Xinhui Green Mandarin Orange Ripened Pu-erh Tea

I had tried this one a couple of years ago and didn’t really like it, so I let it sit for awhile, hoping that it would improve. Sadly, it has not. Love the idea of puerh stuffed into a green mandarin, but even after a rinse, it tasted like musty old papers. Very wood forward, as expected, but not sweet wood. There was a leather-like note as well, but honestly, it just didn’t taste good. And not even a tiny bit of citrus to be found. I’ve tried other shou puerh teas, so it’s not that I don’t enjoy that type of tea, I just think this one is not to my liking. Unfortunate because TeaVivre is a favorite of mine, putting out really nice teas in general. I’ve got three mandarins left. Maybe shove them back into my stash to age for awhile longer?

Many thanks to Kawaii433 for providing one of these cuties to try.

Today was a rough day. My housemate and I had to take our mechanic friend’s old woofer Cricket to the vet. She had been living in the house for a few months rather than in our friend’s RV out front to keep her comfortable as she succumbed to heart and liver failure, so Cricket and I got to know each other pretty well. No more suffering. <3

I needed something comforting and easy after sending off Cricket. This worked. I poked some holes in the orange with my electronics screwdriver that doubles as a puerh pick. Despite that it still floated in the cup. That’s ok, it brewed well and most of the tea stayed in the orange. The shou puerh inside was clean with a lightly sweet, dark cedar wood note. The green orange flavor was smooth, nowhere near as sharp as I was expecting. Light to medium body and very lightly oily. Light generic shou and tangerine aroma. Overall pretty good, I just would like the shou flavor to be more pronounced. The flavor imparted by the orange was perfect. Daily drinker. Three steeps western untimed beyond the first.

Never has a tea been cuter and disappointed me more.

The Pu-erh is tucked down into the mandarin, just as advertised, and I was very pleased when I opened it. Then I smelled it…no hint of orange and it smelled very odd.

I had some friends over at the time and we all kept sniffing, trying to figure out what it reminded us of. Finally, someone hit on it: dirty hamster bedding. Kind of a cedar/must/mulch smell.

Well, I thought maybe it would taste better than it smelled, so I went ahead and brewed it.

Nope.

Re-brewed, just in case it got better.

Nope.

I suppose it’s a matter of taste, but stewed cedar is not a flavor I care for.

Holiday Tea-son! While not technically a holiday tea, tangerines/mandarins make me think of the holiday season (I’m eating one for breakfast right now!) so I figured I would finally try one of these little stuffed pu-erhs that I’ve been curious about for a while now. Plus I can just throw water on it throughout the remainder of the day when I need another tea fix, since I always seem to give out on steeps before pu-erh does. Handy! I got this from tea-sipper’s cupboard sale last January, so thank you tea-sipper!

I’ll admit I felt weird about leaving the tea in the shell, even though I know you are supposed to do that… I couldn’t even get “cracks” into the shell like the recommendations on TeaVivre’s site suggested because it was so hard, so I couldn’t imagine that the expansion of the leaves would be enough to break it; how would the pu-erh be able to fully expand and flavor the water then? So I removed the pu-erh, then just dropped the empty shell into the infuser with it. If I’ve created the biggest faux pas ever, feel free to let me know.

The steeped cup is a coffee-like darkness, and smells very earthy, but has a light, citrus-like perfume wafting from the cup. Previously my only experience with orange-flavored pu-erh was an artificially-flavored monstrocity from Adagio that had a very metallic bite to it… it was a decidedly very bad tea. The pu-erh base in this is very smooth, with a strong earthy flavor, and some slight minerality that is left on the tongue at the end of the sip. This tea has a very natural flavor; I’m so used to how strong orange flavorings are in flavored blends that this is actually quite subtle tasting in comparison. It’s an underripe sort of citrus flavor… I realize I’ve never had a “green” mandarin, but it actually has a very “green” sort of taste. There is a sort of light, delicate, and somewhat floral sweet taste to it, a bit like orange blossoms, rather than the more citric/tart/tangy taste I’m used to from citrus fruits. As the owner of the Hibiscus Rescue Habitat, we all know how I like those tart/tangy flavors, which is sort of what I was expecting… but even though the flavor has sort of dashed my expectations, I also really like sweet floral notes, so I’m still enjoying this. Would I have enjoyed a citric tartness more? Yes, but for what this is, it’s nice, and I’ll enjoy sipping on it this morning.

Happy New Year :D

I’m trying this again and this time I didn’t break it wide open, which was a mistake last time I tried it. While it’s not a strong orange flavor (compared to their tangerine one) and the pu erh is really mild too… I like it much better this time. I’m drinking it grandpa style, after rinsing it, I have it floating in a big mug. I didn’t make holes in it as their video suggests. Maybe next time. I have quite few of them to experiment with.

I won this in Teavivre’s awesome giveaway… you win something every time you spin the wheel. Love it. So I won a sample package, a couple giftcards (one $10) and many reward points. This is probably the oddest tea I’ve ever seen. It’s a tiny green orange with a whole in the bottom and top filled with tea. However do they get the tea in the orange? (The tea in the sample pouch came wrapped in foil and taped together with a sticker.) The orange might look moldy, but Teavivre says it is just the sugars. You’re also supposed to steep the whole orange — which is fine because it is about 1 1/2 inches across anyway. I suggest pulling out some of the pu-erh into the infuser before steeping the whole orange, otherwise the pu-erh will have nowhere to expand within the orange. I would say the flavor doesn’t have much additional orange and the pu-erh also doesn’t have too much of actual pu-erh flavor either. I like a deep and dark pu-erh. The pu-erh crammed in this orange is fine… sweet and mild. But it isn’t my type of delicious pu-erh. It’s a very special presentation for a tea but the flavor is lacking in both the orange and the pu-erh itself. I love the idea of an orange flavored pu-erh, so I won’t give up searching for the perfect one.
Steep #1 // one whole orange for a full mug// 8 minutes after boiling // rinse // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // half a mug // many minute steep