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“I’ve been popping Yin Chiao like mad trying to get rid of this cold but it seems to have frozen it in the initial stage. So I’ve had an on-and-off fever for days now, sore throat, fatigue, etc, yet...” Read full tasting note
“I have so much of this tea, I don’t even know what to do with it. Of course, I ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would – but hey, it was an investment! haha I’ll swap it away and maybe...” Read full tasting note
“I picked this as a free sample from Chicago Tea Garden, mostly because it just seemed too different not to try. I mean, come on – sticky rice flavored tea! How can I not try it? This is actually...” Read full tasting note
“Thanks to The Purrfect Cup for this one! I had this once before but am so glad I was able to try it again! Sticky Rice, Sticky Rice…yeah, yeah, YEAH!!!!! Totally…see my other notes on this one!!!” Read full tasting note
These tuocha smell exactly like sticky rice. They taste like it too. This tea is a wonderful alternative to Japanese Genmaicha (Roasted Rice Green Tea). These tuocha are made from green pu-erh and were manufactured in 2004. The distinct sticky rice smell and taste comes from a Chinese herb known as Nuomixiang. The tea is stored for several months with the herb before being processed into tuocha form.
Pu-erh tuocha is sold by weight so for 50g you will receive around 12 pieces, 100g around 24 pieces, and 200g around 48 pieces.
Chicago Tea Garden is an online tea shop committed to providing extraordinary teas and tea education to tea lovers and those new to the leaf. Chicago Tea Garden's co-owner Tony Gebely also runs the World of Tea Blog [http://www.worldoftea.org] and Tweets at @WorldofTea.
Well, my order arrived yesterday all 500g of it! That’s right I now have 100+ pieces of this in my house. My husband asked in a sarcastic tone “Think you have enough?” Maybe, maybe not…it is so good! It does in fact smell like sticky rice as it steeps! My niece was visiting and came running into the kitchen in the hopes I was making rice but was sad to see it was “just tea”. What is wrong with my family??
The funny thing is to me this tea tasted like mushrooms and of course very earthy. But I loved it! I did add ice to chill it as it has been in the 90’s here for a few days. But I really did enjoy it and I’m glad I got it while I could.
OMG! If ever a tea could evoke childhood memories of my grandmother who passed this January, this is it. I immediately remembered home cooked rice from India. My mom made this too and still does but it is was something my grandma made all the time when I was growing up. It brought back such happy memories and a few tears of all the family dinners together back in the day before we grew up and and the grandparents that helped raised us passed. I am so thankful I found you “Chicago Tea Garden” and that I found this tea. The memory was as fresh as it just happened.
On that note: It is delicious, sweet, and just like rice.
I love the scent of this!! It’s so much like one of my favorite Filipino desserts called “Buko Pandan” (sweet young coconut with pandan-flavored gelatin, condensed milk and crispy rice topping). It smells deliciously like sweet toasted rice and pandan leaves.
The taste is like toasted, slighty earthy green tea with sweet sticky (aka “glutinous”) rice. So it’s just as described—yum! :)
I really like this tea and I’m glad I chose this as my free sample. This is unique to my tea collection so I will definitely order more. Thanks Chicago Tea Garden!
ETA: I steeped this pretty heavily and did not rinse it like a regular puerh. But it was still pretty tasty. Although, on cooldown, I could detect some astringency and bitterness. So, it’s best to drink it quickly and not let it linger in the cup. I still love it, though!
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 nest ~4.6g
Water: ~16 oz
Tool: ceramic Tea Forte solstice teapot
Steep Time: a little over 1 minute
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: rice
Steeped Tea Smell: rice
Flavor: bitter, astringent, rice, green tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bitter green tea
Liquor: translucent yellow-green
As an aside this online shop has amazing customer service, packaging, and products. I highly recommend them.
MilitiaJim appreciates that it is what it says, rice tea.
I started with a quick rinse steep to loosen everything up. As the nest unfurled the leaves were smaller than I expected. I ended up needed to strain the tea as I poured into my cup.
I think I was not patient enough in letting the water cool from a boil, or 1 minute was too long to steep the leaves as it was bitter. I could both smell and taste the rice.
I’m intrigued and can’t wait to try this tea again later, I am still new to pu-erh teas so the whole rinse and tiny steep concept is difficult for me to time correctly. To add trouble I also always over heat my whites and greens!
Post-Steep Additives: none
Resteep: same as the first in preparation and taste
This gets extra points just for being different and fun.
Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/chicago-tea-garden-tuocha-green-pu-erh.html
Hey, AmazonV. I just had a quick couple of questions regarding Pu-Erhs in general, as I am quite new to them. Did you pick the tuocha apart before steeping? I heard you are also supposed to “rinse” the leaves. Does this mean first rinsing the dust and such off (as some cakes, tuochas, and bricks may be of a very old vintage), or should one just plop the tea right in the cup? Thanks!
Hey Alex – no i don’t pick apart the litte touchas as they are for single servings, cakes need to be pried apart with a knife (i think there are good youtube videos on this)
some people rinse (steep fast and throw out) the tea first to get rid of dust and such, just pour in the water to the pot as if steeping, swirl around, then right into the sink (only a second or so) you don’t have to though if you don’t want to (don’t just rinse it in the sink, you might end up loosing leaves, use your strainer or teapot or gaiwan)
you’ll notice the toucha coming apart the more you steep, these steep many times, until it looks like loose leaf wiht no help needed
Great! Thanks!
Not bad!
Deutschland oder Amerika?
Deutschland noch für drei Woche.
Happy Thanksgiving over there Spencer! I am glad that Sticky Rice found an appreciative home.
Thanks! I am even having a bit of a Thanksgiving meal with some fellow Americans. And the Sticky Rice was definitely fittingly tasty this evening.
I don’t know when I got this. One of the times I visited my friend in Chicago, I guess? It smells strongly of rice, it’s so cool. The tea is quite tannic, but I think that’s my fault – I got distracted because I’m in zoom class, and I was paying attention to my instructor…
I do like this. Will it or something like it be a standard puerh in my cupboard? Hmm, probably not. I don’t think this would be an “every day” tea for me. But if I come across places that sell sticky rice puerh, I’d consider picking up a tuocha or two for future enjoyment.
Thank you to Amanda for this interesting tea! It smells exactly like sticky rice. And I love sticky rice! While I was waiting for it to cool I got so hungry smelling it. Well as my luck today would have it… I over steeped it.. But as it’s cooling the bitterness is going away. It tastes like sticky rice with a bit of an earthy note. I will try again later with actually watching the time.. But I really did like this one. It is definitely something different to try.
This tuocha was a little different from camel (shark) breath. It was much harder and portions needed to be flaked off using a sharp knife. So, a little prep work was required but it was nothing too onerous.
Everyone has been raving about the initial fragrance but I have to admit that, for me, there was none in the dry tea. There was maybe a hint of grass and pasture, but that’s about it.
The prepared tea, however, was full of fragrance and flavor. The tea smelled like clean hay with cooked sushi rice. A rice flavor, however, dominates and has underpinnings of honey, oats and a very slight floral finish.
From second infusion on, this tea took on greater honey-and-oat qualities. I’m beginning to understand how pu-erh, even through its quirkiness, can build such a strong following. Each one truly does have a unique character and it even offers a varied experience during one extended sitting.
