My Teavivre order arrived yesterday!!!
That means that for the first time in a long time I actually don’t have any tea related mail things en route which is kind of weird? It also really makes me want to place an order, but I’m trying really hard to leave that itch alone.
Since this tea was the whole reason I placed this order in the first place it had to be the first thing that I tried. I’m just in love with the sticky rice scented green oolong that I own, but I’ve heard so many people say that this is better so I desperately needed to try it out. Now that I have tried it I don’t know that I’d say it’s ‘better’ necessarily but it is 100% equal to, in my opinion.
The rice aroma/flavour is VERY strong and clearly defined: it’s glutinous and conveys that somewhat sweeter and more distinct taste of “sticky rice” over general white rice in a phenomenally accurate and pleasant way. Really, to me, it tastes exactly like the sticky rice flavour/scent in the green oolong version that I adore so much. The key difference just comes down to the base. Because this is a pu’erh tea, it’s obviously very earthy and I think that note compliments the rice really well. It’s also a thicker, and heavier brew while the green oolong is more light bodied comparatively, and has floral notes which this does not. Underneath all the rice goodness I also tasted wet wood, and a light roastiness.
I also did a food/dessert pairing for the second half of the mug because I was hungry; I whipped up a quick chocolate mug cake soaked in a 50/50 coconut milk and Rumchata mixture. I picked rumchata because, firstly, it’s alcoholic but also because I figured since it’s rice based there would be a nice tie in flavour while still having differentiating sweet notes. And I was correct, this paired REALLY well. The vanilla and chocolate from the
booze and cake respectively worked with the more robust, full bodied earthy Pu’erh because they were equal to each other in richness but the cinnamon, coconut and rice of the milk/Rumchata mixture really tied together well with the rice notes in the tea.
It was excellent, and very indulgent, overall!
EDIT: I forgot to add that I really like that each tea bag comes individually sealed in one of Teavivre’s “sample” styled bags instead of just a generic package or loose in the big bulk bag they come in. That makes a HUGE difference to me because it still has all of the detailed information about the tea instead of just a pretty logo or the name.
Mm, I forgot all about “rice puerhs”