Cardamom Pu-erh

OK, ashmanra, my first whiff of this made me proceed with trepidation, because it immediately brought floor cleaner to mind.

However, I followed your advice to steep lightly, and we can swab away that first erroneous judgment. The cardamom is a nice aromatic counterpoint to pu-erh’s darker, heavier baseline. Reminds me a little of pine needles. Thus the floor cleaner, I guess. I can definitely envision this iced. (As my office is erratically and inappropriately cooled to 45 degrees and below year-round, I’ll have to save that for a hot lawn mowing day at home :)

Ashmanra gave me one of these because we’re on a cardamom kick.

These are teabags and I like that because I’m lazy. I enjoy being smugly superior to people with my loose leaf but sometimes you need the bag. It’s simple and I feel like I get more uniform results over loose leaf. Plus you can keep it in your bag. I have a lot of tea in my purse. It’s super handy in airports, hotels, waiting for your car at the shop, work meetings…

First impressions taking the bag out of the wrapper, is a cardamom sucker punch. I got worried because I like cardamom but I dunno if I like it quite that much. It was so strong it was nearly anise.

I boiled up some water and steeped the bag for four minutes. It is an incredibly dark steep.

Second impression, it smells extremely puerh-y, which is to say like a horse stable. More worried.

Fortunately the actual steep tastes strongly of neither, it’s quite balanced and enjoyable. I can see this being a handy bag to keep around especially if traveling. Will be buying a box of my own.

As promised, I tried this cold. I had it hot first and liked it. Wow, that’s a lot of cardamom! Second steep was about ten seconds and the cup was inky black so I figured I would go for two more steeps and put them in the fridge.

Steep three was the normal orange black tea color, while steep four was getting rather pale. As strong as the flavor was, though, I figured it would work. And it did.

I poured both of those steeps into a mason jar and put it in the fridge. I had some with supper that night and the rest with lunch the next day. It was good and refreshing and I love having a flavored cold drink with no guilt, because part of me still wants to reach for the sugary things we used to associate with summertime. (Kool-Aid from my childhood, and my mom always added EXTRA sugar cuz she said it tasted better that way! Southern sweet tea that was so sweet it should have been called Tea Simple Syrup. Ice cold Coke in a glass bottle…okay, I still do that one sometimes, but we buy the Hecho In Mexico ones at Sam’s Club that are made with real cane sugar.)

Going to finish this box quite easily! Took some to Superanna and she liked it, and now need to share with my son and his fiancée, ChelseaR.

Very earthy, fishy smell. I did not care for this tea. I added honey and I still did not care for this.

ashmanra’s monthly sipdown challenge
June 2023 → a favorite bagged tea

Another tea that I love but always seem to be forgetting about. It’s dark and earthy with a solid cardamom flavor. This is a tea that I’ll make and finish before I even think about it because it’s just that good.

I would sip this on a front porch in Spring, or at breakfast in lieu of a mimosa. The aroma has bite, but the cardamom taste is so subtle I wouldn’t have known it was there.

2 steepings of 5 minutes each in 16 oz water. Much milder on 2nd steep, probably because of the amount of water I used.

Tried some almond milk & coconut palm sugar in the last few ounces. Did not enhance the natural flavor.

I was hesitant to try this tea since I have mixed feelings about cardamom. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised.

Sipdown. ;)

Single bags taken on trips = amazing way to deflate cupboard numbers.

Had to add honey. So mushroomy wow. Would not buy again.

Another filter bag pu-erh blend from Numi, this Cardamom Pu-erh packs a punch of both! In some ways, cardamom may be the perfect adulterant for pu-erh, given its strength.

Today’s brew is darker red rather than gold, so I may have used less water or steeped it longer than last time. The flavor is earthy and tastes more like pu-erh than like cardamom, so probably not the best choice for gringos. I ended up adulterating yesterday’s glass of Emperor’s Pu-erh with cream, and I am tempted in this case as well.

I used to think that Assam was the best segue from coffee to tea, but now it seems that pu-erh is even better. It has a very strong, coffee-grind like density to it. No, it does not taste like coffee, but it has the same “timbre”, so to speak…

Great beginner pu-erh. Strong ginger flavor but goes well with the earthy pu-erh.