Pu Er Tea

My office colleague gave me this beautiful individually wrapped Pu Er tea the other day after she found out I was a tea drinker. She gave me 3 of these which she say she bought from TaoBao. I decided to try them during the long weekend afternoon. But first, let us appreciate how beautiful the above photo is, taken with the backdrop of the tea pot I used to make the tea.

So this is what it actually looked like. The pot isn't really that big, just enough to brew two cups of tea. I got it from a shop in Penang and love using it. But recently I have been toying with the idea of getting a nice Japanese tea pot.... we'll see....

Anyway, back to the Pu Er. This is what it looks like when I unwrapped it. Doesn't look that appealing. Kinda look like poo.... And I didn't really know how to brew it. So I brew it like Vietnamese dripped coffee! Lol. I let it soak in hot water for 45seconds, and drain the first brew, kinda to wash the tea leaf as well. After that I added the hot water (filtered water too!), and let it sit for 30 seconds before pouring it out for drinking.

It looks really dark! But it smells of barley. It wasn't bitter at all. I drank about 4 cups of it. It didn't taste acidic at all. In fact, I really like the barley fragrance of the tea. I still have two more of these at home. In returned, I actually packed some houjicha and genmaicha for my colleague. It is always a pleasure to try out different type of tea.