Well this is my 2nd attempt at Pu Erh. My 1st was adagio’s pu erh dante which was absolutely vile. But ya know… something just dawned on me. It’s almost exactly a year since that experience. I made my 1st online tea purchase, which was w/ Adagio, on Dec. 28th of 2008 and that (along w/ white cucumber which is now one of my faves) was one of them. Although I have to be careful to not analyze this analogy too much cuz then I start thinking about howe my life has changed since then and I get depressed.
Anyway, this is the 1st Numi tea I’ve had so I can’t tell you too much about them beyond what my observations for this particular bag will be. Yes, bag. Now I’m not a fan of bagged tea so bagged pu erh worries me even more. I’m also surpised the front of the bag uses “velvety and vanilla” to describe a chocolate pu erh.
Ingredients: organic Pu Erh, organic cocoa powder, organic vanilla, organic Theo chocolate cocoa nibs, organic rooibos, organic orange peel, organic nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Wow… the ingredients surprise me. This isn’t just a chocolate pu erh, this is more of a chocoalte chai/spice pu erh. Not what I was expecting, but it sounds good! I also love that all of the ingredients except for the cinnamon are organic. I’ve never heard of Theo chocolate before though. As if I couldn’t be more worried, they throw rooibos in here! I’m desperate to learn to love rooibos because it’s so healthy, but I just can’t seem to.
I open the bag and smell it. While I can smell the complexity and depth of the chocolate and pu erh, the only ingredient I can specifiically smell is the nutmeg. Not a bad thing, just interesting.
The odd thing about the steeping directions is they don’t tell you how much water to use. They don’t even use the vague term of a “cup”. So I weigh it. I would have anyway because I’m learning a lot of bagged teas are incredibly light. Wow! 2.5g! I’m impressed! It’s between the weight I prefer for a 6oz cup (2.25oz) and an 8oz cup (3g) so I decide to steep it as an 8oz cup for the higher suggested time of 5 min. (It suggests 3-5). I also steeped it just under boiling (205-210) instead of at boiling because I don’t want to kill the health benefits. I don’t think it’ll make that much of a difference.
The liquor is one of the darkest I’ve seen. Easily mistakable for black coffee. And that’s what it smells like. It smells like a chocolate chai steeped in black coffee. Sweet, spicy, rich, creamy, decedant, and very complex. After a quick stir, I take a sip. I have never been so glad for a tea to taste exactly the way it smells! I LOVE THIS! And pu erh is supposed to help you metabolize fat? this seems like it should add it!
For you to fully grasp what’s going on in my head, you need to understand that not only was I terrified of pu erhs, but aside from chais I don’t care for black teas in general. Normally I say who I think would like a certain tea, but this time I think I’m going to say who I think won’t like this because the list is much shorter. I think the only person that would not like this would be a person who doesn’t like coffee or chocolate.
Serving Suggestion: While this is wonderful on it’s own, this tea would make a wonderful latte steeped in a ratio of 2 parts milk to 1 part water or steeped completely in milk as an adult version of hot chocolate. 1TB of white chocolate creamer instead of milk would also be divine.
I’m drinking this tomorrow! Jillian surprised me w/ a bag=D
OoOoOo, enjoy! It is fantastic! I have only steeped this is small doses though. 1 minute was good. 2 minutes was good. 3 minutes was good. Never more than that though (especially with the collective pu-erh fears).
In reply to your statement “It blends the same ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus flavors of the cookie, though they may not be present in the tea, it is wonderful.” they actually are all there, except for the ginger.:) Really? 3 min max? That’s completely different from the way I tried it the 1st time I had it. I went the full 5 min.
Hahah! I rarely if ever read descriptions of teas, I just try them and see if I can figure out what is in it. :) Did you overpower any of the flavors? I sipped one brewed at five minutes, I thought it was too dark and lost all subtlety of the spices. I shall have to brew a full 5 mins and see!
No, not really. Then again I didn’t really want the spices other than to add to the complexities of the chocolate. It is after all, not a chocolate chai or chocolate spice pu erh. It’s a personal annoyance of mine when a tea is labeled as x flavor but then they add all these other things to it. I steeped it in 8oz last time, but tomorrow I’m going to make it even more concentrated by only steeping it in 6oz. I’m contemplating adding milk, but that may be a pu erh crime in China or something LOL:)
Haha, I’m not sure if adding milk to a pu-erh is a crime, but if it is, I’m sure adding chocolate is too!
Naw, not a crime. Golden moon has a pu-erh chai =]
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that one Ricky and I’m not sure how to hand that one… I can’t bring myself to add milk to Kashmiri chais either.
For me it was a different sort of cookie, but other than that I agree with everything here. Everything. Right down to the very last period.
:D I’m rationing the rest of the bags of this, but I am going to try some varied steepings, especially the most recent one from @Cofftea, but I think honestly, my rating on this has risen to 99.
Cinoi, really the only reason this one isn’t 100 is because it has other ingredients in it besides chocolate and pu erh. Chocolate Pu Erh ice cream?
I can’t give things 100, that would mean I would never get sick of it, or ever want anything else :) And, mouth = watering at the thought of chocolate pu-erh ice cream.
100 means I not only crave it, but I get REALLY cranky when I run out. And by REALLY cranky I mean like pitch a fit and cry lol. Oh I wish I was exaggerating…
Understandable, 93 to me means scour and search to get some before impending blizzard snows you in the house with none. Then while rationing my two tea bags because none of the five stores I braved had any, I will creep the rating up because I savored them so much more. Probably going to have to do this challenge thing, I mean, two weeks of chocolate pu-erh, I can’t see any flaw in this plan.
Especially when you get 2 boxes @ 75% off plus more free… I mean free and discounted tea? OK I’m way too good at rationalizing things lol.
it barely even tastes like a pu-erh… yes I picked up a box from whole foods today… sooo yummy
I bought 2 online today!=D
WOW! WHERE?
www.numitea.com- they also have a loose version.
Cofftea did you order loose or bagged? I am interested in how the loose compares.
Unfortunately the sale was on bagged only. Next time I will get bagged though.
oops, I mean loose leaf.
I knew what you meant :D would love to hear how the loose is, see if it is any stronger