Pu Ehr Orange (EP08)

I’m so behind on my dashboard it’s not even funny. pokes it But I am still here, lurking a bit, and trying to concentrate on paying attention to what I eat so that maybe, just maybe I might be able to fit into that summer dress I bought last year, never got to wear and now a bit tight round the middle.

At least there are no calories in tea. Cheers Steepsterites.

I’m on an orange pu-erh kick these days. It started a few days ago, where I made a cup because I remembered having heard about various slimming qualities and fat reducing qualities and what have you that it supposedly has.

Let’s be honest. I don’t really believe all that stuff. Yes, maybe it does have some small positive effect, but there is no such thing as ‘Miracle Food’. It doesn’t exist. The secret lies in a varied and balanced diet, exercise and overcoming the siren call of fatty treats, hence the calories… So called Miracle Food alone will NEVER do the trick. Ever.

I know tea in general contains a lot of great things, but let’s be honest, if you eat right, you’ll get them anyway.

It was merely a reminder that I had it in the first place, and now I’m drinking it because it tastes absolutely lovely. And that’s the only reason. It’s a relaxing well-tasting thing to drink and I really wish people would stop trying to turn it into a chemistry lesson.

Okay, rant over. You can go back to your cups now.

“If somebody made me a cup of tea, I might feel better…!”

Husband obliged. I think his reasons might have been threefold.
1. He would get a cup of tea out of it.
2. He wanted me to feel better.
3. Best to nip whining in the bud whenever possible.

“If a cat would come and sit on me, I might feel better…!”

Unfortunately Luna and Charm are less susceptible to this sort of thing.

Luckily we had had this tea in the morning so a resteep of the same leaves was a pretty simple thing to do. It’s a favourite of mine, and Husband has fallen for it as well. When I bought the current lot, he told me to make sure I ordered plenty of it.

And do you know what? It does actually appear to have calmed my unhappy tummy a bit. It’s not perfect, but it does feel a bit less meh.

You know what, screw the sample box. The Curse of Murphy’s Law has been upon me all day, and I need a treat.

This is, after all, the first DROP of tea I’ve had ALL DAY! And I’ve survived until dinnertime on only three bananas and a glass of milk, and before taking the train home, the best cafe latte in the world ever.

But it’s still not the same as a cup of real tea.

And you know what? This tea was pretty awesome from the sample I had. It’s infinitely better whne bought in a proper quantity. There are big bits of dried orange in it too, which I didn’t see any of in the sample. I know they’re little more than decoration, but they’re still part of the overall impression one gets of the product.

It’s much more orange-y now. I think it’s because I’m also dosing the leaves differently than I did with the sample packet.

I would really advise all of you to go out and try an orange flavoured pu-erh. Orange and pu-erh flavours suit each other amazingly well.

Oh yum. I can’t even begin to describe how much I needed this.

(Also, I went and bought some new tea to have at work (on days where I have time to get some, mind!) for me and my boss, and I went into a tea shop in the city where I work and asked her for an oolong off the darker end of the spectrum and she looked at me funny. Then showed me two and pointed out a difference in leaf size. And said something about ‘half-fermented’. She has a tea shop. Isn’t she supposed to know that oolongs come in more than just the one colour and degree of fermentation? And that ‘half-fermented’ is a relative term? And is she really going to stand there and show me a ‘Formosa Oolong’ and a ‘Taiwan Oolong’ and try to make me believe they don’t come from the same general area? REALLY??? I would have headdesk-ed but I was honestly too busy looking like this: O.o
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just one more in the long list of reasons I don’t like using that particular shop much.)

November is finally upon us! Let procrastination writing commence!

And no, as a matter of fact, I am not currently procrastinating by writing this post. I am resting. The key to a succesful NaNo is to know your own limits and I know that my ability to concentrate is microscopic. So I write in 15 minute spurts. And that’s gone well enough throughout the day that I can already smell the first 5000 words, which I hope to reach before bedtime. And it’s only twenty past seven. HAH!

So I am resting. Gearing up for the last 15 minutes needed for my goal and taking the time to stay in the writing zone with a Steepster post.

I’ve been drinking this one through out the day and have just made yet another steep of the same leaves. I think it must be the fourth or fifth time or something today. These leaves are SO durable.

I really think I’ve become completely addicted to pu-erh with orange flavour. I loved this when first I had it, nommed my way through the first 100g purchase, nommed my way through the one Wombatgirl sent me (different brand though) and am now nomming my way through the second 100g purchase. Next time I suspect I’ll have to up the amount to a 250g purchase, because this is one of those flavours I really don’t see myself getting tired of.

It works so well when there’s something I’m working on throughout the day, like for example NaNoWriMo, because I don’t have to think while drinking it and I can steep again and again and again so I don’t have to consider things like water temperature or what to have next or anything. It’s also become my absolute favourite tea to have in the travel mug in the mornings when I go to work, which also accounts for some of the rapid nomming.

If you like pu-erh and if you like oranges, I strongly suggest you do yourself the favour of seeking out the combination, because in my opinion these flavours compliment each other so well.

At this point it’s become a stable tea for me, one that I’m very familiar with and know exactly what to expect from. But because the flavours are so well suited for each other and also very intense, it remains interesting to drink. As mentioned before, it’s not something that I can see myself getting bored with anytime soon.

