Pu-erh Vanilla Mint

After being held by customs for 3 weeks, my Zen Tea order is finally here! I loved my free samples so much that I wanted to stock them in large quantities, and I got a few extra samples thrown in as well. I know customer service isn’t part of the rating number, but I’d like to mention how awesome my shopping experience was there. Super fast communication, tons of samples, they even threw in a gorgeous wooden tea spoon for me!

This is definitely different from what I expected. I was thinking it’d be brightly minty with just a hint of vanilla, but there’s cinnamon too! The vanilla, cinnamon and the earthy, warm notes from the pu-erh make this a very warming, bake-y blend. Kind of like coffee cake, actually! The mint brightens it up and adds a nice cooking quality, so it’s an interesting mix of hot and warm elements. There’s a nice smooth, creaminess as well from the vanilla. The baked notes were a big surprise—I honesty was kind of expecting to only like this and wound up loving it. It’s like a mint cupcake!

So this looks like the same ingredients as Crème de Menthe from DavidsTea, and I was considering buying it since they’re discontinuing it, but ZenTea has it $1.50 cheaper sooo we’ll see.

Thanks Kallieboo! for this sample!

I gave it a little rinse over prior to infusing. Maybe useless but whatever, I’ve been burned too many times by Chocolate Orange.

This isn’t mindblowing at all, so I don’t think I’ll be buying creme de menthe, I was hoping for minty mint mint but the cinnamon is a lot stronger.

I let it cool off and now it finally has more of that obnoxiously green mint candy taste but I think the rest of this sample from Kallieboo will suffice for me, and if I really crave it more, obviously I can order from Zen Tea instead.

Thanks to Zen Tea for the sample.

For the most part, I dig pu-erh blends. Definitely more than I dig Pu-erh, which often tastes like “blech” to me.

I really liked this blend. It’s definitely not my favorite pu-erh blend, but it’s not bad. Unlike the other reviewers, though, I didn’t get the strong pu-erh taste. I was definitely getting the mint and vanilla. It was a very nice tea that didn’t need anything extra added to it, even though the instructions recommended adding milk and sugar to it a la chai.

I would recommend this to someone who didn’t like pu-erh that much, but wanted to drink it anyway for the strong health benefits.

Thank you to Zen Tea for sending me this!!
So… this is my second time trying to write this review… my computer freaked out and I lost the first one.. But anyways I’m not much of a mint person but this tea is fantastic! The mint is the first flavor you taste but it’s not too strong. The vanilla kind of mellows the mint and adds to the pu-erh. The pu-erh is definitely the dominant flavor. It’s very strong and earthy. The aftertaste has a touch of cinnamon and it makes the entire tea! The flavors blend well together and I could see myself drinking this every morning.

Another generous sample from zentealife.com! They are quickly becoming a favorite! I wanted to try this one because I wanted to try one of their vanilla blends and I knew the flavor profile of a pu-erh is very giving to other flavors it is paired with… I thought the vanilla would be stronger here than with a black tea, for example! Also, I LOVE Zen’s Chocolate Mint Rooibos, surprisingly for the mint (usually not a mint fan.) I steeped for five minutes after waiting a couple minutes after it boiled. The steep color looks like a cuppa coffee! The most interesting thing about this one was seeing the tiny pieces of crushed vanilla bean around the rim of my cup and the slight crunchiness of it in my teeth! Yum! As I expected, the pu-erh is very generous to the flavors. I can smell the pu-erh more than I can taste it. Which is why I think I prefer black teas to pu-erh… I’d rather have that flavor kick of a black tea! But I think I have heard pu-erh has more caffeine? The most prominent is the mint with the vanilla making it taste like a minty ice cream. The little bit of cinnamon flavor helps smooth it out as well. With the second steep, the pu-erh flavor was more present. This is another scrumptious tea from Zen! Any tea fan needs to try zentealife.com. I know as soon as I get some tea moola, they will be the next tea company I order from.

tea #5 of iceday sipdown

I received this one from alphakitty, hmmm yea pretty sure that’s who this one was from.

this smells mostly vanilla like with a hint of mint.
it tastes the opposite mostly mint (although lightly) with a hint of vanilla.
this is a very light puerh, it would be great after a meal, most likely lunch, cause if I drank it after supper I’d be wired all night.
I really like this one, light & delicious. definitely want to add this to my cupboard.

Not very minty, not very pu-ehy. But overall enjoyed it. I’m more a fan of orange pu-erhs though. Will definitely try this again soon though. Sample from KallieBoo!

Thanks to Zen Tea for a sample of this!

My sample / new teas to try pile is out of control! That’s what I get for being sick for almost a week.

DRY: Smells like sweet mint.

STEEPED: Very earthy sweet mint smell coming from a dark red brown cup of tea.
Annoyingly, this sample did not have steep times on it, but the other samples did. I was too lazy to walk up to my computer to check, so I guessed. Apparently I was wrong, it should be boiling + 5 mins. DERRRP!

TASTE: Creamy taste! Lightly earthy background (lightness could of been my fail steeping) that has a robustness to it – with the mint gently hitting me last. Lingering creamy mouth feel! oh yeah! No bitterness or astringency.
Zen recommends to prepare this with sweetener and milk, I added some rock sugar to a cup and found the creamyness was brighter and more vanilla taste. I personally like this without sweetener.
Second steeping I did for boiling, 5 minutes. Less creamy taste and much more earthy pu’reh.

WHO’D LIKE THIS: I’m thinking back to all the bagged vanilla mint black teas I’ve tried and this one kicks them! I think the pu’erh is a great idea to this tea with the vanilla and mint calming the strong earthy a bit. A great tea for a black drinker to try a good flavored pu’erh. I did mention I prefer this without sweetener, but sweetened it’s not bad – so this be good for someone who likes to sweeten their tea.

COMMENTS: Not bad! I love pu’reh earthyness so this was good!