Gong Ting Pu-erh in Tangerine "Golden Horse 8685" Ripe Tea

Special Thanks to John R for this one!

The process of this amazes me!

“A delicious high quality pu-erh leaf has been stuffed into the rind of a whole tangerine! The leaves were stuffed in wet, and then allowed to dry in the sun for about a week. The smell and taste of citrus is VERY present in this tea. If you want extra citrus taste, break some of the dried tangerine rind and brew with the tea together.”

I really like this!

I took the “top” and some pu-erh along with a small chunk that was in with the loose inside the tangerine. I’m going to send the brunt of the base and rest of the pu-erh over to my Sororitea Sister LiberTeas to see what see thinks.

I REALLY like this! I could see how purist of pu-erh might not because this IS very orangy…it doesn’t have that stereotypical pu-erh aroma or taste. BUT…I wouldn’t call myself a pu-erh purist and many of you know I like to try different things :)

I really like this because it IS different and because of the process AND the tangerine flavor is really true and juicy!

I’m so blessed I was able to try this one! Thanks again John R

This is an excerpt from my blog that also has a picture of this tea and a story with review at www.teaandincense.com

I received a gift box of Pu-erh from a kind and generous friend, I was so overwhelmed that the first person I told was a fellow Pu-erh lover Eric, who works at Happy Lucky’s. I shot him a quick note on Google+ and we arranged to bring my treasure by HL on Friday.

When Friday arrived, Eric was laughing at the amount of Pu-erh I had received! I told him to pick out anything for us to taste and his face lit up.

“I’ve never had a Tangerine Pu-erh,” he said. “Me either, I replied, and there’s three in the box, take your pick!”

I hopped up onto a bar stool to watch the opening of the plastic wrapped dry tangerine. (You couldn’t actually see with all the wrapping and the labels).

First, he opened the larger of the tangerines which had some mold on the fruit skin. We didn’t know what to do about this. Would we get sick if we drank the tea inside?

Eric went to the computer and shot a note out for our tea club members who might shed light on the safety of drinking the tea and then we made a decision to wrap it up and try another one of the tangerines just to be safe. (Later we found out that unless it was extensive and close to the Pu-erh it was probably OK).

We were determined!

The next tangerine is the one pictured. A Gold Horse grade 5 (that refers to the size of the leaves). http://flic.kr/p/dphcWo

Not available from Yunnan Sourcing at the moment; sourced from Grandness Tea on AliExpress.

Over the past week I have been sipping on two lovely “dark teas” (both are new to me) – this one and a 2012 Supreme Purple Bud Raw Puer Mini Cake (8g).

This is a highly enjoyable find! Gong Ting fermented in an orange rind and it is delicious. The first 2-3 steeps are a bit strong with a pleasant astringency but the later steepings are more mellow – very enjoyable cups from the first to the last. If you break up a bit of the rind with the tea leaves, you can adjust the flavor to match your individual preferences. I find the orange flavor to be quite subtle and the leaf itself is of a good quality. Each orange package weighs 22-24 grams so it’s good for four different sessions (each session with many resteeps).

I love ripe Puerh and I love citrus fruits. I tried EVERYTHING, I’ve steeped longer time, I’ve steeped smaller times, used a lot of leaf, small amounts of leaves… EVEN talked to it. I cant make myself like it. I tried it 4-5 different times 4-6 steeps each time. I will try another ‘Pomelo’ or citrus fruit because I want to make sure it’s not a quality issue.

I have two more completely new oranges… I will be making donations.

Earthy, mushroomy pu-er. For the life of me I cannot detect any citrus taste to it, though the idea of aging in a mandarin peel is interesting.
Not a lot of cha-qi to this one. Maybe a good starter for introducing folks to pu-er.

Ok. This is the first puerh that I can really get into… Dumping rinse of first steep was critical, and this is not too fishy. The tangerine definitely tempers the earth/dirt notes with some fruit. There is a fascination to the aromas. Like a real mycelial, loamy smell of freshly turned, decomposing wood chips. And it has decent smooth texture and body. Maybe my gateway puerh?

