Chrysanthemum Pu'er

I thought I reviewed this but didn’t! Ha! I’ve lost my mind…approaching 65!
When I first brewed some of this blend the Chrysanthemum threw me off a little. It was an unfamiliar flavor. I was in the middle of the road about if I liked it or not and ended up more on the NOT side.

I tried some again, but it just wasn’t my kind of tea. (These things happen to all of us!)

The lonely packet of tea has been sitting in my ‘to be reviewed’ bin until today, ignored! It caught my eye for some reason, and I had a flash of inspiration based on Verdant’s own blending methods.

I removed some of the Chrysanthemum flowers then added some Laoshan Black Tea! Of course!

The flavor was so good that I made two pots of tea last night and one this morning!

Laoshan Black is a wonder worker! I’ve used it to enhance (or save) more than one tea. So glad I kept the tea until I remembered what to do!

Thank you Dinosara for this. The Chrysanthemum seem to rule supreme on this one. It is my first Verdant Tea to boot. The aroma of the dry leaf is like walking into a green house or through a spring field. This is my third tasting before reviewing it. Every time the actual tea has been pretty weak in compared to rest of the brew. I definitely like it. It’s very vegetal. I have tried another tea like this before and like the combination of Pu-Erh and Chrysanthemum, however the other that I tried was a fishy pu-erh. I didn’t notice the orange peel till I made this pot. I will say that the pu-erh is more prevalent in this tea. The flavor almost reminds me of dandelions like when you took one as a kid and rubbed the yellow on your arm. The only bummer about this tea is the pu-erh is very weak. I like a good strong dark pu-erh. Overall though a good tea.

This seems very familiar to me, though I have never had another chrysanthemum pu’erh, I suspect chrysanthemum is an ingredient in one of my Traditional Medicinals. It’s floral in more of a fresh herbaceous way than remotely perfumey, which is a very good thing and works nicely with the earthy pu’erh which starts to come through on the third infusion. Short infusion this time around, will try western in the future.

This is my other free sample of Verdant Teas’ new Alchemy Label Blended teas. Pu-ers have always kind of intimidated me based on others’ descriptions, but I’ve only had one so far and that was a flavored one that I very much enjoyed. I chose this one as a sample because the floral pu-er sounded interesting. The leaf is dark with lots of whole chrysanthemum buds and pieces of orange and lemon rind. The aroma of the dry leaf kind of surprised me; I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the blend really reminds me of the scent of tea tree oil. Which I like, but was unexpected. I’m not sure I really can think of what a chrysanthemum flower smells like, so perhaps that’s adding to the scent.

I brewed the tea based on the western style brewing instructions for the base pu-er on Verdant Teas’ website, which included two rinses. The resulting cup is very dark, the color of dark chocolate. The aroma of the steeped cup is very different from the dry leaf, which is interesting because during the rinses I was still smelling the tea tree oil aroma from the leaf, but now it seems to have disappeared. But I can still smell it on the wet leaf, which really makes me think its the chrysanthemum flowers that are now sitting, wet, in the steeping basket. Anyway, the aroma of the liquor is woody and earthy and a little piney. It very much reminds me of hiking in the pine barrens (a type of forest environment made up pine trees with little undergrowth) out here on Long Island. When I inhale deeply I am realizing that the tea tree (chrysanthemum?) aroma isn’t gone, it is what’s giving it that piney aroma. It comes out more as the tea cools.

The flavor is light and very reminiscent of the aroma. The first note is really the pine-tree-wood flavor, which mellows into an earthy, slightly minerally flavor in the main body of the sip. Every once in a while I get the faintest hint of sweetness in the aftertaste. It’s a really interesting tea… not one I would drink all the time, but definitely a cup I enjoy. I’m kind of at a loss as to how to rate this one; on one hand, I think it’s probably a very good example of it’s kind and someone really into pu-ers would probably rate it very highly; on the other hand, I think I am not really that kind of person. Then again I haven’t had hardly any pu-ers, so who knows. Anyway, I think I’ll take the average and stick it in the high 80s. I have been very impressed with the new Alchemy line, and will likely try some other blends on my next order!

I forgot about it and steeped it over 5 min and it came out very dark, almost like coffee but I’m not afraid of strong taste or bitterness in a black tea. If I recall correctly, according to George Orwell that’s exactly how tea is supposed to taste :)
The smell was earthy and rich and not funky or fishy; very rich with notes of chrysanthemum and danylion and surprisingly light, no bitterness at all. I absolutely loved it. I would buy it again for sure. Checked the website and it’s gone …. What?!!!!

Gah. It’s so hard to give a bad review, but I feel like it’s only right to be honest. I’m not going to add a rating for this one because I’m not sure Puers are for me at all. This was so, so strong. I found the flavour absolutely undrinkable. I tried to wash the tea several times, tried a few temperatures, but the taste was just..horrid.

It was, how do I quantify this..it smelled and tasted like I was drinking fermenting tree bark after a forest fire. I couldn’t find any sweetness and the flavour of the chrysanthemum was not detectable at all. I don’t know, this may be the worst tea I’ve ever tried. I tried giving some to a Puer-drinking coworker but it was too strong for him too, so don’t get this if you’re faint of heart!