Tasting notes

Organic palace grade of Pu-Erh. Aged for three years. Sweet and Earthy to taste. Chinese consider this to be the healthiest of all teas.

Background

Pu-Erh teas are a strange anomaly in the tea world. Normally tea buyers look to buy the fresh plucked spring or summer tea flushes of any tea. But with Pu-Erh buyers are looking for the best aged tea. Some fine Pu-Erh cakes are never sold before they are thirty years old or older at which point they are so expensive only a connoisseur would buy them. When I say expensive I mean a good cake, about 375g, of around thirty years old can fetch up to £1000.

Our Palace Pu-Erh is loose and aged for three years. Ageing these teas brings out a sweetness, somehow richer, stable flavour, not found in the original Green cakes. In our Pu-Erh the beginnings of the sweet flavours are starting to show. This gives a very round cup easily understood by someone new to Pu-Erh. Palace Pu-Erh comes from Yunnan in South West China. The tea is plucked by the Dai People from ancient tea trees growing wild in the province. These trees were originally planted by the Dai 1700 years ago. And there are still some trees to be found that been dated to around 1600 years old. Many of these trees will have been used for Pu-Erh production for centuries.

Pu-Erh starts as a green tea that is compressed into cakes as the cakes age they start to oxidise very slowly. Over time they become Black tea and our Pu-Erh is a black not a green tea.

Perfect preparation

Treat this tea as any black tea. With one very important exception. Aged Pu-Erh is very strong so do not put too much tea into your pot.

Add freshly drawn filtered Boiling water to one teaspoon of dried tea in a half litre teapot. Brew for between three to six minutes. I have never added milk to Pu-Erh so I feel I cannot comment on that marriage for you. But I am sure a little milk will not be enough to dampen the sweet flavours of this tea.