Happy Father’s Day! Today the prompt is to “drink a tea that reminds you of your father.” Just like during the Mother’s Day prompt, I’m the only tea-drinker in my family so I don’t simply have a tea they favor to drink, and have to think a little outside the box.

My Dad’s morning drink of choice is Tang… yes, that extremely fake tangerine-flavored powder you dissolve in water. I think he’s been drinking it since he was 16, and he still attests that “if it’s good enough for astronauts, it’s good enough for me!” I used to have some strongly tangerine-flavored teas (I remember a green one in the past) but since I’ve been going gangbusters on sipping down and strict about not reordering anything, I couldn’t find any in my current stash. But I did find this pu’erh stuffed in a tangerine, which I thought would be a good choice, both for the “Tang” inspiration tangerine flavor as well as the earthy notes of the pu’erh, since my Dad is a very “down to earth” sort of guy.

I actually got this tea for free from a barista working at Snake River Tea one year during my yearly trip there during a local anime convention; my friend and I ordered tea there every day of the convention, and on the last day I made a $100+ loose leaf order, and he just tossed this shrinkwrapped puerh-stuffed tangerine into my bag. It was easy for me to find the same one on Yunnan Sourcing, so if I like it, at least I know where to get it… because Snake River Tea closed down during COVID, for good. I was pretty upset about that…

I know I’ve tried a “tangerine stuffed pu’erh” before and I had a WICKED time breaking it out of the shell… the inconvience sort of offset the enjoyment I had from the tea. This one was SUPER easy though; the top was scored off, and after pouring out the tea, the rest of the shell was easily crushable to get little eggshell pieces of it distributed throughout the tea. I brewed this cup western with about 3.5g of the leaf and the tangerine “lid,” for 5 minutes in 205F water.

The brewed tea is thick and dark, with a sort of medicinal/peppery citrus scent. The cup is quite nice! The base pu’erh is strongly earthy but doesn’t taste like dirt in a cup, which is my typical experience with pu’erh. There is a hint of smoke, and a noticable peppery taste. The tangerine itself is not overpowering, but leaves a slight citrusy note in the cup which definitely makes the flavor more pleasing for someone like me, who typically avoids pu’erh. I also loved how easy it was to open and break down compared to the “Xinhui Green Mandarin Orange Ripened Pu-erh” by TeaVivre that I’ve tried in the past.

A satisfying cup… which I’m going to sip on while I call my dad.

Earthy, mushroom-y goodness. I’m a fan of the citrus as well. Loved the first two steepings but it just sort of fell flat really quickly. Possibly needed less than boiling water.

It’s a cute novelty, it being in a dried tangerine and all. Huh. It’s a novel-tea.

A local tea shop gave me a single one of these tangerines as a sample; they were thinking of carrying it regularly. I think they ended up not doing so, which is a shame because it’s quite a nice tea. However, it’s available from Yunnan Sourcing, so I can always get it there.

The texture is kind of thin for a shou… It doesn’t have too much of a citrus taste; this comes out more in later steeps. Nice, but not what I’d pick when I want a pu-erh specifically. Like most of the fruit-packaged tea I’ve tried, it steeps well both grandpa-style and gongfu.

Now this is one divisive tea – based on prior reviews. I always thought that puehrs stuffed in citruses are just a marketing gimmick. Finally, I ordered this puehr-in-a-tangerine to try it and check off the box.

Well, I was wrong. This rather simple earthy, autumnal-decay type of puehr blends with the citrus peel in a very natural way – like bergamot, ginger or chrysanthemum do. I always add part of the peel to the brew. The result is a simple, calming, autumnal drink. Dirt, mushrooms, a smell of the lake in the woods full of peat and fallen leaves.

There is not much of complexity, and definitely not the best choice for precise gong-fu sessions – but it is perfect for leisurely drinking the grandpa style.