Fun with pu-erh! I did a brew session this past weekend with this wonderful pu-erh from @californiateahouse . In case you didn't know, pu-erh is a special "breed" of teas that can be steeped for a long period of time without it changing stringency of the tea. You can also do multiple steeps with one single serving. I chose to do 3 steeps to see the difference in the color and flavor. In other words, I steeped my cup of tea and saved the tea leaves for later, steeped them again, and then a third and final time. It's amazing how it changes each time. If you have the time to play around with it, I highly recommend doing your own little "sesh". It's interesting and it's fun! For this session, I brewed each time for 4 minutes. 1st steep: this is a mildly smoky tea. I don't normally care for smoky teas, but this also had some nice caramel notes that smoothed out the smokiness just enough. It was very dark which, is what you normally get out of your first steep of a good pu-erh. This one was nearly as dark as my morning coffee! Very bold! 2nd steep: still a slight hint of the smokiness, but this time, I get a bit of a malty flavor. Oddly, and maybe this is just me, it reminds me of a Pepsi Cola after it has lost it's fizz. Probably sounds a little strange, but that's just my taste buds. Stil, it's a very nice tea and just slightly smoother than the first steep with a little lighter color. 3rd steep: MY FAVORITE. I normally go for strength when I'm brewing hot tea. Since I followed the 4-6 minute recommendation for the previous steeps, I did the same for this round. Completely delicious! It was lighter and more mild than the previous two steeps yet, you could still taste the strength of the pu-erh. I was surprised that I liked this final steep the most. So, down to what you really want to know about this tea. It's bold, fragrant, and delicious. If you've never tried a pu-erh, these little cakes are the perfect size for you to experiment with. Full review on the blog! DM for link. #tea #teareview #teablog #teaconnoisseur #teaexpert #teaqueen #puerhtea #tealover #teasofinstagram #teapeople #tealady https://www.instagram.com/p/CGljYDzgWiF/?igshid=lcd1dgkee36j
