April 21st, 2010
Alright, I know I’m not into ridiculous flavored teas — the kind where the taste of the tea is lost. But I am a fan of using teas in recipes where tea compliments another food, or another food compliments a tea. So while drinking some of my Green Elephant Pu-erh, I was thinking that it would go great with vanilla ice cream. So I filled a mason jar with a nice chunk of my beencha and filled the jar with boiling water, I sealed the jar and left it in the refrigerator for 12 hours. The resulting tea was completely black, like coffee black. So I poured it into a frosty mug and added a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, and I loved it. The sweetness of the tea really brought out the earthiness in the tea — it was a match made in dessert heaven, and as close as I’ll ever get to drinking Root Beer flavored “tea?”.
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Tags: ice cream, pu-erh, tea
Posted in Pu-erh Tea | 7 Comments »
October 19th, 2009
An interesting post came up today on the puerh tea community, and I wholeheartedly agree with what Linda Louie had to say: “Most attention about Pu-erh tea has been paid to the aged Pu-erh. There is a consensus in the Pu-erh community that Pu-erh tea is “the older it gets, the better it is.” Don’t get me wrong. I love aged Pu-erh because it possess qualities that no other teas can match. However, young raw Pu-erh should not be devalued either. Unlike the old days, many young raw Pu-erhs manufactured today are made of premium leaves and from a single mountain. When brewed with lower temperature water and short brewing time, they are light, brisk, fresh and have very comfortable “Qi.” Although young Pu-erh generally has more caffaine as compared to aged Pu-erh, it gives a good “pick-me-up” during the day. Young raw Pu-erh has features similar to green tea, except it is more flavorful, can last multiple brewing and richer in nutrients as they are made with the broad leave species. The old belief that “newly made raw Pu-erh tea is undrinkable” is only a fallacy.”
Wow… well said Linda!
Read the rest of the post and all of the replies at the Puerh Tea Community’s website: http://community.livejournal.com/puerh_tea/240215.html
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Tags: puerh, raw puerh
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September 8th, 2009
Mandarin’s tea blog held an interesting three-part discussion on the similarities and differences between aging cigars and puerh tea, if you are interested in aging your puerh, check these articles out:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Thanks for the great read!
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August 26th, 2009
Puerh tea has gotten a lot of press recently, in recent years prices have skyrocketed as the Western world learns of this curious tea, this time Puerh made it to Time.com:
Puer Tea: China’s Next Hot Commodity?
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1918419,00.html
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August 17th, 2009
(via: Puerh Tea Community Blog)
Linda Louie, Owner of the Bana Tea Company [http://www.banateacompany.com] wrote this great post:
“Not only are occasional Pu’erh drinkers fooled, professionals can be fooled also. Whether Pu’erh novice or professional, one needs to utilize common sense and trust his or her natural instincts. When it comes to buying Pu’erh, the most important thing is taste it before you buy. Many tea shops offer free tasting and many on-line tea shops offer free samples or samplers for a nominal price. Take advantage of these offers.
Good Pu’erh, new or aged, should give you a comfortable sensation in your mouth and a sense of well-being after consumption. The flavor should be clean and brisk without any odd taste or odor. One of the most unique characteristics of quality Pu’erh is its lingering aftertaste, especially in aged Pu’erh. For newer raw Pu’erh, your may find it a bit bitter or grassy when your tongue first comes in contact with the tea. However, the bitterness should quickly dissipate and transform into a subtle sweetness that coats your mouth. If the bitterness lingers, it is likely that the tea is of lower quality. Low quality Pu’erh is also flat and lacks the body that quality Pu’erh offers. Additionally, the brew from good quality Pu’erh should be clean, bright and translucent, not dull or cloudy. Finally, the more specific information the tea vendor provides, such as a the exact vintage, harvesting season, region where the tea was produced, the higher the likelihood you are buying a good product. Vendors who want to make a quick profit usually do not care about tea and will not invest the time to gather the information for their customers. Pu’erh teas produced after 2006 are required to pass the inspection of the Yunnan Food Administration. A blue “S” logo and a certificate number should be printed on the wrapping which serves as verification that the product has passed the inspection for food safety.”
Thanks for the great information!
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July 20th, 2009
Pu-erh is one of the most interesting and sought after teas these days because of its medicinal properties as well as its general collectibility. With pu-erh cakes from decades past going for thousands of dollars these days, collecting pu-erh for long-term storage can be quite an investment.
Before deciding where and how to store pu-erh, you have to figure out which type of pu-erh you are actually in possession of. Jump over to Wikipedia to decide whether you have a raw pu-erh or ripened pu-erh. Ripened pu-erh has already gone through a secondary fermentation process to “fake” the aging process, so further aging this tea may produce a questionable result. Raw pu-erh is what most speak of when discussing the storage of pu-erh cakes.
Tea natually takes on the odors wherein it is stored; this is wonderful for adding a hint of vanilla or bergamot to your tea, but in the case of storing pu-erh — finding a neutral smelling place to store it is of utmost importance. Stéphane Erler from http://teamasters.blogspot.com suggests you “flake [off] some pu-erh and put it in the open for a couple of months in the basement and in your other alternative place(s). Then smell and taste the different samples to see which aged best over this period.”
Pu-erh masters reccomend storing the tea at 60-80% relative humidity, while carefully monitoring the tea to ensure that no mold or any other unsightly organisms are making home in the tea. Wesley Crosswhite took this information and came up with quite the creative solution seen here: http://thegreenteareview.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
It has also been said that pu-erh ages better when stored with many other cakes at the same time. This kind of makes me want to grab a shovel and dig my own pu-erh cave below my floorboards and fill it with puerh cakes. Pu-erh ages best when kept in the bamboo wrappers groups of cakes come in, unfortunately these packs of pu-erh are hard to come by in western countries.
The main take-away points are:
- Keep the tea in an odor-free environment.
- Keep the relative humidity between 60 and 70%.
- Keep a constant flow of fresh air going through your storage place.
- Keep the storage area dark.
- Keep the tea covered with a breathable material (fabric, or the original paper wrappers work fine) free from dust.
- Always test the are you plan to store your tea in with a small amount of tea to save yourself from ruining a large amount of pu-erh.
- Check the progress of your tea often.
If anyone has any solutions to pu-erh storage or any corrections, feel free to let us know!
We recently began selling airtight tea tins at Chicago Tea Garden: Airtight Tea Tins @ Chicago Tea Garden
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Tags: pu-erh, pu-erh storage, tea, tea storage
Posted in Pu-erh Tea, Tea Storage | 3 Comments »
I’m not sure what to think of this! So I won’t. I’ll just try it, and then sell it to unsuspecting children in the neighborhood, because it sure as heck LOOKs like a root beer float…
(maybe so doing I can fight childhood obesity)
Simply brilliant!… I love creativity. I experiment with lots of teas but never would have thought of using Ice Cream!.
I am so glad I am not the only one who sometimes puts odd things in their tea and it works! I recently put some salt in a particular tea and it was wonderful. Perhaps I have a bit of Tibetan in my far ancestors.
Pardon my French, but holy sh*t this is awesome!
I have never thought of that, just another thing to try. I’ve noticed that this tea also goes well with teriyaki chicken (but most pu-erh i’ve tried do).
Wow, nice experiment Tony. Glad to see it worked out great.
Wow! Did it really taste that good? Can’t wait to try it this weekend. I’ll see if my husband would love it. Very creative! Good job!