And so begins the Pu’erh journey…
Over Christmas, one of the presents I got was $75 towards whatever I wanted on Camellia Sinensis (‘cause my family knows it’s one of my favourite tea companies, and they’re Canadian so no shitty exchange rates) and I fully took advantage of that to buy several different kinds of Pu’erh to further explore this complex and interesting tea type. And, on Tuesday that tea arrived! Actually, a lot of tea arrived – I received my orders from Red Leaf Tea, Teaware House, and Camellia Sinensis all in the same day! Well, I immediately had to try something so I brewed up one of the mini bricks in my new gaiwan from Teaware House!
Now, I don’t think I’ve ever had Jingmai before – and someone here on Steepster (who definitely knows more about Pu’erh than I do) told me it’s odd to see a Jingmai shou so I had weird/low expectations brewing this one up. I really, really enjoyed it though! I only did six infusions because it was after two in the morning and I was already starting to feel tea buzzed on top of just plain exhausted so I decided it was in my best interest to cut the session early and just go to bed before I was too wired/slap happy to sleep properly.
This was really smooth with a rich, thick mouthfeel and a sort of softness to it. Every sip was really round, and pleasant – I don’t know why I expected more ‘bite’ or astringency to this, but I didn’t find it nor did I really miss it. I could really ‘feel’ the tea on the roof of my mouth and middle/surface of my tongue.
The flavour was also delightful; it was much sweeter than I think I’ve experienced with a lot of pu’erh! Right from the start of the infusions this had really consistent notes of honey, molasses, earth, and a dark fruitiness. That fruitiness later became more intense and picked up a more distinct fig/date flavour as well as a dark cherry-like note in the last few infusions. I also found this had an almost ‘oat’ like flavour as well. Quaker sells a ‘Honey Oatmeal’ (or something close to that) flavour and that in particular is a little like what I thought this was tasting like. The last few infusions were definitely more woody, as well.
This was so tasty! And to be perfectly honest, I’m just so incredibly psyched for my next session with this one because it was so lovely! It just makes me all the more excited to try the rest of the different Pu’erh I picked up from Camellia Sinensis…
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YAY! So glad your journey started out with a bang!
Sounds delicious!
I’ve never bought from them because I always thought the prices looked insanely expensive, and then just now I realized they weren’t automatically converting things to USD based on my IP address. What-cha does do that, but I’d have automatically noticed from the pound sign if they didn’t. With the dollar sign… I bet they’d get more US business if they did the automatic conversions. I didn’t notice I could change it myself until just now, and I’ve known of this company for a few years.
And OMG, they are selling that Breville for half of what I’ve seen it go for in the US… Hm…
BTW, I hope wages there aren’t as stagnant as they are here, and have gone up to accommodate the dollar’s loss of value. That’s been an extreme and quick decline. I can’t imagine.
My union has processed a 0.045% raise for Jan 1. Super exciting, eh?
Ugh, I’m sorry to hear that. Wow… Unions were strong when I was in Montreal, even the graduate student union I was in (these barely exist in the US).
Honestly, I was jealous of the labor practices there — they were so much better, much higher graduate student pay and minimum wage. It was 2007.
Honestly it depends on the institution, if a union was able to form, who was included in the union, and what the union was able to negotiate. UBC is my shining example here on the West Coast, but BCIT is pretty close as well. :)
YAY! So glad your journey started out with a bang!
Sounds delicious!
I’ve never bought from them because I always thought the prices looked insanely expensive, and then just now I realized they weren’t automatically converting things to USD based on my IP address. What-cha does do that, but I’d have automatically noticed from the pound sign if they didn’t. With the dollar sign… I bet they’d get more US business if they did the automatic conversions. I didn’t notice I could change it myself until just now, and I’ve known of this company for a few years.
And OMG, they are selling that Breville for half of what I’ve seen it go for in the US… Hm…
BTW, I hope wages there aren’t as stagnant as they are here, and have gone up to accommodate the dollar’s loss of value. That’s been an extreme and quick decline. I can’t imagine.
My union has processed a 0.045% raise for Jan 1. Super exciting, eh?
Ugh, I’m sorry to hear that. Wow… Unions were strong when I was in Montreal, even the graduate student union I was in (these barely exist in the US).
Honestly, I was jealous of the labor practices there — they were so much better, much higher graduate student pay and minimum wage. It was 2007.
Honestly it depends on the institution, if a union was able to form, who was included in the union, and what the union was able to negotiate. UBC is my shining example here on the West Coast, but BCIT is pretty close as well. :)