Coconut Cacao Puerh

Now this is a Puerh I can drink. It’s smooth, earthy and sweet. It’s the sweet part that is really making this work for me. The coconut and cocoa make this really enjoyable. There is definitely a nutty taste mixed in with the sweetness. I’m just so happy to have a puerh that I can drink a full cup of, and am contemplating drinking more of! Thanks LauraR for sending this tea my way! I hope to try a few more infusions with these leaves and will report back.

Art of Tea was having a free shipping special so I decided to indulge. I like the fact that the sample size teas all come in these cute adorable tins, about enough for 5-7 cups of tea. I haven’t been buying a lot of new teas lately, I have so many already so this was my big splurge for the month.

I decided to try this one first because I love coconut and I also love puerh! Most flavored puerhs leave me kind of nonplussed, so I had some reservations about this one. The aroma of the wet leaf is a bit funky, it reminds me of barnyard mixed with tropical air freshener.

Thankfully the flavor of it is a lot better than the smell. It’s an earthy shu with a prominent hazelnut and coconut taste. This is quite pleasant to sip on plain, but I admit I liked it better after adding some plain soymilk. That made it more creamy and dessert-like. This would also be fab with some coconut milk, huh? I might try a slightly longer steep next time because I found the consistency of it to be a bit “thin” even though I used about 2 tsps. of tea for an 8 oz. mug of water. Probably won’t rush out to buy any more of this, but will finish off the little tin I have. :)

I certainly had my doubts about this one – as I generally do when it comes to Pu-erh. But the aroma did not smell earthy like I usually expect a pu-erh to smell, so this relieved some of those doubts. Once brewed, there is a subtle earthy quality to the aroma that mingles with the scents of chocolate and coconut. It’s a earthy, nutty, coconut and cacao kind of smell and it intrigues me.

I steeped this in my gaiwan and used my “usual” steep times for pu-erh – which is about 30 – 40 seconds. This was NOT enough time, and so I returned it to steep an additional 2 minutes. This was perfect.

The flavor is very nice. Mild for a pu-erh. An almost powdery kind of taste to the cocoa notes, like cocoa powder. The coconut is the most prominent flavor. The pu-erh base is mellow with smooth earthy notes.

If all pu-erh teas tasted this good, I would not be as hesitant to try them!

THANK YOU to Jaime for including this in my Secret Santa box!

When Meghann posted about this tea a while back, I knew I had to try it. On my next visit to Cuppa, I mentioned it to the owner. Lisa ordered some, and it came with her most recent delivery. I was going to buy an ounce, since I like playing with the steeping parameters on puerhs, but then I smelled it. I got two ounces, because I know this is going to be grand once I find that magical time/temp combination.

Seriously, this is one of those teas that has to be sniffed to be believed. Smells awesome dry, and the scent of the brewed cup is just as good. It smells like something baking…chocolate and coconut and sweet. No hint of that rather distinct puerh scent.

Still need to work on getting the time/temp right. This cup seems a bit watered down to me. Very sweet, and coconut is in the fore. The cacao is more in the background and aftertaste, and I’m not really getting any puerh taste. Will steep for 5 minutes next time around…not sure if I’ll resteep these leaves or not. But I can tell from this cup that it really is going to be mind-blowing once I find the time/temp that’s just right! For now, I’ll give it an 80…but that very well may change.