Pu Erh from Teavana

[bsteele]

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmuldavin/P ... 8721437170
http://picasaweb.google.com/dmuldavin/P ... 9524154642
http://picasaweb.google.com/dmuldavin/P ... 0378351954
D

That is tea

It looks like chocolate with crispy wafers in the middle

[Jagori]

I have a brick like that. It was sold to me as "black pu-erh" as well, but I'm pretty sure it's not puerh. It's some sort of black tea, as far as I can tell. I use a bandsaw to cut chunks off of it and brew it Western-style.

[edkrueger]

I wouldn't, the binding agents are likely not safe to drink.

[Sarai]

I've had one Pu-Erh from Teavana and it's the only Pu-Erh I've had in my life. I purchased a 4 ounce size of the Strawberry Slender Pu-Erh Black Tea about a year and a half ago. I wasn't even particularly looking for a Pu-Erh tea; just simply a fruity flavored black one. At the time it seemed like the only one(fruity black) Teavana had in their line, and it is one of their more cheaper teas($6.98 per 2 ounces) so I bought it. I love strawberry, I love black tea, and I'd never tried Pu-Erh before so I thought it would be a win-win.....

Not so much.

Upon first brew the tea was awful. The strawberry flavor tasted and smelled artificial even though there was real pieces of dried strawberries in the blend; and the tea itself was very strong---the strongest black tea I'd had in my life, not to mention bitter. Adding sugar and honey didn't seem to save this lost tea and attempting an iced version didn't help matters either.

Eventually I contemplated the possibility that I was brewing the tea too long and not even at the right temperature(which turned out to be correct, there was times when I would brew as long as 8 minutes and I wasn't nearly heating the water hot enough to the boiling point). But even then, when I revised my previous mistakes with this tea it still managed to be a very rather unpleasant first experience with Pu-Erh.

I also recently perfected the art of making a tea latte Sarai-style. I decided to use my last several teaspoons worth of this tea for a few tea lattes.....and BINGO! We have a winner! Now I know for a fact that making and serving tea lattes is most definitely not the most traditional way to drink Pu-Erh.....But it was a last resort to salvage this dreadful tea after trying every other which way to make tea with this blend, and it worked.

Would I purchase Strawberry Slender Pu-Erh Black Tea from Teavana again? Only if I'm looking to make a great 'Strawberry Black Tea Latte'. Which shouldn't be the point since it's supposed to be a delicately aged Pu-Erh made to be drunk straight.

Teavana currently offers a total of three Pu-Erh's, the other two of which are Weight To Go! Pu-Erh Black Tea and Yunnan Gold Pu-Erh Black Tea. Weight To Go is flavored with strawberry, apple, hibiscus, and mint; and Yunnan Gold is a straight, of course. I will eventually purchase 2 ounces each of these two just to give Teavana's Pu-Erh the benefit of the doubt. Then I will be moving on to Pu-Erh from other companies to see how much I really have a taste for it, as I've given Teavana enough of my money the way it is.

[daidokorocha]

Sarai, many people on here will tell you that the dried fruit in flavored teas is really more for visual appeal and that most of the flavor comes from the flavoring additives applied to the tea itself. That could be why it tasted quite artificial despite the presence of real strawberries. How accurate this is for all forms of dried goods in flavored teas, I honestly have no idea.

[Sarai]

Sarai, many people on here will tell you that the dried fruit in flavored teas is really more for visual appeal and that most of the flavor comes from the flavoring additives applied to the tea itself. That could be why it tasted quite artificial despite the presence of real strawberries. How accurate this is for all forms of dried goods in flavored teas, I honestly have no idea.

Hmm, I wonder if this means almost all fruit flavors in teas are artificial? I've been adding real fruit juice to some of my teas lately as there are plenty of recipes on the Internet for "Mango Green Tea" "Grape Black Tea" etc., mixing fresh brewed tea with with juice to replicate the flavor you get in restaurants and teahouses without all that unhealthy high-fructose syrup.

[daidokorocha]

Sarai, many people on here will tell you that the dried fruit in flavored teas is really more for visual appeal and that most of the flavor comes from the flavoring additives applied to the tea itself. That could be why it tasted quite artificial despite the presence of real strawberries. How accurate this is for all forms of dried goods in flavored teas, I honestly have no idea.

