Caramel Chai Pu-erh

This is my frist ever pu-erh (and I have no idea how to pronounce that). Thanks to Fusion, for sending me some samples. Go and ask them for some samples right now at fusionteas.com!

I asked the people over at Fusion if I needed to steep this a certain way, because I think I’ve heard you have to rinse it, but they said this particular pu-erh could just steep this like a normal black tea. The leaves are kind of musty which DID worry me a bit, but I know this is a fresh sample from Fusion. There were two big bits of caramel that fell in my infuser, that a lot of the other tea was sticking to. (Sounds yum to me!) Peaking in my infuser after steeping, it was definitely caramel, because there are still little remnants of the caramel in the infuser, which I couldn’t see beforehand because everything was sticking to the caramel. The steep color is a medium brown. Sadly, there isn’t too much caramel flavor in the tea. The pu-erh tea tastes pretty good. There is kind of a fuzzy buzzy aspect to it. No, I don’t know what I’m talking about either. It doesn’t taste musty anyway! It’s like a black tea just not as strong flavored. It doesn’t get bitter at all. And the chai spices really give it an extra kick. I usually do not love ginger, but not in a chai! I certainly need to try more of the Fusion chai. I really want to try everything from Fusion! All of their blends sound so good! I just looked at the Fusion site and they have a mate chai, a rooibos chai and a TULSI chai. Uh oh.

This is another sample that Fusion Teas generously sent to me :)
My fiance came over last night and specifically requested a tea session. I first let hi, try the Jumpy Monkey tea I had that he was interested in. He liked it so much I sent it home with him.
Next I decided to brew up a pot of the Caramel Chai pu-erh. The scent of the leaves is wonderful – deep, earthy, salted caramel-y, umami awesomeness.
Brewed up, it was much smoother than the spicy scent would have you expect. I definitely tasted all the chai spices, but they weren’t overpowering. I didn’t end up tasting too much of the caramel in the final tea, and the pu-erh was also backgrounded as well, but I liked that – I wasn’t in the mood for an overwhelming pu-erh last night.
My fiance really liked it and we finished the pot together. It’s a nice tea to warm up with on a cool night at the beginning of fall.