Pu Erh Dante

I am officially, certifiably crazy. I tried this about a year ago, and it’s been one of the VERY few (only?) teas I couldn’t even get past the 1st sip. But I’ve decided to get back into pu erhs again, and I’ve already had major success w/ Numi’s bagged version of their chocolate pu erh. I decided to use some of the frequent cup points I’ve banked to buy this and their pu erh poe so if I don’t like it, I only paid $0.75 to top off shipping. Now since I bought both and already hated this one once, you’d think I’d try the other one 1st. But nope. I want to conquer my fears.

It’s the middle of winter, so the tins were VERY cold. I smelled it right away and was shocked. Last time, the aroma of the raw leaves were that of a septic tank leak and almost made me vomit. But this time, they are much more faint. While there is the deep, complex aroma typical of black teas w/ a hint of earthiness and maybe even a touch of fecality, it’s nothing like I remember.

The preparation is also vastly different this time. Last time I steeped 1tsp (1.88g) in 6oz boiling water for 5 min. This time I went to Carolyn for advice. She suggested using 1g per 1oz water (I made a 4oz cuppa), rinsing the leaves in boiling water for 15sec, then doing a 20sec 1st steep. The only deviation I made from this was that I just just below boiling water for both the rising and the steeping because I wanted to preserve the health benefits.

I’m shocked at how dark the rinsing liquid gets… I almost cry as I dump it. But if adding this step is necessary for authentic preparation and a better cuppa, then that’s what I’ll do.

The 1st infusion is also very dark. Coffeeish. The aroma is like a lot of black teas: deep, complex, and earthy. I take a sip praying my gag reflex won’t kick in. And I’m pleasantly surprised. While it is deep, complex, and earthy just like the aroma… it does not taste like my worst enemy shoved me face 1st into a cow pie!

I am not a black tea person per se, but I am fairly certain that a person who is and prepares this tea using Carolyn’s recommendations will be quite satisfied.

The last of the Black Savant sampler samples.

I followed the directions in Cofftea’s post, as it has been quite a while since I’ve tasted a pu erh. Not sure why exactly, since I do like them, but such is life.

The sample tin smells of the leathery earth smell that I found in some of the unflavored Numi pu erhs. It’s not as complex a fragrance as I recall the Samovar pu erhs having, but it’s been a while since I had any of those, my other pu erh benchmark for now.

The liquor is really interesting on the first short steep after the rinse. Dark red, almost wine like. It has the earthy, mossy smell I associate with pu erhs.

The flavor is surprisingly mild, and I’m wondering if maybe a little longer steep would have made it more interesting even, but I’ll have time to try that later. It strikes me as a very basic, very likely shu pu erh (I’m no expert but this is my guess from what I’ve read) that is similar in flavor to the Numi Emperor’s Pu Erh.

I don’t find anything objectionable here, though those with a predisposition against the earthy, “fishy” flavor may not like this. It’s not fishy to me, but that’s because I tend to taste leather where others seem to taste fish.

That said, it’s not as exciting as the Samovar Pu Erhs, all of which were outstanding in my view. It isn’t a model of complexity as they were, and for something as mysterious as pu erh is to me, complexity seems rather a requirement.

It seems milder and a bit more interesting than the Emperor’s so I’m rating accordingly.

MY FIRST PU ERH YEAHHH! This one was also quite a bit smokey I guess? NOT AS MUCH as the lapsang but still very earthy and smooth! It’s another one I’d like to try again sometime; in fact I’d really like to get a better taste of pu erh in general. ANYBODY HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Got this as a sample from Adagio. The leaves are a dark tan with red tones. It is not as dark as most pu-erh teas I have tried. I steeped it for 2.5 min in a large Adagio tea cup and infuser.

The color of the liquor reminds me of a lightly brewed coffee.The aroma of the tea is musty, earthy, almost salty fish aroma we love of the pu-erh teas. The flavor is not a strong robust flavor I am aquanted to with pu-erh tea. This has a slightly sweet mild flavor.

