Gong Ting Pu-erh in Tangerine "Golden Horse 8685" Ripe Tea

Special Thanks to John R for this one!

The process of this amazes me!

“A delicious high quality pu-erh leaf has been stuffed into the rind of a whole tangerine! The leaves were stuffed in wet, and then allowed to dry in the sun for about a week. The smell and taste of citrus is VERY present in this tea. If you want extra citrus taste, break some of the dried tangerine rind and brew with the tea together.”

I really like this!

I took the “top” and some pu-erh along with a small chunk that was in with the loose inside the tangerine. I’m going to send the brunt of the base and rest of the pu-erh over to my Sororitea Sister LiberTeas to see what see thinks.

I REALLY like this! I could see how purist of pu-erh might not because this IS very orangy…it doesn’t have that stereotypical pu-erh aroma or taste. BUT…I wouldn’t call myself a pu-erh purist and many of you know I like to try different things :)

I really like this because it IS different and because of the process AND the tangerine flavor is really true and juicy!

I’m so blessed I was able to try this one! Thanks again John R

This is an excerpt from my blog that also has a picture of this tea and a story with review at www.teaandincense.com

I received a gift box of Pu-erh from a kind and generous friend, I was so overwhelmed that the first person I told was a fellow Pu-erh lover Eric, who works at Happy Lucky’s. I shot him a quick note on Google+ and we arranged to bring my treasure by HL on Friday.

When Friday arrived, Eric was laughing at the amount of Pu-erh I had received! I told him to pick out anything for us to taste and his face lit up.

“I’ve never had a Tangerine Pu-erh,” he said. “Me either, I replied, and there’s three in the box, take your pick!”

I hopped up onto a bar stool to watch the opening of the plastic wrapped dry tangerine. (You couldn’t actually see with all the wrapping and the labels).

First, he opened the larger of the tangerines which had some mold on the fruit skin. We didn’t know what to do about this. Would we get sick if we drank the tea inside?

Eric went to the computer and shot a note out for our tea club members who might shed light on the safety of drinking the tea and then we made a decision to wrap it up and try another one of the tangerines just to be safe. (Later we found out that unless it was extensive and close to the Pu-erh it was probably OK).

We were determined!

The next tangerine is the one pictured. A Gold Horse grade 5 (that refers to the size of the leaves). http://flic.kr/p/dphcWo

Not available from Yunnan Sourcing at the moment; sourced from Grandness Tea on AliExpress.

Over the past week I have been sipping on two lovely “dark teas” (both are new to me) – this one and a 2012 Supreme Purple Bud Raw Puer Mini Cake (8g).

This is a highly enjoyable find! Gong Ting fermented in an orange rind and it is delicious. The first 2-3 steeps are a bit strong with a pleasant astringency but the later steepings are more mellow – very enjoyable cups from the first to the last. If you break up a bit of the rind with the tea leaves, you can adjust the flavor to match your individual preferences. I find the orange flavor to be quite subtle and the leaf itself is of a good quality. Each orange package weighs 22-24 grams so it’s good for four different sessions (each session with many resteeps).

I love ripe Puerh and I love citrus fruits. I tried EVERYTHING, I’ve steeped longer time, I’ve steeped smaller times, used a lot of leaf, small amounts of leaves… EVEN talked to it. I cant make myself like it. I tried it 4-5 different times 4-6 steeps each time. I will try another ‘Pomelo’ or citrus fruit because I want to make sure it’s not a quality issue.

I have two more completely new oranges… I will be making donations.

Earthy, mushroomy pu-er. For the life of me I cannot detect any citrus taste to it, though the idea of aging in a mandarin peel is interesting.
Not a lot of cha-qi to this one. Maybe a good starter for introducing folks to pu-er.

Now this is one divisive tea – based on prior reviews. I always thought that puehrs stuffed in citruses are just a marketing gimmick. Finally, I ordered this puehr-in-a-tangerine to try it and check off the box.

Well, I was wrong. This rather simple earthy, autumnal-decay type of puehr blends with the citrus peel in a very natural way – like bergamot, ginger or chrysanthemum do. I always add part of the peel to the brew. The result is a simple, calming, autumnal drink. Dirt, mushrooms, a smell of the lake in the woods full of peat and fallen leaves.

