Cornfields Shu Tuocha

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
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Flavors
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Caffeine
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Certification
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Edit tea info Last updated by David Duckler
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 15 sec

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54 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Enjoying an amazingly delicious and soothing cup of this tonight immediately following supper. Supper being the BEST fish & chips in all of Halifax (imho) and poutine! Sooo full, and my tummy...” Read full tasting note
    95
  • “Glad to have this one back. Simple, smooth and comforting. This is one of those instances where I find myself wishing Verdant was a little less vague about where they actually source their teas...” Read full tasting note
    92
  • “I know I’m supposed to steep and toss the first infusion, but this is tasty! I’m keeping it! I can only imagine it will get better and better. :D I love this smell and the smoothness. It...” Read full tasting note
    95
  • “I brewed this one gaiwan style, boiling water with very quick steeps. Did two rinses like the Verdant site says to. This one smells the way it tastes to me. But let me tell you a story first. I...” Read full tasting note
    92

From Verdant Tea

Year: 2008

Dry Leaf: Small, loosely compressed balls of larger tea leaves, mostly dark black, with some greener leaf. This tea is unique because of a new organic farming system where corn is planted in rows to act as a windbreak and a distraction for crop-killers. Usually, the corn is picked and sold, but this farm uses the corn to fertilize the tea fields.

Aroma: Intense sweet corn, or buttered popcorn smell, with spearmint notes.

Color: Light and translucent red-brown.

Flavor: True to the smell, this tea really does taste like corn, but with an impressive complexity. The spearmint comes through as a tingling sensation, more of a a minty texture than anything else. Despite the sweet corn flavor, the tea is weightless on the palate and almost refreshing like an iced drink.

Notes: This shu pu’er is an excellent introduction to pu’er, because it lacks the musty and dark quality of other shu bricks that can turn people away. It is also an intriguing example of new processing techniques dramatically altering flavor without farmers literally flavoring the tea. Definitely a must-try.

About Verdant Tea View company

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54 Tasting Notes

95
516 tasting notes

Enjoying an amazingly delicious and soothing cup of this tonight immediately following supper. Supper being the BEST fish & chips in all of Halifax (imho) and poutine! Sooo full, and my tummy feels instantly better after my Shu Session.

Not only that, but the scent and flavour of this tea always takes me over the moon. Relaxing and so. freaking. delicious!

Buttery sweet corn and extremely refreshing, even on the final deep dark steeps. Heaven! Keeping me sane and comfortable while I work on my blog post for tomorrow: super chocolatey Nutella 2 bite brownies :3

It’s almost Friday, we can do it!

Bonnie

I’ve never had this but want to!

Daisy Chubb

You would love it Bonnie! It’s a very mild Shu, but a unique addition to the cupboard! I can’t afford to swap these next few paycheques, but perhaps sometime in the future I could send some your way :3

Bonnie

Smoochies on the cheeks!

Azzrian

have to get some of this!

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92
172 tasting notes

Glad to have this one back. Simple, smooth and comforting. This is one of those instances where I find myself wishing Verdant was a little less vague about where they actually source their teas from. I know many of them come from smaller workshops but I have a feeling these have to be somewhat mass-produced. I’d love to know where I could find similar teas to this, I’d love to have a cake that tastes like this.

Azzrian

I have a sample size of this coming 7g I wonder how many toucha that will be maybe 2? Sounds lovely and have seen great reviews on it.

Scatterbrain

Each time I’ve bought an ounce of this I only got 5 tuochas, so you’ll get either one or two. I’m guessing they’d probably just round up and give you two.

Alphakitty

I have this coming in the mail as well, so excited!

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95
525 tasting notes

I know I’m supposed to steep and toss the first infusion, but this is tasty! I’m keeping it! I can only imagine it will get better and better. :D I love this smell and the smoothness. It really is corny! I love corn! I can’t speak to the nuances of the smell cause I"m making homemade tomato sauce and that smell always permeates the whole apartment. But the taste is rich and somehow leaves a cooling sensation in the back of my throat. And the toucha hasn’t even completely unfurled yet. Weee! And that lingering flavor of toasty fritos. yum!

