Gong Ting Pu-erh in Tangerine "Golden Horse 8685" Ripe Tea

Special Thanks to John R for this one!

The process of this amazes me!

“A delicious high quality pu-erh leaf has been stuffed into the rind of a whole tangerine! The leaves were stuffed in wet, and then allowed to dry in the sun for about a week. The smell and taste of citrus is VERY present in this tea. If you want extra citrus taste, break some of the dried tangerine rind and brew with the tea together.”

I really like this!

I took the “top” and some pu-erh along with a small chunk that was in with the loose inside the tangerine. I’m going to send the brunt of the base and rest of the pu-erh over to my Sororitea Sister LiberTeas to see what see thinks.

I REALLY like this! I could see how purist of pu-erh might not because this IS very orangy…it doesn’t have that stereotypical pu-erh aroma or taste. BUT…I wouldn’t call myself a pu-erh purist and many of you know I like to try different things :)

I really like this because it IS different and because of the process AND the tangerine flavor is really true and juicy!

I’m so blessed I was able to try this one! Thanks again John R

This is an excerpt from my blog that also has a picture of this tea and a story with review at www.teaandincense.com

I received a gift box of Pu-erh from a kind and generous friend, I was so overwhelmed that the first person I told was a fellow Pu-erh lover Eric, who works at Happy Lucky’s. I shot him a quick note on Google+ and we arranged to bring my treasure by HL on Friday.

When Friday arrived, Eric was laughing at the amount of Pu-erh I had received! I told him to pick out anything for us to taste and his face lit up.

“I’ve never had a Tangerine Pu-erh,” he said. “Me either, I replied, and there’s three in the box, take your pick!”

I hopped up onto a bar stool to watch the opening of the plastic wrapped dry tangerine. (You couldn’t actually see with all the wrapping and the labels).

First, he opened the larger of the tangerines which had some mold on the fruit skin. We didn’t know what to do about this. Would we get sick if we drank the tea inside?

Eric went to the computer and shot a note out for our tea club members who might shed light on the safety of drinking the tea and then we made a decision to wrap it up and try another one of the tangerines just to be safe. (Later we found out that unless it was extensive and close to the Pu-erh it was probably OK).

We were determined!

The next tangerine is the one pictured. A Gold Horse grade 5 (that refers to the size of the leaves). http://flic.kr/p/dphcWo

I love ripe Puerh and I love citrus fruits. I tried EVERYTHING, I’ve steeped longer time, I’ve steeped smaller times, used a lot of leaf, small amounts of leaves… EVEN talked to it. I cant make myself like it. I tried it 4-5 different times 4-6 steeps each time. I will try another ‘Pomelo’ or citrus fruit because I want to make sure it’s not a quality issue.

I have two more completely new oranges… I will be making donations.