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This was pre-movie tea for hubby and myself. We went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at our little local art house theater where they sell gourmet popcorn, wine, and a pretty extensive collection of Numi teas and a fair number of Tazo teas. The movie was pretty good, by the way, and only had one F-bomb, a real feat for an art house movie, it seems!

I made this in my largest pot because we seem to drink a lot of it at a time. It is smooth and sweet, very lightly butter-y, and goes well with food. We had it Sam’s club white meat chicken egg rolls, LOL! Hey, don’t judge, they were pretty good! And the tea went nicely with it.

Finally, after twenty minutes of waiting for this to load, I can review my last tea of the day. Last night I saved my pearls. Tonight I added a teaspoon of new pearls since I had made it on the light side last time. I unashamedly drank the whole pot by myself. This is my quiet tea, my happy place tea, my meditative tea. Always, always must have on hand. I will be taking some to a new “tea friend” to try when I get my stitches out at Duke next week, because he has been paying $6 an ounce for the Teavana ones, while these are less than $4 an ounce. When you drink a lot of it, that is a significant savings if the quality is as good, and I think these are better.

I think these are steeps eight and nine.

My son and I are drinking more puerh tonight and I saved these leaves from last night since they still seemed to have plenty of flavor. This is mild and I think it is getting a little sweeter. I am still saving the leaves as I think we have one or two more steeps we can get from these. This sample packet was $2 (it comes two packs at $4) and the three of us have shared it for two days and I see one more day in its future. Not bad at all, and pretty much makes $48 for the large cake a real bargain, especially considering what a smooth, drinkable puerh this is. Again, no horse-y, no dirt, definitely no fish, just clean, sweet, fall leaves.

I found some Kashi flatbread style pizzas at Sam’s club and thought it was something my husband and son would like. It has a whole grain crust with spinach and three kinds of mushrooms. I wanted something healthy to drink to go with our healthy pizza, but it had to be something my son would drink, and he really isn’t a tea drinker other than one or two puerhs.

I chose this one because I think it is great with food. There is absolutely no bitterness and no sour taste. It is a very smooth green with a light butter flavor and a lightly floral/fruity aroma and aftertaste, but nothing to interfere with your meal.

I liked it and drank several cups, and it must have been pretty good because my son finished his cup. I had to go off before we had finished the pot, and I drank the last cup when I got home. It was quite cool, yet still very tasty and still had no bitterness at all!

I just received my refill of this one. I said I didn’t want to ever be without it and I meant it! My oldest daughter and I shared a pot this morning, she who drinks tea because it is good for her and not because she likes it. She picked up her cup as we talked, took a sip, interrupted herself saying, “Oo, that’s good!” and kept talking. Yep. It really is.

Sweet daughter had come by to bring me a big bag of Lindt truffles to make my face feel better! :)
We had a mocha one with our tea and it was yummy!

I bought the sample of this tea with my last order. It came in two 7 g packs and there is a generous chunk of the tea cake in each packet.

I made this in my gong fu set following the Teavivre instructions for a gaiwan. The result was a very mild, sweet puerh. I did a 20 second rinse, followed by a fifteen second steep. That was almost too mild for me since I like a good, earthy, horsey puerh! But it was quite good. The second steep was about 30 seconds, and on each successive steep I really didn’t add much time. This is very tasty.

Some puerhs are fishy. This one has not the slightest hint of fishiness. Some puerhs are horsey, with a lot of saddle leather aroma. This one is sweet forest floor, leaves breaking down into rich soil that will soon be laden with mushrooms. Have you smelled pecan tree leaves as you rake them in fall and they break underfoot and release their sweet scent? That is what I am reminded of, the best scents of a clean forest path.

And boy, does this ever resteep! I think we are on number seven now, and it doesn’t look like it is thinking of quitting on me! This is so mellow and even though we had a meal of eye of round roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and steamed asparagus with butter and lemon pepper, my mouth feels light and fresh. Don’t worry, I am about to go brush! But the tea is so CLEAN! Definitely one the puerh lover should consider, and one that may win over the reluctant puerh drinker.

Steeps four and five of these leaves from Azzrian! I followed Scott’s instructions and lowered the water temp. I also used a shorter steep time. The tea is a lighter yellow now, but still has good color and a lot of flavor. I am sure there are more steeps left in these leaves! The taste is very similar, just more subdued but certainly not watered down.

This tea was sent to me by Azzrian. I have been waiting to try it when i would have time to use my gong fu set and do multiple steeps. Hopefully in the next day or two i will get to all the samples at last!

I wish I had seen the additional steeping instructions before I made this. I have only made one other sencha that I remember and the steeping parameters n this tea are very different from the Chinese greens I drink, with the exception of Chun Mee.

The dry tea is lovely. There are thin, straight leaves and little balls of color. Cherry blossom buds?
I am amazed when something says to steep it for such a short time but at thirty seconds this has a rich yellow hue. I immediately resteeped as they suggested with boiling water for fifteen seconds.

Hubby said the first cup was the best to him and the second too astringent. I did a third steep at fifteen seconds but with cooler water, and it still turned a pretty deep yellow and had a good bit of sour bite and astringency. After swallowing, a sweet taste rises from the back of the throat. Even now, several minutes after I have finished my tea, the sweetness lingers. Teas that do that fascinate me.

I am going to save these leaves and steep again tomorrow morning. I bet there are still two or three good steeps in here. Thank you, Azzrian! I enjoyed trying this one!