Steep two!
Alright kids! The toucha has mostly fallen apart now. The liquor is dark and looks like coffee. This infusion is much richer. What a lovely smooth mouthfeel! Brothy and delicious. The frito flavor is less apparent here but still pleasantly a part of the experience. I love this unique cooling sensation! How is this happening? There’s the teeniest hint of bitter cocoa without being bitter. Underneath everything is an earthy untouched forest. This is really great for fall. I have a real love for this season. I chose to get married outdoors in fall. :D Luckily, it was one of those rare sunny days that are neither hot nor cold. Today is not like that day. It’s humid and cloudy and my make up would have been a mess. But it’s ok. This is not my wedding day. It’s just a lazy tea day! And this tea is lovely enough to make up for the weather. (how I do prattle on…) I wonder how corn loving husband will feel about this tea?

Steep 3!
Corn flavor has made a comeback! Yay! Yummy! Deep earthy flavor here. Still smooth, still cooling. How is it doing that?! I don’t think I’ve ever had a puerh I’ve enjoyed so much as this one. Did I mention that I was feeling really blah and tired today? I somehow went to bed around 11 last night and woke up at 8 am today. Then I ate breakfast and managed to fall asleep again from 11am to 1:30pm. I should have had tea earlier! This tea is now making me all perky but without the headache some teas give me! Awesome! I can conquer the world! Maybe dad would like this. He likes strong flavors. :D

Gonna stop drinking tea to have linner (lunch/dinner). More later!

EDIT: I found a piece about Verdant Tea on Serious Eats!
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/09/verdant-tea-organic-chinese-interview-profile.html

Bonnie

Nice review. I keep wanting a nap today too.

TeaBrat

naps are awesome!

Mercuryhime

I didn’t even mean to nap! It just happened! I was reading and then woke up a few hours later feeling all confused. I love lazy weekends!

TeaBrat

me too. :)

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92
174 tasting notes

I brewed this one gaiwan style, boiling water with very quick steeps. Did two rinses like the Verdant site says to. This one smells the way it tastes to me. But let me tell you a story first.

I used to work on a farm when I was younger. Go out in the morning and take the cows out to pasture. Then go out to the fields all afternoon throwing hay bails into the back of the trailer until no more bails would fit. Take the tractor to the barn and then stack all said hay bails.

Before heading out for another run we would have lunch in the late afternoon. Typically something that was easy to make yet hardy. Homemade deer sausage and burritos were fairly popular with homemade corn tortillas. I did this for a number of years. Then one year a business decided to buy the farm. Now all that stands there is a huge warehouse that I can see through the forest from my parents house.

This tea reminds me of the days that I worked on that farm. The corn notes reminds me of the corn tortillas. There are some hay notes I get in this tea as well that remind me of working hard days under the sun pitching hay bails. Underlying all that is the subtle note of forest. Where there isn’t farms, there is forest where I live. This tea is one that brings strong nostalgia for me.

This is a pleasant tea that isn’t typically of any other puerh I’ve had. Granted I haven’t had that many, but most are rich with forest and earth to me. This one it is much more subtle, a background note, one that you may not notice if your attention is elsewhere.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec
CupofTree

I absolutely loved your story, thanks for sharing it. Its amazing how a tea brings you to these memories.

Invader Zim

Thank you. I was teetering on whether I was going to tell it or not, but it felt right considering how strongly this tea was making me remembering it.

Terri HarpLady

I’m glad you told it! Thanks! I love the stories people tell here! Tea brings images to our minds, & I love that!

ashmanra

Zim: did you ever have peanuts in Coke? All the farm folk around here would get a pack of salted peanuts and dump them in the glass Coke bottle. The peanuts mostly float, and each time you take a swig you get peanuts, too. I have been told that they did this because they needed energy putting in tobacco, but their hands were too dirty and sticky to actually handle food. Peanuts and Coke gave them caffeine and protein, so it was a great snack! My dad taught me to do it, and we still drink it now just because we like it!

Invader Zim

Lol, no I’ve never done it and I’ve never actually seen anyone do it, but I have heard of it!

inguna

“This tea reminds me of the days that I worked on that farm.”

It’s funny that you say that because I had the same feeling/association. This tea makes me think of my aunt’s farm where I stayed as a child.

Bonnie

OK when I go on vacation you can take over the stories for me!
Great job!

gmathis

Never heard of peanuts & Coke! Guess I was raised slightly too far north.

Invader Zim

Inguna: At least I’m not the only one!

Bonnie: Thank you! I’m glad to get such an approval from the story-teller, but I don’t think I have a story for every tea like you do yet.

Gmathis: Definitely not raised to far north! I live in Pa!

