Pu-Erh Spice

Just got this today. It tastes pretty good. Mostly like spice and citrus.

Knowing that despite puerh being good for multiple infusions that flavored teas are not I brewed it with a teaspoon in a mug infuser instead of my standard gaiwan. This one was quite interesting and is more of an orange spice tea than a chai in my opinion. Personally if I did not know it was puerh I would have assumed that it was a light black tea base. Overall decent and this is coming from somebody that is not overly fond of flavored teas.

Definitely one of my favorites now; quite yummy, I love the spice blend. The orange peels give it a hint of sweetness without overpowering the anise and ginger. Love it for cold winter mornings. Brew for 5 minutes, any more will leave that bitter/dirt taste. I have a cup after most meals. If you like chai, you’ll like this.

Who knows what’s in Adagio’s teas?
The website waxes poetic about the tingly ginger in this, but there is no mention of ginger as an actual ingredient in the website ingredient listing. So I was ready to accept it was part of the “natural spice flavor”, until I saw that the sample packet does include ginger as an explicit ingredient!

I drink a lot of Pu-erh teas, both sheng and shou, usually straight but sometimes with orange/tangerine. And I like black tea with spice blends, so I was optimistic when this arrived in the week’s sampler box from Adagio. Steeped as directed, with two additional re-steeps. Goodness sakes, the pungent cinnamon overwhelmed everything! I could not detect any notes from pu-erh, nothing of orange, nothing of anise, but yes, there was a faint tingle of ginger. (I didn’t expect to taste safflower.) Even in the third steeping, whilst the cinnamon was muted, so was everything else. It was just a weaker cup of cinnamon. Although I could see bits of orange and maybe ginger, I’m going to chalk the imbalance up to stratification in the bulk spice, giving my packet too much cinnamon and too little puer, especially since other reviewers did detect those flavors. I suspect Adagio is using Chinese cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia here, whereas true Ceylon cinnamon, C. verum is much softer and would be a superior ingredient (Also, C. cassia is 20 times more pungent and contains 13 times more of the toxin coumarin). If you choose to buy this blend, I suggest you buy loose material and re-mix it well before taking a portion to your cup/pot. Since I can only evaluate what I received, I will not recommend this, and consider it imbalanced and give it a rating of only 25.

This has long been a favorite of mine. It’s bright but mellow. Smooth and deep. I’ve tried a couple other citrus/pu erh blends that were overpowering on the citrus. This Adagio mix keeps the citrus notes subtle enough to just complement the earthy pu erh flavour without overwhelming the whole cup. This was my daily tea for a while, but I’ve recently gotten back in the habit of experimenting. I’ll probably go back to this on the regular though.

When I was first getting into loose leaf tea, this was one of several Adagio puers that I sampled and then stashed. Without a palate for tea, much less puer, “eh” was my eloquent assessment.

Now, as I revisit this tea with a more developed palate and a little bit of puer experience, I find more to appreciate. The first brewed cup offers a pleasant, smooth aroma of earthiness, spice, minerality. I feel a slight cha qi in the first steep or two. Though the spices seem to sit on top of the tea more so than melt into it, the earthy puer provides an unexpected and enjoyable canvas. The tea is thin in body, with no astringency. I continue steeping as the spices fade, allowing the tea to come to the forefront. These steeps are just as pleasant as the earlier cups in which the spices were more assertive. The 5th or so infusion surprises me with the emergence of a delightful aroma quite like a cherry cough syrup. This translates to a slight sweetness and alcohol edge in the flavor also, though not identifiable as cherry. The sweetness and flavor of the tea fade over my last two steeps.

Thank you to Kat_Maria for sending this tea my way in our swap! I’ve been hesitant to try this one out because the one time I had puerh before, I did not like it. At all. But I figured that this is a flavored puerh, so I might as well give it a chance. While it was steeping, I could immediately smell those spices. It reminds me of an autumn candle scent (I’ve been sniffing a lot of candles lately), which was nice. It’s warm and cozy without that damp forest smell that I had from straight puerh. I think that the tea tastes like I would expect one of those fall candles to taste. A bit of cinnamon, ginger, and probably other things I can’t identify with the earthy undertones that I know are coming from the puerh. It’s nicer than I expected, but still a little perfume-y for my personal taste. I’m glad that I finally tried this one out, and I think I’ll let it rest for a bit and reach for it again in the winter (fall in California doesn’t get quite cold enough to put me in the mood for these types of teas).

I received a sample of this in my Adagio box yesterday. I’m enjoying it for breakfast with a little steamed milk. I think it needs more than one teaspoon in 8 oz for the best flavor, especially when adding milk. I’m loving the woody puerh flavor next to the nutmeg/cinnamon. My second cup is steeping now….
Second cup: wow!…. It has chai taste, but the subsequent steeping is more puerh and flavorful… I think because the spice has worn off… Yum! This is fun

Had a nice cuppa this morning. Very nice. More flavor than the sample I had before. I think because it had more parts that the sample only had a bit or two of.

Anyway, I’m loving this. Absolutely loving. :) A little simple syrup and it’s magic.

Resteeped even sweeter. Tho I gave my second cup to my sister after a taste because she’d just woken up and looked like she needed a cuppa.

I just got my Adagio order. I can’t wait to try Lansang Souchong. It smells so incredible.

This is delicious with a bit of sweetener and milk like a traditional chai!!