Sticky Rice Pu-erh Tuocha

Thank you Will Work For Tea for this Sample!

I’ve been wanting to try this Sticky Rice Pu-erh for a long time!

I can’t wait…I just can’t wait to blurt out…I love this stuff!
It tastes soooo good!

Now I’ve spoiled everything didn’t I. No need to read further.

Don’t you want to know why I blurted it out? (A few of you just said “No, not really.”)
It’s ok, my feelings won’t be hurt. I’m just an old disabled woman approaching my last breath on this earth! Sniff. (guilt)

Well, now that I’ve stooped so low…let’s get on with it!

The little cute Pu-erh Tuocha seems so harmless…so…‘little bitty cutesy’…until you put some boiling water on the little sucker and it explodes into a MONSTER GREEN floating island!
(Do not use a tea ball for this tuocha). I used a glass PIAO and half expected little fish to come out of the green algae clumpy SEA WORLD at the bottom of the container.

I steeped my pu-erh too long. The color was brassy gold. The flavor…um that was good…a bit bitter with some tannin. I could really taste the sticky rice which was the bomb! I knew that the right steep time would be fantastic tasting. (I finished that first cup of tea…yum!)

I cut the steep time in half but the color of the liquor remained the same. These were some robust leaves…Herculeaves with muscles!

Sipping the sticky rice tea was unbelievably roasty and sweet, like you could chew on your tea and find little pieces of nutmeats or candied things from heaven in a bowl with a spoon. Dessert, coated rice, almost creamy but not quite.
There were many golden cups to come…the liquor was so rich and heavy with flavor that I took my glass mug and put it in the frig for later, just to see how the tea would taste cold.

An old question came to mind…
I’ve asked myself on occasion, would I ever drink a pu-erh with a meal?
Usually, the answer is NO! I like to savor the pu-erh all by itself.

This pu-erh, I would drink to wake up my taste buds before a meal with an appetizer. I might have it with dessert or with a light meal. It expands the way I think about pu-erh’s. My cupboard should have this.

Cold Yes, the cup in the frig was absolutly stunning! Really refreshing!I did sweeten mine a little and loved it that way.

I have so much of this tea, I don’t even know what to do with it.

Of course, I ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would – but hey, it was an investment! haha I’ll swap it away and maybe sell some tea sampler packs on teatrade or my etsy shop and all will be well :)

The taste is a little more mushroomy that I expected – it’s quite easy to oversteep (re: bitter mess!) if you use a high temperature – so steep it at as low a temperature as you can (that’s my recommendation).

At first I tried it in my gong-fu pot but the leaves are very very small (smaller than rooibos), so from now on I only brew it with a Perfect Mug steeper – they don’t let anything through :D

I will say that it does settle my tummy, but from now on I know I’m more of a darker shu tuocha fan – I like the dark earthiness (ie: Cornfields Shu from Verdant)

Ok! Time to try this out! I need something nice and relaxing this evening. Trying to get back on a regular schedule. By some miracle, it’s only 11pm! Exciting. Anyways, thanks to Lynne-tea for letting me try one of these! After the one I tried from Amy oh, I was super excited to try more :D

The aroma is that same lovely sticky rice aroma (and that’s pretty much all I can identify), and it intensifies pretty quickly when the hot water hits the tuocha! I did a ~10 second rinse with boiling water, and then 2 30-second infusions. The first was absolutely delicious, and left a lingering sweet flavour in my mouth, while the second tastes fairly similar but a bit too strong/oversteeped, as there’s some bitterness. Next time I try this it will be with a regular infuser basket, so I don’t have to worry so much about overinfusion due to the time it takes to pour the tea out (which may have been a factor here).

One thing I should note is that using my little glass teapot was not ideal for this tea, as the strainer let quite a bit through, and I had to strain the tea again after pouring it out.

Thanks again, Lynne-tea! This was just what I was wanting to try right now, and I’m happy that Amanda put some up to offer so I can have a little stash of them :D It’s not my favourite tea, but it’s interesting and soothing and something I will crave once in a while.

I picked this as a free sample from Chicago Tea Garden, mostly because it just seemed too different not to try. I mean, come on – sticky rice flavored tea! How can I not try it?

This is actually my very first pressed pu-erh. And my first green pu-erh, too. So a whole bunch of first all rolled into one insane smelling tea! And I do mean insane smelling. As soon as I opened the envelope, I instantly smelled freshly-made sticky rice. It’s so weird but kinda awesome.

