Premium Pu-Erh Tea

10/7/12 – Bought today at local Asian Supermarket – The one that sell frog legs, for 3.99. I know there are some Pu-erh lovers out there, and I’m gonna start with the bagged one before I start importing kilos like Scarface. I looked it up on Amazon and I think I did good. This local Asian supermarket by me has a whole isle devoted to tea so why not try them all out?

12/6/12 – This has been my daily Pu-erh drinker for now and I’m trying to get through the 100 tea bags. Sometimes I use two tea bags. As always, the taste reminds me of “dirt”.

Do you know those pregnant women who eat “pica” (nonfood items) like soap, detergent, and crayons? Well, as a man in midlife, we go through manopause, and crave Pu-Erh because is tastes like dirt/pica (weird non food item)

Sometimes tea tastes like dirt. It’s ok.
I heard there’s a Crayon/Clay flavored tea coming out for pregnant women!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)

Finding puerh at my local grocery store was such an excitement I could not resist buying a box of puerh teabags even though I had my doubts as to their quality but figured that worse comes to worse they could be used for travel where not the best puerh is a lot better than no puerh. When I brewed my first cup from the $5.75 box of 100 teabags I was impressed with the quality. While it is not at the level of a puerh that can stand up to the rich smooth mellowness of an upper end Menghai or Mengku puerh cake, it is a lot better than a number of the cheap puerh bricks and cakes that I’ve had over the years. As with most puerh teabags I brew them long and will double them up to ensure a single good brew, the result was a slightly earthy (but not to the musty point) cup of puerh with a slightly sweet and smooth taste. I can not complain at the lack of complexity and while this is not one that I would brew in my yixing pot when I am at home it is a puerh that is good enough that I would not feel deprived if it was my only tea on a vacation.