Dr Tea (AliExpress)
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This is my week for the weird and unique.
I used my press to brew this up with 5 oz of boiling water, steeping 45 seconds. The cake came apart easily and filled the water with camellia flowers. If you have had Teavivre’s dehydrated camellia flowers then you have some idea what this is made from. The processing changes the taste. The cloudy apricot brew tastes like a good horse smell combined with pinewood. I catch glimpses of apple or chamomile. It has a sharpness to it like a young sheng. Drying on the front of the tongue. The aftertaste is sweet and lingers.
The second cup at 1 minute is darker and more robust. The horse is more leathery and the pinewood is replaced by something more like a green oolong. The aftertaste is still sweet but more like biting into a plant.
Very hard to describe and very different. Halfway through the second cup I decided to add a small amount of sweetener. It did knock the young bite out of the cup but even sweet tooth me thought it was more of a distraction than a help. Overall I thought this was a fun cup.
Preparation
Going to brew this a different way today. I don’t think “Traditional” preparation i.e. gong fu is suited to this tea. It looks like a compressed puerh cake but I think that is the only similarity. The cake is almost sticky when breaking apart. The aroma is a sweet woody scent. I left the chunk I pried off whole as I think it contains many blossoms in it. I prepared this in a clear glass mug with water right at boiling. The flowers open up some. Aroma a sweetish metallic scent. The brew is cloudier this time, darker honey color. Taste is similar to scent. Added some sugar to sweeten it up. Leaves a drying on the front sides of the tongue. I believe this should be steeped a little longer than i did. I think it would classfy as being an herbal tea. A little more bitter as it cools that sweetens at the back of the tongue. It has a bit of grit to me (may be tea pollen). Drinkable in the current state maybe more if brewed properly.
Preparation
Saw this cake someplace, does it taste like tea? Very weird looking!
Tastes like a flower and pollen drink. I don’t recall much of a “tea” taste to it.
Have you guys tried chrysanthemum straight? I wonder how it compares.
I think this is the straight cake. If I went for in this idea, I think I’d prefer Yunnan Sourcing’s 2013 shou/flower combo cakes like the Xue Ju Shu Pu or the Ripe Snow.
tried this tonight, brewing like a puerh. using the gaiwan with about 9 grams. Gave it a rinse and off i go. This tea has a "musky’ aroma and a slight honey taste. It is very interesting and the “tea flowers” have unfolded a bit. it does have a small bit of “cloudy” bits and I suppose this is pollen from the flowers. Not too bad a nice change of pace for me. I just did one steep and I am sure to re-brew again. I will amend this if it changes significantly.
This does sound fun.
I wonder what a cold brew would taste like.
Ashmanra has mentioned cold brewing poo with great success. I have never attempted it. If I get brave enough to try – how do I go about it? Today I was steeping about 5 oz at a time. How much water do I use for the same amount of leaf for cold brewed? I think Ashmanra hot steeps hers a few times then finishes with cold brew but I may be wrong.
I am curious too. I have various sized steeping vessels but have only had success in SBT premade bags in my 2 quart.
Since puerh is so resteepable that I often do several steeps and I get interrupted in some way. I take the still good leaves and toss them in my filter top bottle with some Spring water. Into the frig it goes. (If you use fresh puerh you have to break it up.)
Iced puerh, especially in the Summertime, is very refreshing. Quells your appetite.
How much water is that, Bonnie?
Oh, I have a bottle that’s…um…18oz. And the top I use is a steepware (filters the leaves and fits many bottle brands). You can mix…a little ginger or oolong…pinch of laoshan black…or anything that doesn’t get bitter cold.
5 grams per 18 oz. Okay, got it. I will have to note that somewhere.