Pu-erh Vanilla Mint

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!

Love it. Vanilla, minty, chocolate-y goodness! First sip reminded me of Andes Thins for some reason, and I love that mint chocolate :D And the pu’erh base worked extremely well.

I forgot to log this, I think I’d meant to put it in but forgot so before i remove this from my cupboard…. It brewed up pretty dark. I like the balance of vanilla, mint & cinnamon with the vanilla and mint being most prominent. There was that odd Puerh smell at first but only faintly and then once brewed it was barely there. The tea had a nice smoothness and body to it. The rest of this is gone to a swap, on it’s way. I’m not sure puerh’s are for me or if I’m just not used to it yet.

Burnt my thumb good with some water over 200f while ‘trying’ to brew this…
Ugh….

Made this one for my mom and I :)
Personally, I think pu’erh shouldn’t be mixed with stuff and what not so I had jaded thoughts going into this…
However, this is actually a great tasting tea and I have no issue drinking steep 4,5,6 as my mom likes her tea stronger.

Nice mint, pu’erh is the undertone which is interesting, and over a nice feel. There is just a minor dry throat that comes with this one.

This is really good. I know a number of companies distribute this very same tea, but I got the best price from Zen. I ordered it because my daughter tried it from another company when she was in Toronto and loved it, had to have it. I told her I could get it cheaper for her than the company she bought it from there and here we are.

This is so good. A friend had it with me and had trouble figuring out the flavors. When I told her there was fresh ground cinnamon in it, the light bulb went off. The licorice root is nice in this, subtle and sweet. Mint is the main flavor up front, but I had one from another company called Vanilla Mint that just tasted like mint, no puerh at all.

This one has a much better balance, with the puerh serving as a good base holding up the mint, and the cinnamon sparkling as little hints here and there, with licorice root adding that sweet aftertaste.

We got so many steeps, too. This was a good buy.

It was served with some delectable cookies my youngest daughter made called “Will You Marry Me?” cookies. Oh my, they were good. I think I may not let anyone marry that kid, so I can have the cookies for myself.

Sipdown (114)!

Need to go to bed, but I’m on a really good tasting note roll right now…

Anyway thanks again Stephanie for the sample! I used extra leaf this time around since my biggest complaint with the last brew was that the flavour was weak and watery. This cup was a little less bland and had some notable differences; it was sweeter with a much more distinct and present vanilla flavour though to me it came off just a touch like artificial vanilla extract and less so like, well, actual vanilla.

There was still a fair amount of cinnamon – that part was definitely consistent. But where I gained vanilla flavour, I definitely lost the cooling, refreshing flavour of the mint. I think I just slightly prefer the vanilla flavour being present over the mint, despite the fact the mint was more natural, but having both present would be ideal. I mean this is Vanilla Mint and not Vanilla or Mint, right?

The earthy Pu was very subtle; most present in the aftertaste. It read to me like damn soil, with a light sweetness to it. I think I’d have really enjoyed the flavour if it was more present.

So to summarize; this was better than the first cup but only slightly. I just want more flavours from this one – more of all the flavours (except maybe the cinnamon). I think it could be really good, if it weren’t so light.

Vanilla mint puerh sounded great! But there’s CINNAMON in here too? Hmm…

I’m drinking it, but it is a bit weird to me! O_o

Samples-Only Small TTB

Hmmm…the aroma really reminded me of cinnamon bread. Funny, I wasn’t getting the mint in the aroma. But the first sip – all mint with a hint of vanilla. The vanilla and mint balanced out in the next few sips, but it was still really minty. As it cooled off, the cinnamon started to play a stronger role.

Interesting.

I’m glad I tried it, but it’s not something I would drink often.

And the base tea? There’s pu-erh in here? Nothing that I could detect.

Swap from my Opposites Taste Buds Swap Partner Mandy!

Oooohhh I knew it! You didn’t care for it so I love it. Of course. :) The Opposites taste buds swap is successful!

I’m so happy I found my taste buds opposite. The teas she sent me all seem so lovely. It’s hard to believe they are on someone’s “no” list. :)

I steeped this up at about 1.5 minutes because my original 3 minutes seemed like overkill. No instructions on the bag, so I treated it like my other pu erhs and I guess I was thinking more Adagio pu erh beacuse they suggest 3-5 minutes. Well 1.5 had this dark already so I went ahead and poured it off. It was DELICIOUS smelling in the pouch and in the cup. The color was a dark reddish brown.

I sweetened it and added milk. The package had that suggestion but not temp or times! :D

It’s delicious! Minty vanilla. Feels like a minty vanilla icecream in the mouth with hints of earthy pu erh flavor beneath. Very delicious. The mint is strong. The vanilla is very strong. The pu erh is a background note, but foundational and delightful.

Wellllp I will be drinking more of this for sure. ^^ Thanks for the swap Mandy!

This is definitely a comforting tea. This was on my short list of ones to try this week from the box MissB sent to me. It was perfect for a Monday morning. The mint was very subtle and I tasted more cinnamon than anything. As the tea cooled I definitely got a taste of the vanilla and the mint became more pronounced.

It’s supposed to rain a fair bit this week, so this will definitely get revisited again later in the week to finish off my sample.