Hmm, I wonder if this means almost all fruit flavors in teas are artificial? I've been adding adding real fruit juice to some of my teas lately as there are plenty of recipes on the Internet for "Mango Green Tea" "Grape Black Tea" etc., mixing fresh brewed tea with with juice to replicate the flavor you get in restaurants and teahouses without all that unhealthy high-fructose syrup.

I'm not so sure about the production of fruit teas, but for "scented" teas like Jasmine green there are two methods:

One is artificial flavoring
The other is storing the tea with jasmine flowers and then removing them after the flowers have scented the tea. Here is an excerpt from wikipedia about this process:

"Tea leaves are harvested in the early spring and stored until the late summer when fresh jasmine flowers are in bloom. Jasmine flowers are picked early in the day when the small petals are tightly closed. The flowers are kept cool until nightfall. During the night jasmine flowers open, and release their fragrance, and this is when the tea scenting takes place. There are two main methods used to scent the tea with the jasmine.[3] In one method the tea and flowers are placed in alternating layers; [4] in the other, the tea is blended with jasmine flowers and stored overnight. [2] It takes over four hours for the tea to absorb the fragrance and flavour of the jasmine blossoms. The scenting process may be repeated as many as six or seven times for top grades such as Yin Hao.[2] The tea absorbs moisture from the fresh Jasmine flowers so it must be dried again to prevent spoilage."

I'm not so sure about flavored fruit teas though, honestly. Something similar could be happening, but not sure. As for mixing juices with tea, that doesn't seem to be such a terrible idea. I know they like to sell iced tea that has artificial peach flavoring and all in it, but I imagine mixing tea with a bit of peach nectar would be all the better.

[Exempt]

[Devoted135]

Teavana currently offers a total of three Pu-Erh's, the other two of which are Weight To Go! Pu-Erh Black Tea and Yunnan Gold Pu-Erh Black Tea. Weight To Go is flavored with strawberry, apple, hibiscus, and mint; and Yunnan Gold is a straight, of course. I will eventually purchase 2 ounces each of these two just to give Teavana's Pu-Erh the benefit of the doubt. Then I will be moving on to Pu-Erh from other companies to see how much I really have a taste for it, as I've given Teavana enough of my money the way it is.

I would strongly advise skipping giving Teavana the benefit of your money and time, and go straight to other companies who sell unflavored pu-erhs. Preferably, vendors who have a minimum of 10+ pu-erhs available to choose from.

[bonescwa]

Yeah, if you want to talk about Apple berry mango mint sugar coma ancient puerh, the people at steepster are pretty into that stuff. This is pretty much like going on a wine forum and talking about wine coolers

[AllanK]

Teavana currently offers a total of three Pu-Erh's, the other two of which are Weight To Go! Pu-Erh Black Tea and Yunnan Gold Pu-Erh Black Tea. Weight To Go is flavored with strawberry, apple, hibiscus, and mint; and Yunnan Gold is a straight, of course. I will eventually purchase 2 ounces each of these two just to give Teavana's Pu-Erh the benefit of the doubt. Then I will be moving on to Pu-Erh from other companies to see how much I really have a taste for it, as I've given Teavana enough of my money the way it is.

I would strongly advise skipping giving Teavana the benefit of your money and time, and go straight to other companies who sell unflavored pu-erhs. Preferably, vendors who have a minimum of 10+ pu-erhs available to choose from.

Teavana has some excellent teas, none of which are puerhs. They have some flavored teas that make great iced teas. I too bought the strawberry slender puerh before I got into real puerh. I have not thrown mine out, yet. I don't buy their puerhs which I doubt are even puerhs. Their regular puerh is just as bad.

[Exempt]

Teavana has some ok teas, none of which are reasonably priced

ftfy

[tst]

Actually Exempt, you can find reasonably priced teas at Teavana ... just need to go for their Black Friday/Christmas sales (can get teas as low as $2-3/oz.

That being said, it IS still Teavana "tea"

[drinking_teas]

Their yellow tea is pretty nice, I'd buy that on sale.

[daidokorocha]

I was thinking about trying their Jeju Island tea but... I don't want to purchase from teavana, so. Can't say I'm a fan of their business practices. I think I'll just go to Jeju next year and get some then... probably better.