The more you drink the cup the more the characteristics come out. I hold the tea in my mouth and swirl it around and the earthieness comes through with a bit of smoke. The after tast is not bitter nor are the tannins overpowering.

Its not a bad pu-er, but it could use some ageing. Its like a above average teenage student that has so much potiental but lacks the time. If someone would take it under its wings and be patient with it, greatness could come through.

In conclusion,
Adagios pu-erh dante is not a bad pu-erh tea, but really needs to be stored away for a while to mature to what it could be. If you are looking for a quick pu-erh it is not bad and I could reccoment it. It could be a gateway drug into the world of pu-erh.

I went ahead and prepared this one before reading Cofftea’s note. I was supposed to rinse the leaves? Whoops. The only other Pu-erh I’ve ever had is Maiden’s Ecstasy by Samovar, and I had to rinse those, so I guess I should’ve known.

The smell is fishy, like how Maiden’s Ecstasy was. It is a very dark brown color, almost like coffee. It tastes like dirt, and not in a good way. I’m going to abstain from rating this one because I didn’t prepare it the right way. I’ll try it again another time and then give it a proper rating.

This tea brews DARK. The leaves do have a slight fishy smell to them, but it’s not overpowering, and it doesn’t really transfer to the taste. Earthy is a better word for the taste, with mossy hints and a smooth, woodsy finish with just a hint of bitterness. While not my favorite black tea, this does have a unique flavor that works well for when you’re looking for something different, so I give it a thumbs up.

This was my first experience with Pu Erh tea, and my first time hating something I tried from Adagio. I’m glad I went with the sample size, because I actually ended up throwing this one at (another first). I got a little worried when I opened the tin and was hit with a rather fishy smell. But I was hoping the taste would be different. It really wasn’t. Earthy is fine, I usually like earthy. Fishy, however, I don’t like.

After enjoying the Nor Sun puerh a lot a friend recommended that I try Adagio’s Pu Erh Dante thinking I would like it which is coming full circle for me as Dante was the first puerh that I had years ago. Brewing it I can tell that this one is more like a traditionally stored puerh, although it falls a bit short of the Nor Sun in my opinion. It has deep earthy taste to it but it lacks the bit of mellow sweetness edge to it that comes along with a good earthy puerh in the earlier infusions. Although to its credit it does pick up some sweetness or at least the earthiness fades enough to balance it out by the 3rd infusion.

The first pu’erh tea I tried that wasn’t flavored, and the one that will always have my heart. Oh, Dante, how I love thee.
Being one of those weird people who finds comfort in the off-putting smell of pu’erhs (my last order of Dante, from what I can recall, smelt like a combination of fish and wet hay), I never pre-rinse the leaves before enjoying a cup. I do 1-2 teaspoons in my teapot, cover the leaves with boiling water, and steep anywhere from 7-15 minutes.
The color is a rich, dark, reddish-brown, and the earthy/fishy smell is overwhelming (in a good way, and only if you steep it for as long as I do) when you first take a sip. One of my favorite things about the tea is that, no matter how short or how long you steep it for, it never gets bitter—though I guess that holds true for most pu’erhs. It’s a very dark tea with a rich, full-bodied flavor that pleases the palette and goes well with just about any meal: pre, during, or post.
I find Dante more enjoyable than it’s Poe counterpart, as well as Rishi’s Tuo Cha cakes, due to the lack of “sweet” overtone that overpowers the earthy flavors in the others. Dante, as mentioned before and by many reviewers above me, is dark, yet complex and mellow all-in-one. I recommend it for coffee drinkers looking for a suitable tea replacement, and to anyone looking to try pu’erh teas.

Head’s up: your significant other will more-than-likely hesitate to kiss you after you drink it if they’re not fans of pu’erhs. :)

1st steep, 4oz water, 4g leaf (after 15 second rinse)

It’s a rather lovely reddish-brown color; there’s certainly a barnyard aroma, but it’s bringing back rather fond memories of a brief spate of horseback riding lessons I had in middle school, so I’m okay with that. I’m not going to try to break it down further – barnyard=hay/dirt/manure/horse. I’m not getting the fish that some others mentioned, fortunately. There is zero bitterness or astringency, and some sweetness. I’ll be curious to see how the flavors evolve.