There is not much of complexity, and definitely not the best choice for precise gong-fu sessions – but it is perfect for leisurely drinking the grandpa style.

These are back at Yunnan Sourcing and were on sale the other day, so I bought 10 of them for a total of 250 grams. I had never bought these from YS, but have had them in the past from other vendors and enjoyed them. The ripe pu’er was straightforward, mellow, and good. I had placed half the tangerine rind in with half the pu’er and had broken the rind into smaller pieces, so that when it rehydrated, it would hopefully release more oils. I did a rinse and a 15-20 second first infusion with boiling water. The citrus usually takes a little while to get going, so I enjoyed the first infusion slowly while leaving the lid on the clay pot. I don’t normally do that, but I tend to break all the rules with these stuffed tangerines. Next, I went for 30 seconds. It was fine, but I still wasn’t getting what I was after. The third infusion, I did not fill the pot fully with water, but instead went about 75%. The leaves were completely covered, but I wanted to concentrate this round. I let it steep for 2 minutes. Ahhh, that;‘s what I was after. It was rich and smooth with chocolatey malty notes , sweet and a hint of citrus. Pushing this hard had no ill effects on the pu’er. There was barely a hint of bitterness, but it could have been the rind of the tangerine. Whatever the cause, it was barely noticeable and worked with the hint of citrus. Everyone’s taste is a little different, but I would suggest trying at least one infusion pushed very hard with boiling hot water to see what you think. If you tried it in the past and thought it was weak or watery, give it a long hot soak and see if it works better for you. I had this after dinner, and there was no noticable caffeine hit for me. I think the stuffed oranges/tangerines are fun, and while I don’t normally go for flavored teas, herbal teas, etc., I do like these stuffed tangerpurines. :)

Nope.

I don’t like the taste at all, not the pu-erh and not the tangerine. It’s not gross but it’s just not flavorful to me. I tried with the tangerine (little bit and whole) and it didn’t have a tangerine citrus taste. I prepared it a few different ways. There is so some citrus, of course, but even with the whole tangerine, it’s pretty tasteless. I’ll let it sit some and see how it changes but that’s all I got to say about this one.

Although slightly different, my main focus is looking for a true tangerine yumminess so I much prefer the Aged Chenpi Ripened Tangerine Pu-erh (Teavivre). That one the tangerine has a great tangy tangerine aroma and taste.

Now this is some great shou! The citrus balances with the light earthiness of the tea perfectly. I definitely recommend brewing this with a good chunk of the the peel for added citrus flavour. Overall I’d say the taste is sweet, almost malty/caramel, and spicy like one of my favourite dark chocolates with orange zest and ginger, or even mulled wine.

I’m glad I bought a few because I can’t stop drinking it this week, each tangerine makes about three gong fu sessions in a small gaiwan which is pretty decent. Lost some marks for only making it through four good steeps before the flavour dropped off though. At the end of the day, I can’t complain considering I payed $20 for 250 grams of these delightful tangerines.

Brewed with boiling water in a 180ml gaiwan, roughly 8 grams of tea.
After two rinses, I brewed the first cup for 15 seconds, increasing by 5 or 10 seconds each additional brew. Four strong brews in total.

This tea doesn’t brew super strong, but lasts for a while. The colour of the liquor is paler than other ripe pu’er teas I came across. It has a medium body. The mouthfeel has some kind of cleansing feel to it, especially in the finish.

Without the skin, the citrus sourness is mostly present in the smell, the taste has more of the citrus bitterness.

The tea taste is very brothy (mushrooms) and only a little earthy. The tangerine taste is definitely present in the tea, but doesn’t dominate.

There is almost no sweetness in this tea, it’s mostly a bitter affair, but I think that’s nice. Also the aftertaste in the early steeps is mostly savoury with some bitterness but not much sweetness. The later steeps seem to have more acidic aftertaste.

With the tangerine peel, the liquor smells a bit like an apple pie to which someone added a bit too much of citrus peel. The wet leaf is now really reminiscent of citrus orchard with both the earthy and citrus notes present.

The taste with the skin is more tangy and sour and akin to actual fruit juice, but without the sweetness. I like it a lot.