Smokies and pu-erhs are for me of the same sort of ‘flavour family’, if you get what I mean. So now that I ran out of Auggy smokies to try, I had the choice of going back to the wide selection TeaEqualsBliss provided me with or the education in japanese greens from EvaPeva. I chose to go back to the sampler sets from Nothing But Tea, because there are a few of them that I really want to buy and I have told myself that I’m not allowed to do this until I’ve gone through the samplers. In my small pot, I can get two sessions out of each sampler and I’ve also imposed the rule on myself that I’m not allowed to use the second serving until I’ve used the first serving of all the samples in a set. No, it makes absolutely no sense, but that’s OCD for you.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in these boxes and I haven’t really been in much of an oolong mood recently. I can’t really remember much of what I thought of the pu-erhs I’ve tried. I remember not being impressed with the green one, I remember really liking the orange flavoured one and I remember having fallen for the imperial one. Supply of the latter, iirc, being limited. Apart from that, I’m lost. No clue about any characteristics apart from the cowstableyness that is for me the definition of pu-erh. So no help there.
I’m brewing western style because quite frankly I don’t have the patience to sit here and mess with a million ultra short steeps. I’ve wasted most of the day already giving myself blood pressure problems over SimCity 2000, so the LAST thing I need right now is something that requires attention and thought process.
The colour looks great when I’m pouring the cup. It has that shade of coppery brown that looks just right. The aroma is sweet and earthy, and so closely related are pu-erhs and smokies for me that I was suprised to find that it didn’t have a smoky note.
Oh, but this is very nice indeed! It has a fresh sort of happy flavour. Earthy, hidden and slightly dusty, but it’s a happy flavour. This tea is saying, “I am finished! I am ripe and mature! Look out world, because here I come!” And then it bounces off in search of something fun to do.
I wish I had a better recollection of what the Imperial pu-erh was like, because I don’t really know actually if I like this one better or not or if it’s the same. I will definitely want to purchase one of them. Time will tell which one it’ll end up being.
