This week has been one of those wonderful weeks in which I have tried two new types of tea. Firstly I tried a lovely oolong and today I have tried my first ever Puer tea.
I will admit that I have been really frightened and somewhat intimidated to try Puer tea. It's a slightly more complicated tea to prepare and I have felt hopelessly lost, but today I bit the bullet and dived right in.
Earlier in the week I wrote a blog in which I had explained that I had received some wonderful tea samples for a lovely chap called Paul from White2tea. Several weeks ago, I received a email from Paul in which he said he had seen that I was a huge fan of George Harrison and that he had a tea that would be perfect for me!
Paul explained that he named some of his tea's after songs. Now, Apple Scruffs is not a apple flavoured tea, it's named after a song which George wrote and which appeared on his first solo album, All Things Must Pass.
Apple Scruffs is a lovely song which George wrote about the small group of dedicated fans who used to hang around outside the famous Abbey Road studio's. These fan's would give all the Beatles presents for Christmas and their birthday's and were incredibly loyal to the fab four. In return, the Beatles were loyal to them too and as a gift George immortalised them in song. It's great little song and Paul explained in his email it was a favourite of his.
Anyway, back to the tea.
Puer is a tea I know little about so I researched the tea on the internet and thankfully Paul was on hand to give me tips on how to prepare this tea.
Apple Scruffs is a young puer tea which came from the autumn 2014 harvest. According to White2tea's website it can be taken fresh or left to age for eight to tea years.
There are two ways of preparing puer tea. There is the Gongfu method or the Western method. I do not have the equipment sadly to brew this tea in the traditional gongfu method so I have had to prepare it Western style.
Now, first of all I took a substantial amount of the tea and placed it in the infuser section of my one cup tea pot.
I then boiled the water to 85c. This is where my Sage tea maker comes in handy. I used the boil only button on the tea maker and waited till it reached 85c.
It is very important first of all rinse or wash the leaves before drinking. This is done to clean the leaves and rinse off any loose debris that may of settled onto the tea. So I gave the leaves a rinse and poured away the water.
What I found interesting was that I was advised that as a beginner such as I am, it only needed a very brief steeping of just ten seconds. So I timed it perfectly and brewed it for a short while.
With regards to puer tea I have heard that it's a either love it or hate it type of tea. Some people adore it, others can't quite get on with it. So what would it taste like? I was intrigued and couldn't wait to try.
I loved this tea. There were so many reason's why that I can barely keep up.
There is a intense freshness to this tea. Now, of course, knowing that it was harvested only last year I would say that wouldn't I? Well, no. Even if I did not know the date of it's harvest you can just taste how fresh this tea is. It's light and tasty and if you were to compare the freshness to some of the tea's available on supermarket shelves you will immediately spot the difference.
Apple Scruffs is a invigorating tea that feels healthy and pure. When I was drinking this I felt I was drinking something wonderfully healthy, very similar to the feeling you get when you drink a really fresh green tea.
Although the infusion period was so short, and despite this being a delicate tea, I found it to be incredibly flavoursome and has a slightly earthy flavour. It has a slightly sweet aftertaste and it's glorious flavour lingers pleasantly in the mouth for some time after you have taken your last sip.
Incredibly refreshing and light this is perfect to take in the early evening. It's the perfect tea to unwind to after a long day. It's also incredibly moreish and before long I was up making a second cup.
Due to the initial infusion's light flavour I decided to brew the second cup for a little longer and brewed it for a minute. Naturally, the flavour is a lot stronger and I will admit I preferred the tea when it had a more delicate flavour and since experimenting with it pretty much all day settled for a infusion time of about 30 seconds.
There will be some readers out there who will prefer to brew the tea for longer to have a stronger flavoured cup but personally, I preferred the lighter element to the tea. Just like anything else in the tea world it's down to personal taste and there is no right or wrong way. It's okay to drink it how you like as long as you enjoy it that's all that matters!
I feel incredibly privileged to have tried this tea. According to Paul from White2tea it's been incredibly popular and has been a brilliant seller and I can totally understand that. I found it to be both tasty and delicate. Gentle and fulfilling. And I was more then happily surprised on my first experiment with puer tea.
And finally, if you'd like to hear the song that this tea is named after, then click here!
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