Anyway, I did a quick rinse and then (since I’m sharing with the husband) poured steeps one and two (both at 30 seconds) into a fair cup, then into glasses. So I don’t know if there is a big difference between the first and second steeps, but it totally smells like a bowl of rice. Which is still kinda awesome.

The taste isn’t as sticky-rice as the smell (though the smell is pretty intense). I get a quick, almost mint or ginseng whooshy tingle at the very front, then a mild almost reed flavor flash, then a sticky or sweet rice fresh taste. The aftertaste is light and very rice-y. Even with the hints of the other flavors, the main taste is very much rice. But rice in a mild, gentle tea way.

I think I could really get behind green pu-erh. It doesn’t have that barnyard, sweet hay, fishy, sweet thickness that is just too much for me that I get from black pu-erh and that makes it much easier for me to drink. This tea is really quite gentle, mild, sweet and rice-y, all attributes and flavors I enjoy. I didn’t know what to think of it at first, but by the end of my cup, I determined that really like this and I would very much enjoy having it in my pantry. I don’t have to go out and get some right now but I’ll be perusing Chicago Tea Garden’s website to see what other goodies I might need to buy when I decide to pick this up.

ETA: Steeps three and four (at CTG’s suggested 45s and 1min) resulted in some light bitterness that really battled with the rice taste, almost covering it (though the bitterness was not overwhelming). It was very disappointing and made me question how much I actually wanted to buy this tea. But I tried again, backing off the steep time (or at least not increasing it like I normally would). Steeps five and six (at 45s and 1min) were much better, back to the original steeps’ sticky-rice-ness. Shorter steep times are this tea’s friend. And I’m back to planning a CTG order.

Back Log from last weekend.
How can a tea that smells so good, taste so bad?
How can a tea that tastes so bad have such a high rating? I LOVE Puerh, this one turned my stomach. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth or the smell out of my timolino for hours! I feel like rotting leaves steeped in boiling water would be the equivalent. I’m feeling like I must have meesed something up seeing as how everyone seems to love it. I’m not sure I’ll give it a seond chance even though I have some left. :(

So Janefan is awesome since she sent this in a swap because she saw it was on my shopping list. So when I got this I was incredibly excited because I’ve been wanting to try it. I was a little worried when I saw it was green Pu-Erh. Only because the last time I had green pu-erh I thought it was nasty and tasted like drinking latex. I’ve come to the conclusion however that may have been operator error since when you over steep greens they turn orange. I like the aroma of the dry tuocha it’s nice. I’ve never had sticky rice but it does remind me of cooked brown rice. Started off with a 30 second rinse and progressive one minute steeps. I’m on my tenth round and I have to say I am enjoying this a lot. Each steep brings out a different character. Some reminded me of steamed rice, but as it has progressed I’m getting more of a cornish flavor. One buttered corn. Another creamed corn or corn caserole. That still happens to be one of my favorite holiday side dishes. I’m impressed with how well this is holding up. These last steeps have reminded me of a corn sock. Either a sock or like I have fabric that is filled with corn and thrown in the microwave for sore muscles. I like to heat it up when I have sinus pressure that could take down a water buffalo. I’m definitely finding this one very comforting especially when everyone else around me is dropping like flies due to sickness. I would buy this and enjoy again.

This is unlike any pu-erh I have ever tasted. Very LIGHT and mellow. A nice rice flavor that is cleansing and enjoyable – especially with a homemade stir fry!
I did a quick 30 second rinse – then a 30 second steep which was a bit weak for me so on the next steep I did a good minute. This for me was perfect. The tea does have a stronger smell than flavor but it is so enjoyable to sit there allowing it to clear your sinus and sniffing the wonderful aroma! The flavor is light and yummy but not intense by any means. I do want to order some of this and a couple of other things from this tea company at some point in the near future.

Thank you, BoxerMama, for this sample. I think these tuocha pieces found a good end, although they definitely aren’t something I would find myself drinking regularly!

To me they have a musky odour. They taste exactly like moist clumpy rice ,that has been wrapped in vegetal bamboo leaves, once steeped. I went with a rinse and 30 second steeps.

I have two cups of this beside me right now (first and second steep). First is more oily and buttery and makes me think that there might be egg in the middle of this rice ball. Second steep comes off more green, although equally buttery. Mild astringency but no bitterness. Picking up salty and sweet notes.

Third steep is more astringent and bold; the tuocha disintegrated completely (so cool!). Almost have to reduce the steep time when it falls apart to reduce the briskness.

