Raw puerh
On the black tea discussion, I asked what puerh flavour teas are the best. Somebody recommended raw puerh. It sounds great. But of course I am nervous. Would anybody like to give me an overview of what raw puerh is/ where I should buy from etc.
http://www.teavivre.com/info/raw-pu-erh-tea-info/
They also have some sheng I liked.
Interesting… I figure if you were talking about black tea the recommendation would be ripe pu erh since it is most like black tea. Raw pu erh is much lighter in color and flavor than black tea. Closer to a green tea, but not the same at all. Mandala has an excellent raw pu erh called wild monk which is excellent for people new to raw pu erh.
https://shopmandalatea.com/raw-pu-er-tea/2014-wild-monk-100g-raw-puerh.html
If you’d rather get a ripe pu erh, which is more similar to black tea, pretty much any ripe pu erh from Menghai tea factory is enjoyable. Good luck!
Mandala is running a special right now for a ripe puer sample where you get 4 samples of puer and a sample of their tea stain dissolver for $5, no shipping fees. They were talking about doing a raw puer sampler in a few weeks, so that might be a good opportunity to try some out.
I’m such a disaster. I don’t even tend to like sheng, but I want the sheng pack when they do it. Just keep trying til I love it is my plan, apparently!
Ha! Hoarder! (As I look away guilty of the same) I’m not a huge fan of puer, but I had to try the ripe pack because it was too good of a deal to pass up. I have only tried one so far and don’t have the palate to pick out all the nuances, but I’m hoping to develop it. I’m kinda tempted to try the raw too, which I have never tried, but I’m also trying to stay on the buying ban/hiatus. I’m a little embarrassed by how much tea I bought this summer.
Part of my problem is that when the urge strikes me, I basically have to drive 1.5 hours to Davids or order online. Then there is nearly a month wait to receive. That hardly satisfies the itch so in the meantime I want to keep buying. Not good. It only happens to me once or twice a year now and it is never very expensive, but the urge is still there.
Wow, that is a super long time to have to wait for shipping! Is that wait with Canadian companies too? I just ordered from Urban Tea Merchant and had a great experience with them. Shipping was fast and it was from CA to US. I think they mostly have TWG teas, which is what I was looking for, so I didn’t pay attention to if they had any puer.
Uncooked/raw/sheng pu’erh is the traditional kind. Yunnan assamica varietal leaves sun dried or low temeperature air dried, then steamed and rolled and compressed into a cake.
When the tea is young the flavor is more like a green tea or oolong, very different from the dark, earthy taste of cooked/ripe/shu pu’erh. As the tea ages over the years it changes and becomes more mellow and has a very unique taste.
If you search for info around here you should find several topics about pu’erh.
There’s lots of good places to get pu’erh, though some can be very expensive. Many places sell factory teas (Menghai, CNNP, Xiaguan, etc.) which are good, but the best sheng in my experience generally comes from the smaller labels.
-Yunnan Sourcing has great sheng under their own label at reasonable prices, offers samples, and has a mind-boggling selection, if not overwhelming
-Mandala tea’s own raw pu’erh is great too, thought more expensive, and the selection isn’t so intimidating. They’re also have a $5 dollar sampler of their ripe pu’erh right now, and plan on offering a raw sampler soon.
There’s tons more places, but those two get my highest recommendation for great raw pu’erh without a massive price tag.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.