DISCOVER PU-ERH TEA & OOLONG TEA

Is it time to reawaken your taste buds? Curious to expand your horizons? We’re really excited by Pu-Erh tea and Oolong tea, two types of teas that cross over between green and black. Here’s why they have us cap-tea-bated

INTRODUCING Pu-Erh TEA

Ever heard of a tea being treated like a wine or a whiskey? Meet Pu-Erh, the tea that just keeps on getting better with age. Originating in south western China, and named after the market town of Pu-Erh, these ‘dark’ teas are as far removed from your average brew as you can get. The leaves are compressed into Frisbee shaped cakes or flat rectangular slabs and allowed to mature over the course of months (sometimes even years!).Pu-Erh is what you get when creating a tea that uses time and patience as major ingredients. Because of ongoing fermentation, Pu-Erh teas continue to change over time. It’s almost like they’re alive, with their flavors constantly evolving as the years roll by. Because they can mature for decades, disks of Pu-Erh are sometimes considered family heirlooms that get passed on from generation to generation!

Is it time to reawaken your taste buds? Curious to expand your horizons? We’re really excited by Pu-Erh tea and Oolong tea, two types of teas that cross over between green and black. Here’s why they have us cap-tea-bated

INTRODUCING PU-ERH TEA

Ever heard of a tea being treated like a wine or a whiskey? Meet Pu-Erh, the tea that just keeps on getting better with age. Originating in south western China, and named after the market town of Pu-Erh, these ‘dark’ teas are as far removed from your average brew as you can get. The leaves are compressed into Frisbee shaped cakes or flat rectangular slabs and allowed to mature over the course of months (sometimes even years!).Pu-Erh is what you get when creating a tea that uses time and patience as major ingredients. Because of ongoing fermentation, Pu-Erh teas continue to change over time. It’s almost like they’re alive, with their flavors constantly evolving as the years roll by. Because they can mature for decades, disks of Pu-Erh are sometimes considered family heirlooms that get passed on from generation to generation!

GET THE BEST FROM YOUR BREW: PU-ERH TEA

To really experience the full-bodied, dark and earthy flavors of Pu-erh in all their bold brilliance, we recommend a robust brew time of around 3 to 4 minutes. And the longer you brew it, the stronger, thicker and sweeter these characters will appear. Pu-erh can be enjoyed with or without milk, it’s entirely up to personal taste!  

INTRODUCING OOLONG TEA

GET THE BEST FROM YOUR BREW: OOLONG TEA

Oolong is a delicate tea that requires a little more care when brewing, but don’t let that put you off trying this deliciously multi-faceted leaf. As a rule of thumb, you’ll know it’s ready when the water turns a light yellowish green color. Oolong tea benefits from 1.5 to 2 minutes steeping in boiled water that’s cooled a little. This should allow the tea’s clean, strong, complex flavors and mellow aftertaste to blossom without being chased away.

Oolong is a tea quite unlike any other, one so good its name starts with the noise someone makes when they’re impressed! Living somewhere between a rich black tea and a refreshing green tea, Oolong is a complex and multi-faceted beverage that, though among the trickiest leaves to create, is certainly one of the easiest to enjoy. Known for its dark, distinctively twisted leaves—which give birth to its fittingly mysterious Chinese Wu Long name, ‘The Black Dragon’—Oolong is a tea that evolves from floral and sweet, to smoky and peaty as you brew it.

Not as widely drunk here in the West as it is in Asia, where its layered flavors have been highly regarded for hundreds of years, we think Oolong is a tea that’s Oolong overdue for recognition in other corners of the world.