Therefore I’m kicking the score all the way up to 100.

“Hey Angrboda, what’s in your cup?”

Well, hot cocoa actually…

This is a backlog from this morning. This is what I chose to have in my travel cup for the morning trek to work through unholy amounts of snow. Or okay, maybe just around 20 cm where I live, but it’s a WHOLE LOT MORE than what we’re used to seeing in November. Which is nothing.

Anyway, nothing out of the ordinary on the tea choice, except for the fact that I got some involuntary experimentation out of it this morning.

At first I thought my travel cup was somehow mysteriously broken. But then I realised that it was more likely that I had made tea as usual this morning. Put the kettle on while brushing my teeth and then poured it on the leaves when I was finished with that. Only I forgot to actually turn the kettle on.

Which means I got to try this little number cold-brewed this morning. It was okay, I guess. But the thing is I’m not really an iced tea sort of person. Especially not when I’m waiting 25 minutes for the train in ankle deep snow.

Currently at the fifth steep of these leaves, started yesterday evening/afternoon.

I am going to steep the heck out of them, because they were the last in the tin.

That’s two Standards I’m now out of, Tan Yang Te Ji being the other one. If only they had been from the same company, it would have warranted an order, but tea corner organisation, or lack of same, currently dictates that I wait until we have either used up some more stuff or got some sort of shelfing business sorted out. We went and found some suitable shelves today, but couldn’t carry them home ourselves on the bus along with the vast number of, frankly more important, blinds.

So it’ll have to wait. But at least we know now what we want. It will be awesome.

In the meantime I’m putting off the moment when I’ll have to say good bye and so long to this tea.

We’ll meet again. Don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day…

Greetings Steepsterites.

You may have noticed that I’ve been active on the ol’ Dashboard today.

No, I have STILL not received either of my missing packages from Kusmi and 52teas. I have merely caved to siren call of all that Dashboard activity that I wasn’t part of.

And I have justified it too. I did get at least one spoiler (one that I’m aware of anyway), but that couldn’t be helped. I figure if I give up, the packages will be there tomorrow so I can be annoyed at myself for not having held out just that little bit longer. Similar to how pots won’t boil while you’re looking at them, but when you decide there’s time enough for you to quickly do something else, they boil over.

So I looked. And I spoiled myself. And now I expect my packages to arrive tomorrow, dammit!

I was on greens and flavoured white all day yesterday but today I wanted something rather more hale and hearty. I had a small discussion with myself whether to choose this one or the equally wonderful Tan Yang Te Ji from TeaSpring. Ippy-dippy ended up settling the issue.

I’m running a bit low on this one now actually. I have plans to make some Kusmi purchases in replacement for the package that disappeared once I get paid, but I’ll have to see if I can make room in the budget for a Nothing But Tea order as well, I think. I was looking through their remodelled webshop yesterday and discovered that I can keep a wishlist there. Let’s just say that it would have been easier with an ‘add all’ button and then weed out the things I didn’t want later…

But this orange pu-erh is definitely something that I’ll have to re-stock. It’s one of those things that I must have in the cupboard at all times, even if weeks go by sometimes when I don’t drink it. I haven’t actually defined an entire Standard Panel of stuff I’ll always have around, but this one is definitely on it. It’s my perfect orange tea.

I find that oranges and pu-erh are flavours that go really well together. Mind you, this is a cooked one. I’m far less certain it would work as well with a raw. But then again, I don’t really care much for the raw ones anyway, so that’s not really my problem.

I’ve brewed myself a strong cup today, so it’s very earthy and dusty in flavour. The orange is strong, sort of enveloping the pu-erh flavour without taking over. It’s sort of like each sip is a bubble that tastes like oranges, and all the pu-erh flavour is on the inside of the bubble. And then it bursts. The aftertaste is long and orange-y and it puts that funny fuzzy feeling on the tongue the same as eating a really good and sweet orange does as well. It’s not astringency at all, but it’s vaguely similar to that sensation.

The best thing about it, however, is that it doesn’t taste in the least bit synthetic. Not even a little bit. It’s proper fruit and there is a lot of it.

(I’ve mentioned before how sometimes I associate a flavour with a specific colour. How Senchas tend to be a dark pine green and Chinese green teas all taste somewhat more light-green/yellow-ish. This one is orange-tinted brown for me.)

I have gone back to this one. An old favourite, and I’ve just discovered, very suitable for the season! In Denmark it seems we get the very best oranges in winter, so that makes it a very winter-y minded fruit for me. With the snow outside (already!) we can’t deny the fact that it’s officially winter now. This is very early indeed for us to get snow, and it’s just a little drizzle that melts as soon as it hits the ground either. I’ve got some five centimeters outside right now. It’s all white all over the place.

So sitting here looking out at the snow and drinking orange pu-erh, that’s contentment.

Ah yes, this is the good stuff. It’s been a long time since I last had any of this because I knew the tin was running frightfully low, but I made a cup this morning. I expect to keep these leaves going all day, and will definitely have to put in an order for more in the not too distant future.

(I need to optimise how I use the shopping list feature here…)

Needed something to wake me up this morning, and this fit the bill. Unfortunately, it means my sample is gone, but it’s gone to a better place, namely – ME. :)