Dreamsicle Puerh

had a cup of this with dinner and movie watching since i wanted to see how it compared to the other puerh that was meant to be chocolate and orange but was mostly orange. This one? creamier and more ice cream like but both are good. After last night, i’ve been ready to pass out since about 3pm. So it’s off to lie in bed watching ipadtv until i actually fall asleep. long day ahead of me tomorrow. ugh. dentist, in to work and then uat testing and finding out what the hell kind of conversation my boss had with the inept ppl that resulted in my flight/trip being cancelled. jeepers. On the upside? 9 more teas to get to my goal….if i ignore the 15 or so likely to arrive this week hahaha

This was the special campaign blend from the Zoomdweebies kickstarter.

I have to admit I was slightly disappointed when I found out this was the special secret campaign blend. Only because it is kind of a repeat of the Dreamsicle Darjeeling. Now I have never even had the Dreamsicle Darjeeling, and this is technically still a new blend because this one is pu’erh.

But after I brewed this tea I was not disappointed at all. The smell of the dry tea is spot on for an orange creamsicle. I am interested in what kind of pu’erh tea this is as it doesn’t look like any of the pu’erh teas I have tried. To me it is the colouring of white tea, but the shape of the leaves looked like loose pu’erh.

The brewed tea has more of an orange rind and sharp vegetal smell.

I added a few small pieces of rock sugar to the brewed tea. Initially it is very much an orange tea, orange rind with that same vegetal flavour. But it quickly dissipates into a definite sweet orange and cream taste. Not quite an orange creamsicle, more like an orange Campino candy, but still delicious. I would consider adding some cream next time I brew this up.

Most of you that read my notes know my struggles with pu’erh. I recently declared that I had finally given up and decided I just don’t like pu’erh. But I don’t get any of those evil tastes with this blend :P

No longer disappointed.

Edit: From Frank at 52 teas re: what type of pu’erh was used. “The dreamsicle is a sheng puerh. It’s mildly earthy but more like a green tea, in my opinion. As of this writing there are only four pouches left and this one will not be reblended, so if you want one, you should jump on it. =) Thanks.”

I’m not a fan of puerh. So, it figures the surprise crowd-funding campaign blend would be a puerh. :P The dry leaf aroma is pure orange creamsicle. The brewed tea aroma is moldy oranges. Yep, moldy oranges. Ugh, I’m not so sure about this one.

First sip…it doesn’t taste like mold, thank God! The orange is very creamy and reminiscent of ice cream. In fact, this is probably the closest to actual ice cream that a tea has tasted for me. But I can’t get past that repellent aroma to enjoy it. This is another one that goes on the swap list!

ETA: My husband ended up finishing the cup. Clearly, he liked it just fine.

So excited to receive my first 52Teas order today! Then I noticed all of the packages are missing any sort of brewing instructions. Sigh. Okay. I’ll wing it as best I can.

Found another puerh in the 52Teas collection, and thought I could use that to at least give me a general idea. Went just under boiling because that seems to be the norm for the best flavor, and then 4 minutes at the lower end of the scale. The tea brewed up a really light hay color, so I was a bit concerned it would be weak.

Opening the bag is like walking by one of those ice cream trucks: you can smell the ice cream ‘coldness’, and this is bang on smell-wise. Creamy, cool, orange ice cream popsicle. Yum!

Brewed, this smells vegetal, light and crisp with a hint of orange at the end.

My first sips were intriguing. Creamy orange is what I first got, with some crisp green again. The creaminess changes a bit with each sip, so that it actually does feel like melted ice cream. Everything is subtle though, and I’m much more of a punch-in-the-face kinda flavor gal. I can definitely taste the puerh at the end of most sips, and while it’s pleasant, it also dries things out.

Sweetened with Truvia, the orange takes prominence and there’s little ice cream taste or feel left. The puerh also shines through again… oh, wait… a few seconds after the sip, the ice cream orangeness comes back. Interesting.

I like this, however I’ll need to play with the steeping parameters more to see if I can get more orange/less dryness/more PUNCH of flavor.

