411 Tasting Notes
Nom. I liked this one a bit. For me it had all the earthy, dark, heavy flavors that I want from a pu-erh, and none of the scary fishtank or aquarium flavors that I really don’t want. I’m on my second western-style steep, and it’s still very flavorful and amazingly dark. Thanks Angrboda!
Preparation
Needed caffiene this morning. Finishing off my sample of this tea. It’s helping. And I shortened the steep time to two mintues – which helped with the tannic level. And I added sweetener, which made this a really nice cuppa this morning.
Preparation
Interesting. I want more orange flavor out of this. It’s a very nice pu-erh, and it’s got some nice background fruit flavors, but nothing currently that is a strong orange blood flavor. Which I was really hoping for, as I love blood oranges.
It’s a good tea. I was just hoping for more orange.
Preparation
I am really beginning to like this tea a lot. What a turn around. From initially thinking it was like Orange Pledge to being something I crave. It’s not a sweet tea, it’s lightly bitter and I think that’s what I like about it. The same thing that draws me into drinking tonic water plain; its got a little bite to it.
The trick with this one is hotter water and SHORT steeps. And I need to get back to Shang Tea to buy more of this.
Preparation
I’ve tried 4 cups of this in the last 2 days.
I’ve tried using their 6-8 rings per cup idea at higher temps and lower temps. I’ve tried more rings and higher and lower temps.
With 6-8 rings per cup at lower temps, it’s so pale that you can barely tell that tea was steeped. The flavor was VERY delicate. To the point where this un-subtle tea drinker kept eyeballing the glass as if it was kidding.
At higher temps, it was a little stronger, but still very subtle, more astringency.
With more leaf, the astringency was stronger and the flavor was still delicate.
This is just not my cuppa. If any of you would like to swap for it, send me a PM, and we can work something out.
The leaves on this are really pretty.. the little rings are CUTE. However, I’m having a touch of an issue getting it to brew right. The steeping instructions on the site say 6-8 rings per cup with water “a little under boiling”.
Which sounded a little off, so I used that amount, and water at 175. That brew was almost clear and fairly flavorless. So, I’m off to try it at like a 190. We’ll see how that works.
Note to the world – Reddi-Whip is not a good substitution for cream or half and half.
I’m having a bit of Earl Grey fail today. I like my EG with a bit of milk and sugar. My first cup got tossed because I hadn’t noticed the milk was off and there were strange white floaty bits it in.
So, 2nd try, there was nothing in the fridge other than Reddi-Whip. Fine. I’ll try that. Yeah, that wasn’t the best. But it was better than off floaty-bit milk.