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87
6105 tasting notes

Uh…. am I the only one who thinks that this is pretty much the same as CTG’s sticky rice tuocha? Complete with being flavoured by that herb that imparts the sticky rice aroma/flavour? I read through the tasting notes quickly, and only really see one or two mentions of sticky rice, which I think is really odd. I can understand to some extent how it could be mistaken for corn, but I’m surprised that more people haven’t mentioned this…

Anyways, I gave this little guy a haphazard rinse in some 205C water before a 1.5 minute infusion. The tuocha hasn’t yet fully broken apart, so I’m sure I have a few more infusions ahead.

The aroma is light and sweet and smells like sticky rice; the flavour is light and sweet and also like sticky rice, haha. It’s really quite delicious, and absolutely perfect paired with my current guilty pleasure, Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme drops. (I went shopping hungry…)

The one big difference IMO between this and the sticky rice tuocha I tried from CTG/lynne-tea (or maybe it was the one from Amy oh) is that this one is clearly less finicky and doesn’t get bitter as easily. I really will have to compare the two though, because at least in my mind, the similarities are quite high.

ETA: Whoops, second infusion of this got a touch strong. I meant to stick with 1:30 but it got 2:45 as I didn’t set a timer that beeped. Still good, but just a bit overpowering. I am still strongly reminded of sticky rice touchas, and there’s almost a hint of astringency here, but I’m positive that’s because it was left a bit too long.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 30 sec
momo

ooooh noooooo I can’t stand how that one tastes and I’ve got a couple of these. I wonder though if that herb has that similar sort of effect like cilantro where to some people it’s just absolutely horrific.

Kittenna

I could be wrong, but that was certainly my immediate though. Less potent though, perhaps. Give it a try anyways :)

momo

I will! If I don’t like it that’s okay because I only have 2 in the sample pouch I think.

Invader Zim

I haven’t tried the Sticky Rice Tuocha yet, but now when I try it perhaps I will think back to this Cornfields Shu Tuocha!

Kittenna

Perhaps there are few people that have tried both?? I really want some more opinions here!!

Bonnie

Too me this was way more corn than the sticky rice which was more sugared rice tasting and a little like having a sesame candy.

Kittenna

Actually, I just brewed up Teavivre’s Mengku Palace Ripened Buds, or whatever it is called, and it smells just like this one! I wonder if my memory is off, and I’m just likening the shu pu’erh taste in all three, and forgetting the actual sticky rice flavour. That could certainly be the case, in which case I need to revisit a sticky rice tuocha of some type to reconcile things in my head.

Bonnie

There was a young woman who lived in a SHU, she had so many Puerh’s that she didn’t know what to DO! Ah, go have some ice cream!

Kittenna

Hahahaha, I don’t have nearly as many pu’erhs as you! And haven’t tasted nearly as many, either, which is why I could be so easily getting confused!

I’m having both cheese and yogurt right now… not ice cream, but still dairy! :D

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99
676 tasting notes

(I wrote this review a few weeks ago under the wrong heading…oops)

Oh I wanted to write a special story with this tea. I was going to take my time and sit thoughtfully, sipping and thinking and sipping and thinking.
First though, I had to take a final paper to the registration for my car. Then the Post Office to mail a Birthday Card. Then, well of course Happy Lucky’s Tea House was on the way, so I brought in some tea for the guys to try. Imperial Breakfast Summer Blend (Oh they really liked that one!) and Butiki’s Guranse Orange Pekoe (an interesting Nepalese tea), and this Diyi Cornfields Shu (another that everyone went Ooooh over!).
I had the best time sharing.
Sometimes I feel empty drinking tea all by myself. Out of gas…like something isn’t quite right.
Well, in fact it isn’t quite right.
Tea needs to be shared!

My day was hardly over.
My son-in-law Paul came by to install an MDA for my phone service
and my provider had sent the wrong equipment. I ran to the cable store, swapped it out for the correct item and he quickly did the install and left (with a Rootbeer and Reeses Peanut Butter Cup tip!).
My internet didn’t ever work. I had to figure this out (which I did and without me asking, and because the cable company screwed up, I got my current DVR service free for a year! Blessings Happen!)

Now I’m back to making more of this Cornfields Shu.

What has happened to my plans for a beautiful story? Everything got
ruined!

Life happens to us and we go on. What a chuckle.

