Honeysuckle Puerh

Wow, this pu’erh is very nice! I found it the least fishy unflavored pu’erh I’ve had, with some really nice honey and floral notes. This tea also resteeps very well, with 2nd and 3rd infusions that were amazing and I didn’t want to end! Later infusions became juicy with those honey notes! Honeysuckle was not bitter, even with multiple infusions.

I’m keeping this tea stocked for sure!
I did a full tea review here: http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/honeysuckle-by-the-persimmon-tree-tea-review-and-promo-code/
and I also have a Promo Code posted there if you wanna give this tea a shot!

I’m surprised to be the first to rate this! I’m feeling the pressure!

Well, the only other puerh I really have experience with is DAVIDSteas’ Chocolate Orange. It’s pretty strongly flavored where you don’t taste the puerh-ness as much. Well, this is obviously different. As soon as I opened the sample bag, I got a strong whiff of a familiar scent. This Honeysuckle Puerh smells like crawfish. While crawfish are delicious, I DO NOT want a tea that tastes like them. So I decided to try rinsing the leaves. I ran hot water through them for probably about ten seconds. Hopefully that was enough to bring out the honeysuckle and the non-fishy side of puerh (whatever that tastes like?)

Hmm. So I’m getting some of the crawfish flavor and some earthy flavors with some notes of nut. But what I’m definitely not getting is honeysuckle. I’m not experienced enough to know if I rinsed it too much (could I have rinsed the flavor out?), not enough, or if I need to add sweetner. I’ll need to experiment with this.

Loose
Appearance: dark loose curled leaf
Aroma when Dry: honeysuckle, sweet, woody, faint floral
After water is first poured: honeysuckle syrup
At end of first steep: bright, sweet, floral
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: leather brown
Staple?No
Preferred time of day: any, save evening
Taste:
At first?: crisp, smooth leather notes, floral honeysuckle close
As it cools?: honeysuckle notes open, tea starts to get slightly peaty, foresty, tea gets bodied
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Perfumy floral honeysuckle notes

Second Steep (3 min)
At first: lighter texture, same notes

This has been neglected. Well to me this looked like a regular pu-erh. But when I tasted it.. I was in heaven! Definitely one of the best pu-erhs I’ve had in a minute. It’s very earthy. It has a sweet floral after taste. It’s very smooth, too :) I think this is going on the list for the next shopping order!

Thanks to Jackie T for a sample of this one! This is one of the more friendly and accessible puerhs I’ve tried. It still very much tastes like a puerh, but is pretty mild and has a nice floral sweetness to it. This one would be good for puerh novices for sure. Tastes like the garden smells after it rains :)

Kasumi no Chajin sent me this amazing package of pu’erhs and oolongs a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been almost frightened to delve in because I know nothing about this stuff, but I thought I would start with honeysuckle! I was a major fan of Enid Blyton’s books when I was a kid, the ones where the protagonists always live in a country house with honeysuckles growing around the door and windows, so this sounded like a fun one.

There’s nothing much to shout about this tea’s appearance, it’s just fine little coils of loose pu’erh, but the first time I’ve actually seen dry, loose pu’erh. I brewed it for four minutes, watching as it turned from a salty-smelling sunset red to a rich, earthy chestnut brown.

The taste I still can’t work out how to put into words! I think I need to taste more pu’erhs, since I’ve only tried bags from Luk-Yu and the loose leaf at Leaf on Bold Street. compared to both it’s really smooth – the earthiness is gentle and I don’t get any bitterness at all. There’s a tiny bit of spiciness and and this really nice sweet note that lingers around the top of your mouth and stays there after every sip; I’m going to assume that’s the honeysuckle being coy. This is a really nice cup of tea, kind of cosy and brightening at the same time – the perfect thing to get me out of my slump. Thanks, Chajin!

I really thought I was craving something earthy and dark just now, but obviously my tastebuds had something different in mind. That being the case, I definitely sweetened this one with just a little honey after the first sip. The woodsy flavor and very slight smokiness just wasn’t cutting it for me untouched and the honeysuckle finish wasn’t quite enough to make it so. But wow WOW WOOOOW that tiny touch of honey really opened some beautiful floral and sweet notes. It makes the whole sip have this really sweet afterthought that is so complementary to the puerh flavor. Yum! I’ll definitely be squeaking all the resteeps I can out of this one today.

I am still trying to figure out pu erhs. This is the first loose leaf type pu erh I’ve ever had. I brewed it as per the instructions from Persimmon Tree – 3 minutes (western style). The liquor is dark – just like black coffee. It smells like burning leaves or cigarette ash – but not in a bad way at all – woodsy and smoky. It is not bitter at all but rather a little smoky. This is the first steep (I did a short rinsing). I do not get any fishy smell at all. This is the first infusion.