2nd steep: I didn’t imagine it, there is a bit of an oily sheen on the surface of the tea, just after it’s poured. This faded as the tea cooled. Same dark red-brown color, same sweet barnyard taste, but slightly lighter in flavor and texture.

ETA: Ended up getting 5 steeps out of this, all 20-30 seconds, before it started getting weaker. My tin was very old, inherited from a former roommate and buried in a drawer, so your mileage will likely be better.

Wow this smells different than my typical black morning tea (Ceylon Sonata). This was the last sealed bag in my black sampler from Adagio. Maybe the name Dante scared me off since I didn’t want to end up in the inferno?

It steeped cloudy which startled me, has a very different nose from any other black tea I’ve tried. The smell reminds me of rain on clay if that makes sense with a hint of dust, smoke and dark spice added in, something my wife adds to the Indian curry for flavor, maybe black cardamom? The taste is fairly mild in comparison to the smell, tough to compare to anything since I’m not sure I’ve tasted something like this before.

The aftertaste is long and layered in that it starts with a black tea flavor and ends with a bit of astringency and bitterness almost 5 seconds after swallowing. All in all this one goes in the “needs further research” pile since my first impression isn’t bad, but it might need a different approach to steeping/preparation.

I used two heaping teaspoon fulls with just under 2 cups of water.

As far as I understand, this tea is not exactly a high end pu erh. I am not a pu erh expert and, in fact, this is the only pu erh I’ve tried. I have nothing bad to say about it, I really like the strong earthy flavor and aroma. I normally brew it in a gaiwan and can get 5 or 6 infusions. I normally fill the pre-heated gaiwan with enough leaf to leave it almost full after they unfurl, the first infusion is only a second long or so to wash the leaves. Then I just infuse for 10 seconds at a time until the flavor gets weaker and then double the time.

This is a good, inexpensive introduction to pu erh teas. I might experiment with other higher end pu erh teas soon.

This isn’t a great Pu-erh by any measure, but it is drinkable. It brews a deep red cup of tea with an earthy and slightly fishy aroma. The taste is more earthy than fishy. The first steep is flavorful, while the second is pretty weak. Don’t think I’ll buy it again, but if someone offers me a cup down the road I’ll drink it.

This was my first experience with a pu-erh tea. I steeped it for about 4.5 mins at about 200. It has a pretty interesting flavor to it. You can taste the earthy flavor it has to it. The smell (while not bad at all) has a small seafood smell to it. This smell does not transfer (completely) over to the taste. Do not get me wrong this is a pretty good tea, but if you do not like earthy teas this one is definitely not for you.

I really disliked this tea. It was worth a shot and I went in with an open mind but could not bring myself to enjoy the taste. It was too much like drinking moss or wet tree bark. I tried adding anything to it; cream, sugar, honey, and realized that nothing will ever make me enjoy this tea. However, I would recommend people to try it because they might like it better.

This is my first try of a Pu-erh, so I’ll reserve an opinion till I’ve had a few more tastes of it. But first off, it’s not bad. Time will tell.

A pronounced prebrewing scent of dirt and a brewed flavor that reminds me of a forest floor. Unless a tea was absolutely undrinkably bad, I would not rate it as bad, but this tea is not for me right now. Though I can see why it might have its supporters. Its interesting, its been a conversation piece and I have a cup now and then for the experience, but neither an everyday tea nor a favorite.

I think Adagio says to steep this for 4-5 minutes. I tried that and hated it. After going to SF Chinatown and learning some traditional Chinese preparation techniques (gong fu, I think), I enjoy this tea very much. It has a nice earthy flavor and an aroma that reminds me of the fresh hay smell in a barn.

Dark, rich and earthy. A not so delicate, but quite typical Pu erh.