Well this is my 2nd attempt at Pu Erh. My 1st was adagio’s pu erh dante which was absolutely vile. But ya know… something just dawned on me. It’s almost exactly a year since that experience. I made my 1st online tea purchase, which was w/ Adagio, on Dec. 28th of 2008 and that (along w/ white cucumber which is now one of my faves) was one of them. Although I have to be careful to not analyze this analogy too much cuz then I start thinking about howe my life has changed since then and I get depressed.
Anyway, this is the 1st Numi tea I’ve had so I can’t tell you too much about them beyond what my observations for this particular bag will be. Yes, bag. Now I’m not a fan of bagged tea so bagged pu erh worries me even more. I’m also surpised the front of the bag uses “velvety and vanilla” to describe a chocolate pu erh.
Ingredients: organic Pu Erh, organic cocoa powder, organic vanilla, organic Theo chocolate cocoa nibs, organic rooibos, organic orange peel, organic nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Wow… the ingredients surprise me. This isn’t just a chocolate pu erh, this is more of a chocoalte chai/spice pu erh. Not what I was expecting, but it sounds good! I also love that all of the ingredients except for the cinnamon are organic. I’ve never heard of Theo chocolate before though. As if I couldn’t be more worried, they throw rooibos in here! I’m desperate to learn to love rooibos because it’s so healthy, but I just can’t seem to.
I open the bag and smell it. While I can smell the complexity and depth of the chocolate and pu erh, the only ingredient I can specifiically smell is the nutmeg. Not a bad thing, just interesting.
The odd thing about the steeping directions is they don’t tell you how much water to use. They don’t even use the vague term of a “cup”. So I weigh it. I would have anyway because I’m learning a lot of bagged teas are incredibly light. Wow! 2.5g! I’m impressed! It’s between the weight I prefer for a 6oz cup (2.25oz) and an 8oz cup (3g) so I decide to steep it as an 8oz cup for the higher suggested time of 5 min. (It suggests 3-5). I also steeped it just under boiling (205-210) instead of at boiling because I don’t want to kill the health benefits. I don’t think it’ll make that much of a difference.
The liquor is one of the darkest I’ve seen. Easily mistakable for black coffee. And that’s what it smells like. It smells like a chocolate chai steeped in black coffee. Sweet, spicy, rich, creamy, decedant, and very complex. After a quick stir, I take a sip. I have never been so glad for a tea to taste exactly the way it smells! I LOVE THIS! And pu erh is supposed to help you metabolize fat? this seems like it should add it!
For you to fully grasp what’s going on in my head, you need to understand that not only was I terrified of pu erhs, but aside from chais I don’t care for black teas in general. Normally I say who I think would like a certain tea, but this time I think I’m going to say who I think won’t like this because the list is much shorter. I think the only person that would not like this would be a person who doesn’t like coffee or chocolate.
Serving Suggestion: While this is wonderful on it’s own, this tea would make a wonderful latte steeped in a ratio of 2 parts milk to 1 part water or steeped completely in milk as an adult version of hot chocolate. 1TB of white chocolate creamer instead of milk would also be divine.
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I’m so glad you liked it! And I’m glad you were brave enough to give it another try. Very nice, thorough review.
2nd steep. I increased the steeping time by 1 min like I normally do, but cut back on the water by 2oz and I’m glad I did. Inspite of the adjustments, the liquor was lighter than I expected. I added 1TB of white chocolate creamer… which oldly enough gives my cuppa a very slight pink hue… strange. While I wish the tea was stronger this infusion I can still taste it. Not as good as I was hoping, but I think white chocolate creamer would be a great addition to a 1st infusion.
@Carolyn, me too! But I was most impressed w/ the bag weight. I can’t wait to get this in loose leaf so I can have my prefered 2.25g/6oz.
Blending ideas: Teavana’s Strawberry Slender pu erh, or Rishi’s Vanilla mint. I haven’t tried either one, but based on my success w/ this one I can’t wait to try blending it w/ other pu erhs.
Good review. I’ve never had pu-erh but this one sounds yum.
mmm, yummy! Theo chocolates are a local artisan chocolate from here in Seattle, and they are just to die for. The small factory in town gives tours. http://www.theochocolate.com/ I went there when they first opened and had some amazing chocolates. My favorite was the one with green tea (it was probably matcha) inside, and the lavendar-hinted “earl Grey” chocolate. Dunno if they still have those flavors, but their dark bars are divine and worth the 3 or 4$ each.
Seattle connection, extra score!
The pu erh dante sample I have scares the heck out of me, to be honest. It smells like livestock to me for some reason…whoof. This sounds fantastic though! I guess you’ll have to change some of your info on your profile now, hee. ^^
I’m glad that you tried a different pu erh. Maybe the one you tried from Adagio is just not a good pu erh?
Yeah… um… sophistre… I just gotta tell you for the sake of honesty… that VILE pu erh… pu erh dante…
I’m so glad you liked it! And I’m glad you were brave enough to give it another try. Very nice, thorough review.
2nd steep. I increased the steeping time by 1 min like I normally do, but cut back on the water by 2oz and I’m glad I did. Inspite of the adjustments, the liquor was lighter than I expected. I added 1TB of white chocolate creamer… which oldly enough gives my cuppa a very slight pink hue… strange. While I wish the tea was stronger this infusion I can still taste it. Not as good as I was hoping, but I think white chocolate creamer would be a great addition to a 1st infusion.
@Carolyn, me too! But I was most impressed w/ the bag weight. I can’t wait to get this in loose leaf so I can have my prefered 2.25g/6oz.
Blending ideas: Teavana’s Strawberry Slender pu erh, or Rishi’s Vanilla mint. I haven’t tried either one, but based on my success w/ this one I can’t wait to try blending it w/ other pu erhs.
Good review. I’ve never had pu-erh but this one sounds yum.
mmm, yummy! Theo chocolates are a local artisan chocolate from here in Seattle, and they are just to die for. The small factory in town gives tours. http://www.theochocolate.com/ I went there when they first opened and had some amazing chocolates. My favorite was the one with green tea (it was probably matcha) inside, and the lavendar-hinted “earl Grey” chocolate. Dunno if they still have those flavors, but their dark bars are divine and worth the 3 or 4$ each.
Seattle connection, extra score!
The pu erh dante sample I have scares the heck out of me, to be honest. It smells like livestock to me for some reason…whoof. This sounds fantastic though! I guess you’ll have to change some of your info on your profile now, hee. ^^
I’m glad that you tried a different pu erh. Maybe the one you tried from Adagio is just not a good pu erh?
Yeah… um… sophistre… I just gotta tell you for the sake of honesty… that VILE pu erh… pu erh dante…