Backlog:

This was the limited edition tea that was part of the indiegogo campaign to reopen Zoomdweebies. When I saw that there would be a limited edition tea, I had to have that! I was a little less excited about the limited edition tea after I saw that it was to be a puerh. Pu-erh isn’t my favorite tea type … although, I must say that I’ve liked more than I’ve disliked and at this point … my lack of enthusiasm regarding puerh is connected with my earliest (and not so favorable) experiences with puerh. As I’ve said … since that time, I’ve had more positive experiences with various puerh than I’ve had negative, and I think that has to do with improved brewing knowledge.

Anyway … back to this tea. The creamsicle/dreamsicle taste here is stronger than the actual puerh … at least with the first infusion. The subsequent infusions are more puerh than they are dreamsicle. The puerh notes that I taste beneath the vanilla and orange notes are similar to white tea: earthy, hay-like vegetation.

The subsequent infusions lost much of the dreamsicle flavors, with only hints of orange and vanilla tones remaining. But the sheng puerh is really nice, mellow, and pleasant. Lightly sweet … or maybe I should say the sweetness is different now. Before, I was enjoying the sweetness of a creamsicle – sweet orange-y notes and creamy vanilla tones – but now I taste the light sweetness of a sheng puerh. Earthy – again, earthy like a white tea – and slightly vegetative.

A nice blend. I’m glad that I was able to try it.

Well, I got one shot at this one, since MissB sent a sample, and I was in a mental frenzy and forgot I had made it, and officially killed it. Unintentionally, of course. It’s been that kind of a day.

Went in for some blood work to check for some allergy triggers among other things, since my skin’s been wacky lately. Had both arms poked, one was poked twice, and nothing. Weeellllll, not nothing. They did manage to get something out of my left arm, but not enough. They tried a heat pack, but that failed. The conclusion was that I’m dehydrated…which does make sense as I’ve been popping cold and sinus pills with decongestants and antihistamines for the last week to dry up the crud from being sick. My veins are already tiny and twisty, so I usually have to go with a butterfly needle even though it takes longer. This is the first time in a while I have failed to give blood properly. So now I have to wait a week til I’m off again (or choose to get up really early one morning…not gonna happen).

Ugh, now my days off are over and I’ve done pretty much nothing I was intending to do.

Back to making a new tea…

From the LiberTEAS sampler I bought a while back

This smells like childhood! Well…the good parts, anyway. :)

Both dry and post-steep it smelled just like those orange push-ups you’d buy out of the gas station freezer bins…not exactly a real orange, but definitely not in a bad way.

One sip in it tastes exactly like those little frozen treats – you can actually taste the orange layered in with the cream and the pu-erh blends seamlessly in behind; a little bit of sugar on top of the tea and it just tastes all kinds of perfect.

This tea is absolutely amazing, truly, and I think it’ll be even more delicious once it cools down a bit and mellows out…not sure if I can wait that long, though, as I keep stealing sips.

Truthfully…it’s just as well this tea was a brief offering. Overall it’s a nice sweet cup, but there is a weird rough aftertaste that almost makes me want to pour the rest of this cup down the drain. I still might do just that.

My first pu’erh! Or is it pu’er? Pu-erh? Google is suspiciously unhelpful on this subject. Another sample from my recent swap with Stephanie that I decided to brew up. I sort of just guessed at steeping parameters. Do you rinse a flavored pu’erh? Oops. Should’ve looked into this a little more before diving straight in. Also, funny story, but I kind of forgot that I’d brewed this up until late last night. So I put it in a covered mug and popped it in the fridge for safekeeping. My first sip today had me rearing back from my mug, going “what on earth is this?” followed quickly by “oh, hey, it’s kind of good.” Probably for the best that it’s flavored, since I’m getting a bitter, rind-like undertone almost immediately, but the creamy factor cuts into it a lot. Also, I’m detecting authentic orange in this, which is a really pleasant surprise. I usually find so-called creamsicle flavored teas to be heavy on either the cream aspect or the orange, but this is excellently balanced. I believe this is from the old 52teas line, and it’s definitely one of the better teas I’ve had from them.

I recently made Wild Blackberry White Pu’erh for Liquid Proust Teas, but I’m not going to sell it for a bit because I have something special planned for it. While drinking that I pulled this out to compare flavored pu’erhs. I will say this, the smell of this is wonderful. The taste is a bit ‘eh’, yet I do enjoy this tea. I will for sure finish mine off :)
I would like to try more flavored pu’erh, especially if the leaf is nice and loose like this blend was.