Right before I moved out of SoCal, there was a tea tasting event that I wasn’t able to make. A tea buddy of mine did make it, and mentioned trying this Marmalade Puerh from California Tea House. Just the name alone of this tea and I had to have it! I don’t know why, but I always buy puer blends, despite majority of them are terrible mostly because puer just doesn’t western brew well.
Dry Leaf
Marmalade Puerh is HEAVY. The puerh used is heavy and the chunks in it are also heavy. This has got to be the most heaviest blend, beating nutty black teas. I will need to test by teaspoon (I don’t have a teaspoon, just a scale). The scent of this tea is strong, rind and zesty.
Steeping Instructions
I admit, I tried steeping this a couple times with mixed results. I realized what I ran into was being thrown off the weight so I was over leafing. I did a lower amount of leaf and a short time and Marmalade Puerh came out perfect! Don’t over leaf or it’ll be really weird and sludgy tasting.
The optimal steeping of Marmalade Puerh = 6grams, 210F, 10oz water, 3 minutes. Do not rinse puer blends.
Tasting of California Tea House’s Marmalade Puerh
Marmalade Puerh sips in a rich woodsy pu’er, broken up with a tangy orange rind and bit of zesty sweet lime. The aftertaste is sweet like candied orange and a hint of licorice. I normally hate licorice with a passion, but it is done pretty well here and light to add sweetness and a cooling sensation. This blend is pretty neat and as it cools, it tastes more like marmalade!
Iced
I mostly purchased this puer blend to be made into iced tea. I enjoy ripe puer iced so I thought a citrus sweet puer blend would do excellent. I still haven’t gotten the ratio quite right compared to hot. The flavor is quite refreshingly sweet citrus with an earthy background, with a lingering sweet orange aftertaste.
Comments
California Tea House’s Marmalde Puerh is a fun blend for someone on the adventurous side of tea blends. I do think it is a finnicky steep for a western brewed tea. I am happy to of tried this blend and would be tempted to purchase more as I love how unique it tastes. This is one of the better puer blends, the best being Lupicia’s Chocolate Strawberry.
They do sell sample sizes, but I felt the sample size price was overpriced, at this time $6 for 0.5 oz or $17 for 4oz ($12 per oz vs $4.25 per oz), so they really want you to get the 4oz. Customer service wise, I had a website issue with my order, it took a few days for them to respond to my email, and after that it took them a week to ship my package. Hopefully they get their website and shipping kinks worked out.