Pros for me: not fishy, coffee-like, or bitter. Flavours of buttery steamed rice with a pinch of green. Savory and filling profile.
Questionable qualities: light musky body that may rub people the wrong way if noticed (like eggs, mushrooms, or fat). Also picking up a note very similar to cilantro. I like cilantro but it’s a wild card.

I think this may be very good alongside certain dishes.

Thank you QueenofTarts for sharing this with me. After having read so many good reviews of this I needed to try it. When I first opened the bag I was reminded of the Cornfield Shu Tuocha but once I unwrapped the little guy it was definitely rice aroma.

After rinsing it, I brewed this gaiwan style (5 oz) with a 5 second steep with boiling water. The color was really light, and the leaves were green. I tasted of rice, kind of reminded of genmaicha, but that may only be because of the rice and nothing more. The taste was really light, closer to watered down actually.

I handed it over to my husband and asked him if he wanted to try it. The look he gives me says that he doesn’t want to but he does anyway, he knows I’ll quite pestering him once he tries it. I didn’t tell him what kind it was or what to expect, just handed him a cup of tea. The first thing he said was “meh” but that’s what he always says. Then he said it tasted like rice, the kind you get at an Asian restaurant. I was impressed and told him that was indeed what it was supposed to taste like!

So, since the first steep was watered down, the second steep I kept at boiling but upped the steep to 12 seconds. Too much time, it was bitter and I ended up tossing the cup, way to bitter. The whole tuocha feel apart on this steep and may have been factor to why it was so bitter.

Third steep. I went back down to a 5 second steep, this time I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and left the water at 200*F instead of boiling. Still to bitter, metallic tasting even. Again I dumped this cup.

Fourth steep. I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and steeped for 5 seconds with water temp at 176*F. Since there’s so much leaf and the leaves are green and all my cups have been bitter I thought treating it as a green tea would help. The verdict? I need to wash out my mouth. I think the bitterness and metallic flavor is having adverse side effects and skewing my taste at the moment. Not quite as bitter and metallic but it’s still there.

I’m going to stop with this one for now since it’s frustrating me and give it another try later. I’m going to leave the rating off it for now since I’m fairly certain that it’s due to my error that this tea is not tasting as it should.

Another one from Auggy. It’s actually too late in the evening to be drinking tea. I ought to be considering going to bed so I can get out of it in the morning, but I was standing in the shower feeling the craving for pu-erh.

At first I considered some of the orange pu-erh that Wombatgirl sent me and which I’ve been partial to lately (I seriously need to get some more of the one NBT has the next time order, which won’t be long), but then I thought I’d rather give this one a try.

I’ve only had sticky rice once in my life. It was in the spring when the boyfriend and I were visiting friends in Paris. It was an asian restaurant (can’t remember exactly which country. Vietnam possibly?) and it was served inside an actual bamboo stick. Very tasty flavour added to the rice, although, it was a little difficult to get out of the stick.

Then I saw this one show up on my dashboard. I just couldn’t imagine that flavour in tea. Tea and rice were just completely non-combinable in my head, so I was moderately curious about it. I can’t remember ever actually having said this, but lucky for me Auggy can hear my thoughts. Or something.

I have three touchas and they certainly smell like rice. Take a bag of rice, throw in a spoonful of pu-erh leaves, shake well and inhale. That’s exactly what this smells like, both dry and steeped. I’m partial to the steeped aroma over the dry one though, as the steam makes it a rounder aroma which fills up the nose better.

The flavour is very rice-y and only moderately pu-erh. Rice is evidently a very dominant flavour and it kind of feels more like drinking a soup rather than drinking tea. If I had this around dinner time I suspect I’d have to remind myself that it isn’t actually food.

The pu-erh comes out a little more as it cools down to a comfortable drinking temperature, but it’s still not something that screams, “I’M A PU-ERH! HEAR ME ROAR!” It’s actually a very mild-mannered pu-erh. Maybe a little too mild. I don’t really feel like I’m drinking pu-erh and therefore it’s not really what I was looking for when I decided to try it. I could however find it one I’d like to come back to again and again for other reasons. Even if the flavour isn’t particularly complex, it’s still very nice and very interesting.

A smaller thing, is touchas in general. Can’t work out what I think about them. I like how practical it is, just unwrap one and add water. On the other hand with a toucha I don’t actually know how much leaf I’m using. I used one toucha to my small pot containing about half a liter of water, but had it been loose leaf, I think maybe I would have used a little more leaf.

And now to work out how many points I want to give it while trying not to be influenced by the fact that I can see how many points Auggy gave it behind the update window… Yes, I think I’ll score it like this.

