Mossy Cave Pu-erh Cups

So, my first taste of Pu-erh reminded me of mucking out the stables.
This Pu-erh gives me a horse-y memory too, but thankfully a more pleasant one.
Hubby gets fish from Pu-erh, and I get horses, so odd how one tea can appear so very different to each person.
I use one of these little cups for a 2 1/2 cup pot instead of for a 8 oz serving (as suggested) I also start with very short steeps.
I am finding with Pu-erh if I can let it sneak up on my taste buds, I enjoy the whole experience a lot more.
The smell of these tea reminds me of horseback riding with my big red Tennessee Walker,named Star, up on the mountain behind the farm where I grew up.
There is a tiny stable smell, but the good kind (if any of you have been around horses you know what I mean) that good, healthy horse smell.
That smell is mixed with a few other memories, like riding over the soft damp earth under the trees, some patches of the earth covered in a thick dark green moss, the horses hooves would be so muffled on the moss that sometimes we would come upon a deer and her fawn grazing or napping in the filtered sunshine.
Then, maybe we would ride around the other side of the mountain next to the creek where there was a beaver slide and in a small hollow in the shade, there would be a patch of wild mushrooms growing.
Woody,damp earth, moss, mushrooms and horses.
With the taste I get small amount of horse, moss and a lot of mushrooms with a tinge of forest.
It’s very interesting, and although to the new comer to Pu-erh, all of this sounds completely nuts.
But, This tea has fetched a memory from back in the dusty corners of my mind.
I am grateful for that.

I decided to make a Peanut-Butter-Puerh Milkshake. It was pretty good, but I may have used too much milk.

Steeped 1 toucha in 3oz of boiling water for 10 minutes. Tasted a sip afterwards – absolutely no bitterness! Awesome :)

Then I added 4oz of milk and 2oz of peanut butter, blended, and drank. It was pretty good!

Omnomnom :D

The description was right! This does brew up very dark. I thought it would be a little bit stronger but it’s just right! It’s very smooth and earthy with hints of something I just can’t put my finger on. It has a sweeter finish as it begins to cool.
This tea makes me think of horses. Like, horseback riding or hanging out in the stables. If I were to go horseback riding I would definitely take a tumbler full of this wonderful pu-erh. It just fits :]