Coal!
In day four of my advent calendar from Sara, I got mystery cheap pu-erh. Labeled “Coal!”
I found Sara’s review of this tea, and it came in a sampler from Liquid Proust. She said:
“This one was simply labeled as ‘Cheap.’ Yup. Just that. No year, no sheng/shou differentiation, but I guess whoever got this didn’t pay much for it! Fair enough. I never judge a tea by its price anyway. Taste is what’s important!”
I boiled water, rinsed it for about 10 seconds, and steeped for two.
The aroma is neutral, very slightly eartly. The taste is kind of smoky, earthy, roasted, and like black tea. Not very good black tea… I’m getting a bit of a “Lipton” note. The aftertaste has an artichoke note.
With all the hype about this tea, I am shocked at how inoffensive it is. It’s better than plain Lipton (I haven’t tried their discontinued berry tea), and I’ve certainly had worse bagged tea in restaurants which I’ve gotten down. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I don’t hate it either, hence the 51% rating.
The taste lingers somewhat pleasantly in a “please don’t hate me” kind of a way.
Flavors: Artichoke, Earth, Roasted, Smoke, Tea
Preparation
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EW. I tried a second steep. Well, a few sips of it. I found that “wet earth” flavor Sara tasted, yuck. And I tossed out the rest of that cup.
Now if you can picture the wet earth with tobacco smoke, that was pretty much my gong fu session in a nutshell.
Hehehehehe… COAL! At least you got the worst over with early in the month. No more evil Slytherin surprises, I promise. :-)
Aw, no homunculus tea?
EW. I tried a second steep. Well, a few sips of it. I found that “wet earth” flavor Sara tasted, yuck. And I tossed out the rest of that cup.
Now if you can picture the wet earth with tobacco smoke, that was pretty much my gong fu session in a nutshell.
Hehehehehe… COAL! At least you got the worst over with early in the month. No more evil Slytherin surprises, I promise. :-)
Aw, no homunculus tea?