Had this today and I absolutely loved it, definitely my new favorite pu-erh.

This is a green tea pu-erh cake flavored like sticky rice. The little nest is very green with a remarkable lack of odor, until it gets hit with hot water. Once the hot water hit the cake and released a hit of sweet sticky rice and tiny natural outdoorsy smell, not at all like regular pu-erh, but clean in a way that makes you almost consider not rinsing before drinking, but the directions say to rinse for 30 seconds, so I obliged.

So 30 second rinse in hot water, then 30 second infusion, hot, no additives. The tea smells just how it tastes, like sweet, starchy, sticky rice mixed with a very sweet green tea. Similar to Genmaicha, but I do like this one a lot more. There is no earthy flavor or smell, this tea is the most mild pu-erh I have ever had (in cake form – as in the Chocolate Pu-Erh I rave about is actually more mild of a pu-erh, but I digress). You really still get the mouth-feel and richness of a pu-erh, but the lack of the fishy, outdoors odor and flavor really makes this one of the greatest pu-erhs I have ever had.

That being said, I believe this is my first green pu-erh cake and I should expand my horizons and not be so terrified of pu-erh, but I will definitely be buying more of these from Chicago Tea Garden…

Mmmm… I got a nice sized sample of this from MadelineAlyce and it’s so unique and tasty!
I totally oversteeped the first steep. I wasn’t paying attention. It was still good, but it had a strong herbal bitter flavor. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant once I diluted it. And it definitely tastes like rice. I don’t know if it tastes like sticky rice in particular, but definitely rice. Maybe a good quality jasmine rice. It reminds me of that smell of rice cooking at the stage before it absorbs all the water. MIght be a good drink when you’re craving carbs but don’t want to overload on them. There’s also something corn cob like. Very satisfying.

The second steep is a bit thinner but still ricey. Still a little bitter, but not as much. I like this a lot. I think my dad would enjoy it since he has a thing for bitter flavors. The after taste is so starchy! I keep feeling like I just swallowed a mouthful of rice. Amazing!

This strikes me as a cold weather tea, and if this weather trend continues, the time for cold weather teas will soon be behind us. :( Enjoy them now while you still can! I’m having some chai soon!

This is my first green pu-erh and I think I might like them more than the non-green sort. I need to do more pu-erh research. This category of tea is still a bit mysterious to me.

My fifth flavoured Pu Erh of the day :) I’m on a roll!

The little tuocha’s are so cute, I love using them. The tuocha’s are dark green in colour with a slight sweet ricey fragrance. Sort of like rice pudding without the cream.

After a 10 second rinse the tea smells much more like cooked rice but not as thickly so as Genmaicha. I haven’t cooked rice in a while and this smell is making me crave it.

Ooh I forgot to mention I am using my gongfu with two of these tuocha’s. Copying other peoples steeping time of 30 seconds (as that seems about right).

Steep 1 – The same sticky rice smell with a light yellow colour. The Pu Erh is mellow and a little floral with a light rice flavour. The smell is thicker than the taste which is good because stodgy rice would not be nice. It’s also still sweet but naturally so and not overpowering.

Steep 2 – A little darker in colour and thicker in smell. The taste is also much stronger now with a thick floral perfume flavour taking over the light rice which is now mostly in the after taste. It’s also picked up more of a toasted flavour.

Steep 3 – Now it’s a light gold colour rather than yellow. Now it’s twice the strength it was before and a little bitterness is noticeable along with a fairly harsh and dry perfume taste. The sweetness has almost gone but the rice remains at the back of the throat as the after taste. Not as pleasant as the first steep.

Steep 4 – Same gold colour but more toasty in smell. Not as strong as the previous steep (thankfully) but that wonderful rice flavour has still been over taken by this perfumey one.

I’m leaving my steeps there, it started off well but ended abruptly shortly after. I have never had a Pu Erh that has changed so much between first and second steeps. The first steep was pleasant where as the second and third were much too strong for my personal liking. It’s low score comes down to this tea’s problems with re steeping which is mandatory for most Pu Erh.

I tried.

It smells like popcorn to me, super buttery. I was excited to try it. But all I taste is metallic. I lowered the water temperature (started @ 205), I gave it a rinse, I don’t think this one and I are going to be friends and that makes me sad because it smells great. I’m also not a fan of how they fall apart, makes any sort of steeping rather difficult with little bits getting through even a strainer. I’d try a bit more (sweetening, whatever else I see from notes) but I am just so turned off it right now because metallic tastes and I will never ever be okay together.

