Ku Cha House of Tea

This jar of looseleaf had been so woefully neglected I figured it wouldn’t be good for much but iced tea. First time I’d ever tried sun tea with looseleaf, but it worked pretty well—steep, then strain. Made a nice, deep drink with that wet burlap/grainy flavor typical of Keemuns.

Azzrian’s review of molasses-y Sinjahara yesterday inspired me, so I heated some of the cold brew and added a half-teaspoon of molasses to it. Tasted a little stewed after all the mistreatment, but in a good way. Keemun and molasses are a good pairing if you need a stick-to-your ribby cup.

This was a gift from a friend who called it “swamp tea” and thought it was appropriate since I live in Florida. Brewing the leaves loose does indeed look like a swamp, in a pretty way. The leaves reveal their vibrant green after they’ve steeped. The tea is a pale gold-yellow and the taste is very mild but lightly earthy and vegetal. I like floral and grassy greens, but love greens like this.

I just got this tea today. It smelled so sweet and rich. The flavor was light, a little buttery, sweet. This is exactly what I wanted in a tea on this day. Those are the best days, aren’t they? The best part was drinking this tea out of a soup bowl which allowed me to slurp all the subtle earthy flavors.

Thanks Bonnie for the sample

The dry smell is really nice. It is very sweet and smooth smelling. I am catching hints of vanilla and the same doughnutish smell I got from the cornfield tuocha verdant tea is selling.

The wet smell is like the dry smell but the doughyness is amplified. It smells like freshly needed dough mixed with a hint of vanilla extract.

This is a quite good tasting tea. The taste reminds me somewhat of the cornfield tuocha. It has the same bread qualities to it. It is moist and goes down very easily. Overall a nice tea.

I accidently wrote the tea description in > so if anyone wants to edit this note with the correct info, please do!

A few weeks ago I was in Boulder for the Tea Festival and I stopped by Ku Cha House of Tea specifically for some Puerh.
I was on the hunt for some Puerh for making morning latte’s to share with my 11 year old grandson who has become a fan of grandma’s yummy tea.

Ku Cha is a beautiful tea house! I could go on and on about the great service (which I will do on reviews from time to time).
This particular day, I was sniffing around the Puerh section (which is quite large) and was interested in one but not sure enough to purchase. An employee offered me the option of a free gonfu tasting to see if I liked the Puerh. “Sure”, I said. (I’m no dummy)
I sat down on a beautiful small teak bench while my tea was prepared at a beautiful large wooden gonfu station with a rock and lizard pet
and built in water heating element.
The server was well trained in picking up my cup with bamboo tongs and doing a wash then pouring the Puerh into a pitcher then my cup.
It was very fluid and beautiful like a dance. I wish I could serve as well.

I didn’t happen to prefer that particular Puerh (it was lighter than I was looking for), but I did find this one that I’m reviewing today.

I wanted extra amounts of tea left over for making chilled Puerh to drink during the day. I add ginger simple syrup or mint now and then when I make this tea for the frig.

I used 3grams tea, 12oz water, steeped 30 seconds on steep 1-3 and 3 minutes on steep 4&5. (Always rinse the leaves first 30 seconds)

The wet leaves never smelled leathery or very earthy. The scent was sweet.
The color of the liquor was always clean and clear, red brown to very dark red brown on the longer steeps.

I usually go into a 1,2,3, type of review on Puerh’s but I don’t want to this time.
I specifically bought this to enjoy sweet or as a latte and that’s how I tasted it this morning which will make this a different kind of review.
I will say that plain and without adding anything to this tea, it is sweet and not very earthy or bready. It was smooth. You can steep the heck out of it and it is not bitter but still sweet and smooth leaving an almost silky feel at the finish.
At one point I picked up cinnamon, tingling on the tongue and a hint of malty cocoa like a black tea (steep 2).
The business at hand was adding milk and sweetening though. How would this Puerh hold up to those additions? Some tea’s fold. The flavor of the tea disappears like a poof of vapor…and all you taste is milk. Not good.
You have to be a little careful not to add too much milk here. This is not a thick and earthy, bready Puerh. With a splash of milk and sweetening, you have a very tasty latte with a malty flavor (which is super good considering that my other latte Puerh’s taste like caramel).

This was a good choice. I’m going to keep drinking this all Fall as the weather changes (which begins next month). Hard to imagine that the first snow will be coming in October!

http://youtu.be/r2HA56_Vnrg This video of Ku Cha shows just how fine a Chinese Tea House can be.

Rain!
Not just teaser sprinkles that make the sidewalk sweaty, rain with a little friendly thunder that lasted off and on last night. (I can just hear my mom singing “Showers of Blessing” right now :)

I always associate Keemuns with rainy days, and this was the first one I put my hand on. It’s extremely light for a keemun—the stereotypical Keemun dark, wet burlap taste is barely detectible. This morning, it was compounded by my rush to get it steeped so I could sit outside and smell the dampness. This one needs a full 4 or 5 minutes to squeeze out its whole personality.

Still and all, it’s a lovely morning. Hope some showers of blessing fall wherever you are.

Haven’t had this for a while. Still, I believe, the mildest Keemun I’ve ever sampled. A little sweetness at the forefront, but less of the grainy taste I associate with Keemuns. Still pleasant, and next time I’ll see if it can hold up to a little milk.

The dry leaves sitting in my gaiwan are all white buds, covered with white, downy hairs. I am disappointed to notice that the tea is not quite as strikingly white as other Bai Hao Yin Zhen that I have seen.

The first brew yields a sweet, complex aroma that reminds me of freshly boiled pumpkin. The mouth feel is heavy bodied, and the flavor is like butternut squash and fresh walnuts. The second steeping reveals an apple-like sweetness, and the body becomes lighter. Unfortunately, there is a hint of bitterness to this brew.

The wet leaves reveal mostly whole buds, with a fair number (about 25%) of broken leaves.

The third steeping retains its sweetness and loses its astringency. The fourth steeping has a nice umami flavor. Sadly, I’m all tea’d out after this, so I am unable to do more.

This is sweeter and milder than many of the keemun teas I’ve had. Generally I associate Keemun flavor with burlap feed sacks and cattle barn scents (a good memory—I’m a farm kid). Those sensory things are present, but not not nearly as pronounced. Still a good basic black tea.

Very buttery and warm flavors. Good for three steeps.

This tea is a tea revelation. If you read my notes, you probably think I have tea revelations on an hourly basis. At the rate I’m going, they happen no more than weekly.

This Keemun is a deeply rewarding tea. It has many moods, nuances, and overtones. It’s very rich and one does not need to seek out subtlety or wonder “could that really be a fleeing taste of chestnut?” or “is this deeply walked-in shoe leather a figment of my imagination?”

Ku Cha, which provides very speedy delivery and excellent service, has a real winner here. The full-bodied tea makes me want to stand up straight, starch my collars, and salute. The aroma and taste is a bit playful yet staunch at the same time: some very light smoke, some fruity grape (or is that wine?) some cocoa, some floral. This is a tea with a lot of character and depth. I know that Keemuns are not particularly old teas, but this one seems to have travelled ancient paths and seen many sights and made many sage observations.

I made a large mug and figure that it probably costs about $1.00 TOPS. Possibly more like 75 cents. It’s a little more costly than the average tea, but the extra price is worth it. I could most certainly buy this again.

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Drinking it

This was good this morning

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Drank it at work on a rainy day

I love the smokey flavor of this tea.