Pu Erh Dante

This was my first puer…it really opened my eyes and sent me off on a wonderful journey through shou and sheng. I don’t really care for the taste, it isn’t bad but I certainly don’t crave shou like I do a young sheng with stone fruit aftertaste. On taste I’d say it’s a 65.

I feel a little ridiculous talking about qi on an Adagio tea but this tea has the best energy !!! Unlike other puers (mostly sheng) where I get different qi on different days, Dante has a repeatable and reliable amazing tea energy. It’s perfect for morning hikes; energizing, uplifting (mood), relaxing all at the same time and it makes me ridiculously chatty and outgoing. I am very sensitive to qi (2g dosage) but this one is strong. Since Dante, I’ve tried approx 20 other sheng and shou with some having interesting qi but none matching up to this one. I must just be odd since no-one else has commented on this. More for me :)

I just bought a pound of this little bag of happiness.

One the first things I thought of this tea when I opened it was that it smelled like mushrooms. That scent comes across more in the brew. The flavour reminds me a bit of mushroom soup. Certainly very earthy.

As a puerh drinker in a past life, I feel like I have been the only person to say something about puerh dante besides how awful it is. I don’t know, I guess I have low standards. I think it’s the kind of tea that you like for it’s flaws. At least the earlier puerh dante was like that. Since then I think Adagio found a higher quality puerh to call puerh dante. It’s very smooth, which one would expect from cooked puerh. There is almost a malty flavor upfront that ties the earthy flavors together. Puerh dante was my introduction to puerh, and I liken it to going in the woods and smelling dirt and rotting vegetation. It might not smell pleasant at first, but you learn to like it. At least, that’s how I view this tea. I didn’t like it at first, but I grew to like it. This doesn’t seem like the same tea I first tried, but it is a welcome change. Adagio traded in a very earthy puerh for a cleaner, maltier puerh. Not that earthy is bad.

Smokey fish taste overwhelms my first sip. For the first time EVER, I am dumping the rest of my cup. This will be given away.

well this is an odd bird, although i should have expected that. pu-erhs are infamous for their oddness, after all! i didn’t think to rinse the leaves, so my first infusion was 2-3 tsp of tea in 16 oz of boiling water, steeped for around 5 minutes. HOLY silage, batman! the scent hits your nose first, a rich multi-layered combination of wet soil, compost, tobacco smoke, and rotten vegetation. the first sips were incomprehensible, but once the tea had cooled a tiny bit, similar flavours roll over the tongue delightfully. after the tea had cooled a bit more (still hot, mind), the flavors all collapsed into the taste of damp sand, which was disappointing. poured out the rest of that cup, started on the second infusion. boiling water, about 5 minutes again, the brew is just as inky brown from the moment the water hits the tea – does this stuff not dilute? the aroma of the tea this time around is a little sweeter – more rotting vegetation than tobacco smoke, less peat and more compost. this is not a bad thing, mind. the flavor has calmed down a bit, it is a bit less sharp, a bit less complex; it tastes more like a tea now. this is definitely not an everyday tea for me, however i can imagine it being an amazing after-dinner drink, served in small cups, shared amongst friends, like a fine sherry.

You know, most people will say that pu erh is for the “seasoned” tea drinker. What do I say? I’m not so sure I agree; I am pretty n00b when it comes to tea and I still have a lot to learn, but I enjoy it. Perhaps most people can’t get past the fishy smell of the brew. But to me, it is very faint and unless you’re looking for it, you will hardly notice. The taste is very earthy, but not too overwhelming. I steeped it for only 4 minutes and will extend the steeping time the next time I cross paths with this tea in my cupboard.

This is my first try of a Pu-erh, so I’ll reserve an opinion till I’ve had a few more tastes of it. But first off, it’s not bad. Time will tell.

I think Adagio says to steep this for 4-5 minutes. I tried that and hated it. After going to SF Chinatown and learning some traditional Chinese preparation techniques (gong fu, I think), I enjoy this tea very much. It has a nice earthy flavor and an aroma that reminds me of the fresh hay smell in a barn.

Dark, rich and earthy. A not so delicate, but quite typical Pu erh.

I really disliked this tea. It was worth a shot and I went in with an open mind but could not bring myself to enjoy the taste. It was too much like drinking moss or wet tree bark. I tried adding anything to it; cream, sugar, honey, and realized that nothing will ever make me enjoy this tea. However, I would recommend people to try it because they might like it better.