OKAY you know how when you have something sitting there and you absolutely must conquer it? 4th try of steeping I finally got something I like. 30 seconds is far, far too long for me, but it works now. Didn’t bother to pay attention to the water temp though, but this time there isn’t a metallic taste, but delicious toasted rice.

I think it’s the herb in here giving me that metallic flavor, because I still get tinges of it in the aftertaste, and now I can tell that it has to be coming from it. Because now as it’s cooling it’s coming back. Argh.

Well, my order arrived yesterday all 500g of it! That’s right I now have 100+ pieces of this in my house. My husband asked in a sarcastic tone “Think you have enough?” Maybe, maybe not…it is so good! It does in fact smell like sticky rice as it steeps! My niece was visiting and came running into the kitchen in the hopes I was making rice but was sad to see it was “just tea”. What is wrong with my family??

The funny thing is to me this tea tasted like mushrooms and of course very earthy. But I loved it! I did add ice to chill it as it has been in the 90’s here for a few days. But I really did enjoy it and I’m glad I got it while I could.

The aroma is RIGHT ON with the sticky rice! I totally agree! Another thing I like about this one is that the tuocha completely ‘broke down’ – at least mine did…I noticed some of the other tasting notes people mentioned they needed to ‘work at it’ – perhaps I just got lucky!? Color-wise the leaves were almost a mossy green – much lighter in color than other pu-erhs I have tried thus far. The liquid color is a caramel brown…very nice! The taste is VERY bold, a little astringent, on the verge of bitter but not in a bad way. I would say this taste more like a bold black than your stereotypical pu-erh. I like it! I also really like that it doesn’t smell like a stereotypical pu-erh :)

OMG! If ever a tea could evoke childhood memories of my grandmother who passed this January, this is it. I immediately remembered home cooked rice from India. My mom made this too and still does but it is was something my grandma made all the time when I was growing up. It brought back such happy memories and a few tears of all the family dinners together back in the day before we grew up and and the grandparents that helped raised us passed. I am so thankful I found you “Chicago Tea Garden” and that I found this tea. The memory was as fresh as it just happened.

On that note: It is delicious, sweet, and just like rice.

This is a very, very strange experience.

Liquid sticky rice!

Reading the other tasting notes, I decided to cut my steep time WAY down, and start off by dipping the rinsed nest in the tea for only thirty seconds before giving it a try. I did return it to the hot water for another 15 or so when the water was so colorless (which is a weird state of being for a pu’erh in my mind, since I’ve only had the dark pu’erh before).

The flavor is pretty markedly ‘rice’ from beginning to end. There’s definitely a ‘green’ flavor here, but not bitter or astringent, so I think Auggy’s right — 30 and 45 seconds are the sweet spot; the longer steep times in a few other tasting notes recorded that the tea was bitter, and I don’t have any bitterness in my cup at all.

Interestingly, the more the tea cooled, the more I was able to detect cousin flavors between this tea and a darker pu’erh. I could be making that up in my head, but…I don’t think so. It’s a flavor at the back of the tongue more than anything, but it’s pleasant and goes quite well with the rice.

I really dig this tea. It smelled amazing in the package that I received yesterday! I’m steeping it tonight while indulging in Alice in Wonderland again(such a good movie!). My initial reaction is the steeped smell of the wet leaves and the liquor is overwhelmingly like you stuck you nose into a freshly made plate of rice. Rice is the overwhelming smell. The taste, reminds me of a genmaicha meets green tea meets pu erh. The flavor profiles of all three of those remind me of this tea.The genmaicha is most likely because of the rice as well. I like this tea, it’s very unique! Bravo, Tony on another great tea you offer! :)

tu– cha

Appearance: hints of green, woody bits
Aroma when Dry: sweet, nutty, sticky rice
After water is first poured: buttered wild rice
At end of first steep: same notes
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: clear
Staple?No
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first?: buttery rice
As it cools?: notes get warmer, earthier, slight honey notes surface, then starts to get brothy
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? yes, with a creamy, earthy texture

Second steep (5 min)
Aroma: same, warmer
Taste:
same notes, hints of metallic notes

Third Steep (5 min):
Taste: getting a bit creamier, honeyed in the butter notes
As it cools: starts to get salty, brothy notes

Fourth Steep (3 min):
Taste: Buttery Ricewater broth

Fifth Steep(8 min):
Taste: Buttery Ricewater, hints of brothiness

Sixth Steep:
brothy ricewater

Seventh Steep:
Light brothy ricewater