brewing technique is at fault; in addition to what I’ve already mentioned, I suspect I may have ever-so-slightly underleafed. But strawberry or no, the first steep’s very enjoyable. There’s a bit of sweetness and also a bit of astringency, but the latter is no bad thing in my opinion.

Now for the second steep (1:30) – this is not dissimilar to Steep 1, although the earthy notes from the puer are a bit more prominent. The third steep (2:00) I messed up by using too much water. It tastes weak and weirdly sweet. It’s drinkable but not great. I attribute this entirely to user error. Fourth steep (2:30) is a similar deal – I think I killed the leaves with the excess water in the third steep. Oh well; I have enough left in my sample for one more brewing session and I’ll endeavor to be more attentive when I use it.

Thanks very much to Rie for sending this sample! This is probably going on my list for my next Lupicia order, and it’s definitely made me want to delve deeper into the world of puer.

When I saw the packaging, I saw C&S Puerh and I was confused. What was C&S? It smelled fruity in the bag, and it tasted fruity in my mug! It definitely needed milk and sugar. There was a hint of berries as well as bitterness. It was nice and sweet with the slight cocoa notes coming from the puerh. Delicious blend!

Post workout tea…..

This one is good. It amazes me how well chocolate flavor pairs with puer. I get hints of the strawberry along with a chocolaty richness, and then the earthiness (in light amounts) of puer. The taste is very close to coffee. For those of you out there that are puer beginners, this one definitely has training wheels! And I enjoy this one so much better than the Sunny Fruits Puer which I also liked.

(I am wondering if I am now ready for real pu’erh……;D)

Mug method with a 2 minute steep.

I can’t remember when I had this to be honest…a few days ago I think. I have been crazy swamped with school stuff before spring break starts so its been a lot of bagged tea and old staples the past few weeks.
Anyway, the smell of this tea blew me away. It literally smells identical to a chocolate covered strawberry. I doubt I could tell the difference if I did a direct comparison. It smells juicy and delicious. I am always a little wary when a tea has a steep time of under 2 minutes, mostly because I would much rather have an oversteeped tea than an understeeped one. But I was good and followed the instructions and I am glad I did. It came out the perfect combination or strawberry, chocolate, and an earthy flavor that I am assuming is the Puer. It was delicious. This one is gonna have to go on my mental shopping list :)