I have to say that the bright places in my day have outweighed the tense ones. And the tea…well…I’ve had the best time sharing and sipping in hospitality with friends!

Oh this Shu is so different that it makes me want to celebrate and have a party…make snacks for a crowd…something like that!

The first thing I thought of was hot buttered corn on the cob off the grill. Dripping…and salty sweet.

I used my Gaiwan and the steepings are FAST! I was tempted to go past the recommended 5 seconds…but didn’t.
On the first steep the corn flavor and color were light, but on the second steep the liquor was browner and surprised me for such a short swoosh of water.

The aroma reminded me of the County Fair…. corn on the cob and kettle corn tempting me as I walk along trying to stay on my diet!

The flavor was sweet salted corn with a bite on the tip of my tongue and good enery tingling throughout my mouth.
I was interested in what a little raw sugar would do to this sweet corn tea and when I added a little the taste was like the caramel corn I loved at the San Francisco Zoo as a child. There was always fog, chattering black birds in the trees, the call of peacocks and the smell of salt air with the sea next to the Zoo. All my reviews on Steepster could be written about what I observed sitting on the bench at that Zoo and watching the people of San Francisco walk past me when I was a young girl. I was in love with all of them.

On second thought…(Maybe the second runner up would be warm Cracker Jacks with the nuttiness).

At any rate. Who would in their wildest dreams think this could be a SHU? Are you kidding me?

I could take a thermos of this SHU to the Circus, open the lid and everyone around me would think I had buttered popcorn!

This is hardly tea, this is my new snack food!

I’m a new Cornfields Shu Lover! And, this is a special one.

CHAroma

What an enjoyable tasting note. Thanks for sharing your stories! :)

Bonnie

Your welcome.

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100
58 tasting notes

First off, thank you Bonnie so much for the opportunity to try this tea

Dry smell: When I first opened this tea I first caught a light earthy smell. It’s hard to explain but it’s a very warm smell. Under the earthiness there is a light smell of vanilla extract. The strangest smell was something I couldn’t place. The closest I could come was the smell of the breading of a donut.

Wet smell: After the tea gets wet it gives off a very sweet, creamy smell. The vanilla smell is gone but got replaced by the smell of sweet dry hay like on a farm. It’s strange but the donut breading smell seems to have gotten stronger.

Taste: The taste was a lot milder than I expected. The first taste I got was very dry and had a deep flavor. It tasted slightly of cocoa and the bark from a tree. There is absolutely no bitterness. When you swallow your throat feels reeeaaalllyy smooth and it leaves a really moist feeling in your mouth.

This is another one of Verdant’s absolutely amazing teas and I am going to order some if I get the chance.

Bonnie

Glad you enjoyed it.

Insence&Tea

Ya, thank you, it was fantastic!

fleurdelily

I was intrigued by this when visiting their site, wish I’d bought some, now! :) Will keep in mind for next time, thank you for the review

Insence&Tea

It is an amazing tea. If you have the opportunity I would highly recommend trying some.

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95
294 tasting notes

After reading all of the tasting notes and seeing that there is a some who love and some who don’t care for it. I love it. I brewed in the yixing for maybe a minute and poured a touch out to smell and see the color. It was ready. The aroma is intoxicating and the flavor is a knockout. I too must admit was put off by some of the reviews. I am getting the corn obviously but with a much more complex profile. It is a lighter Shu that’s for sure. Totally unique. I will say it again, I love it….

LiberTEAS

I agree. This is one of the most interesting and unique Pu-erh teas I’ve tasted in a long time. I really like it.

TeaBrat

sometimes other people’s reviews can really cloud my judgment but we are all different and like different things.

Geoffrey

I’m a fan of this one too. Some of the other reviews of this perplex me. Like that recent one… I just can’t comprehend how this tea could be likened to glue stick. Glue stick? Really!? But then again, I have to admit that I’ve never tasted glue stick; if it tastes anything like Diyi Cornfields, maybe I’m missing out ;P

Charles Thomas Draper

It is a fantastick tea for an incredible price….

David Duckler

Aww, thanks my friends. I get a kick out of this tea every time, and know that it isn’t for everybody, but find it too unique and interesting to pass up. Plus, most “scented” pu’ers are quite murky. Finding something so novel that had such a clean body seemed too good to pass on. Some days I consider changing the name, or putting a little red warning sticker on the bag “Tastes like corn!” so that it doesn’t take people by surprise.

