PU-ERH MAPLE CHAI

Oh, wow!

Maybe it was a mistake to share my sample of this with Heather Martin now that I’ve tried it because it is VERY tasty. For some reason the idea of maple tea didn’t really excite me and so I’ve had this sample sitting around unsealed for months. I only opened it yesterday because I was splitting it up for my swap on Wednesday.

But yes. I’m going to have to get some more of this if I reorder from Tealux (and no reason I shouldn’t? I really enjoyed their puerh blends!). This one has a nice mix of spices, but the maple just sorta settles in there and sweetens everything up. The earthy puerh is perfectly suited too by accenting the maple, without bogging it down.

Summary: It’s sweet, earthy, rich, and just a bit spicy. It makes me think of Autumn. Win!

Oh this is tasty! Shared this with a friend tonight. We both really enjoyed it. She had hers plain and I had mine with milk and sugar. I would like to try brewing this in milk on the stovetop. I’d love to get a nice rich and creamy mug of this, especially on a rainy or cool night. Chai kick continues..

Thanks to Cavocorax for sparing me the last of her sample…it’s very delicious!

ERMAHGERD!

I got this as an extra sample with my recent order (they sent me 2 new pu-erh samples).
It smells soooo delicious, spicy, maple goodness!
The taste oh so divine. Probably the YUMMIEST chai I have ever had. The addition of maple makes it near perfection. This would benefit greatly from some added pure Canadian maple syrup.

Oh wow, this is not a tea I would dream existed but a friend sent me some and it smelled so appealing, it was tried at once. And it´s lovely – the earthiness of the pu-erh, the exquisite sweetness of the maple and a touch of spices. Really wonderful combination of flavours.

And just to say this maple tastes so much more natural and less fake than the flavouring in Oh Canada (not that I disliked Oh Canada, oh no. But this is better.)

I bought this a while ago. No tasting note yet. sigh.  I think I was hoping this would be mostly similar to Fusion’s Caramel Chai Pu-erh (especially now that it’s no longer for sale), It really isn’t like the Fusion blend.  The caramel is different.. caramel cubes here.  But I don’t know… it could be the same source?  Just different “harvests”?  The Fusion seems to have a deeper flavor though.  The first steep has a flavor that seems kind of like plastic to me?  Not sure why.  It’s not too spicy or caramel… made sure to get a caramel cube in the infuser.  The pu-erh isn’t deep enough for me either.   I should try it with two teaspoons at some point. The third steep is like a drying chai but also very thin to me for a pu-erh.  Nothing too thrilling… I don’t love it like I’ve loved past versions of the Fusion blend.  I guess this is why it took me so long to write a tasting note: in the past, I kept trying to steep it up and find the magic.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoon for a full mug // 14 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 5 minutes after boiling  // 3 minute steep   
Steep #3 //  just boiled // 5 minute steep 

Interesting! I like this but don’t love it. The dry tea smells strongly of spices – mostly ginger and clove. It’s interesting to try a “chai” blend that doesn’t have cinnamon dominating the spices! As it steeps, the earthy scent of pu-erh and a bit of maple add their scents to the spices. The flavours are actually pretty well balanced. You can definitely taste the pu-erh, the spiciness (I’m not really getting individual spice flavours, they all blend together pretty well), and just a hint of sweetness from the maple. Hang on, let me try the 2nd half of the cup with some milk and sugar. Hmmm… so the maple and the spices definitely benefit from the milk and sugar, but now the pu-erh base suddenly seems a bit out of place – I don’t usually go for “damp earth” flavours in my desserts, you know? I don’t think I’ve quite made my mind up about this tea yet.

I really want to like this one. It sounds so good, so I will have to come back to it again later.
It could just be that I got some stale leaves as I did order this off of amazon. The dry leaves are weak in scent. Maybe a faint whiff of clove and very little in the way of maple. There just isn’t much of a scent.
Brewed the clove scent is increased, not a lot though enough to make my mouth water. I can taste the cloves on the front with a tiny dash of cinnamon. The after note has a faint taste of maple, like the lingering aftertaste of a pancake breakfast.
I added about 1/16th a tsp. of stevia to this, which helped the maple notes on the end, but not enough.
I only brewed this with 1 1/2 tsp. leaf, maybe next time I will try with more.