A few days ago I had a similar experience of shock when I opened a sample bag of pu’er tuocha expecting a traditional tea, and getting a big whiff of jasmine. The pu’er was jasmine scented! It was the most bizarre thing. It didn’t seem to make any sense, and I put it in the “NO” pile after 4 steepings, but perhaps I should try it again knowing what I am getting into.

ScottTeaMan

What an inteesting tea….I’ll have to try it.

Charles Thomas Draper

Scott, I highly recommend it….

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96
148 tasting notes

Wow, I love this. The liquid smells like really sweet corn or wet hay. It reminds me of living in northern California and driving by the farms in the spring and summer.
I didn’t have the heart to toss the first steep because it is so good. This has the earthiness of pu’erh without a strong musty or mushroom flavor. Instead it’s delightfully sweet. I feel like I’m drinking alfalfa (if that makes sense).

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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68
1353 tasting notes

Did nobody really see my previous post? It has like 4 likes on it or something and for the first 24 hours it only had 1. This is so unusual for me that it’s almost entirely unheard of. So at the risk of sounding vain, do go and have a look at it. If nothing else then just at the last line of it which has Stuff Revealed!

In the meantime I’m contemplating what to do about the big order from Nothing But Tea that I thought I made. I was doing some netbank-stuff in relation to Stuff Revealed (yes I am going to make you go and look in order to find out what it is) and noticed that the NBT order hadn’t been payed for. Investigating further I find that it doesn’t show up in my order history on the site and I also haven’t received any order confirmations by email. I don’t know why I didn’t notice not getting a confirmation. It’s the second time this has happened with NBT! How the plock can ordering tea be so damn complicated??? I honestly don’t know what it is I’m doing wrong. O.o So now I’m not sure what to do, whether to put the order together again (I think I can remember most of it) or to just try my luck with one of the other places I want to shop instead.

Auggy shared this one with me, and I’ve been a little wary of it. Wary and also curious. I’m just not certain that the corn-y aspect is one that I’ll enjoy. She sent me two of them, so at least it’s not something that I’ll have to spend the rest of my life trying to get through if it turns out that it’s not actually for me at all.

The aroma of the little toucha is giving the corn-y aspect away already. It smells not at all like pu-erh tea, but rather a lot of salt and popcorn. Highly peculiar, but also rather interesting. I’m much more curious now. (Also wondering what Husband will think of it. I can never quite anticipate what he’ll enjoy and what he’ll find bizarre)

Actually, I’m really craving some freshly made popcorn now…

After steeping Husband agreed with me about the popcorn, but I actually think that the popcorn note is a little less obvious now. It’s because the pu-erh notes are coming in as well and making sure you’re not mistaking it for anything else. Actually, it’s almost as dark as coffee, so at a glance and when only looking at it you could probably easily mistake it for a mug of coffee. It’d be some very surprising coffee though. But I digress.

I am still really craving some freshly made popcorn.

At first sip, it felt very sharp and salty, but also a little bit thin flavour-wise. I decided this was because of the temperature of the cup and let it cool down a bit before continuing. Even so, there was still quite a lot of aftertaste to the tiny sip I had, which did nothing for my popcorn craving.

After cooling a little more it’s a much stronger flavour, but still rather sharp and prickly. It’s not as popcorn-y as I had imagined, and I’m not actually certain whether I think this is a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a pu-erh, it’s not a corn-flavoured tea. It has picked up some corn-y sort of characteristics though. It’s not really so much flavour as it’s mouth feel. My mouth feels much the same was as when I’ve had corn soup or corn bread or similar. I made corn bread once, actually, and was vastly disappointed by it. Turns out I don’t like corn bread at all, largely because of this particular mouth feel. It was just WAY too much corn. This is tempered by there also being the strong notes of just pu-erh tea and that funny sharp note that I mentioned. It’s familiar to me, but I can’t work out what it is.

All in all, it’s not bad this, but it’s not exactly awesome either. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

Now go look at my previous post.

mpierce87

I’m so jealous you have some of this! I had one tuocha months ago and I still crave this tea! Unfortunately, it won’t be coming around anymore according to Verdant :(

Congrats on your Stuff! That’s exciting!

Nicole

I completely missed that previous note. Or I think I did – the little heart wasn’t filled in and it didn’t seem familiar… :) Congrats on the Stuff!

ms.aineecbeland

bereavement of brevity…or do I mean long winded? No matter, I concur.

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