Today’s tea review is Rishi Tea’s Pu-erh Bordeaux – an organic and fair trade certified pu’er tea with red wine grape skins, blackberries, raspberries and lavender flowers. Everything in this tea is organic!
Awhile back, fellow Steepster members who also are knitters/crocheters did a mystery swap of tea and yarn. I got 3 balls of yarn and this tea – Pu-erh Bordeaux! This is my first Rishi Tea.. not counting meeting them and drinking all their teas at the World Tea Expo 2014, haha! Looking at Rishi Teas, they have a huge line up of USDA organic teas – if you prefer buying organic, this is the tea place to check out!
Dry Leaf
The dry leaf of Pu-erh Bordeaux features chunky looking bits of fruit with stocky pu’er tea. The tea has a light fruity scent.
Steeping Instructions
On the box, Rishi Tea instructs me to steep 1 Tablespoon of tea, in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Tasting of Rishi Tea’s Pu-erh Bordeaux
The colour of the brew is little cloudy/moderate debris reddish brown. If you are familiar with pu’er like me, you thought this tea would be close to jet black, especially since I steeped it for 5 minutes!
The scent of Pu-erh Bordeaux is sweet, dry, bready and grapey, somewhat like wine. The flavor of Pu-erh Bordeaux is quite unique for a pu’er blend! Sips in with plenty of flavor without being thick or intense. First off, there is a backdrop of earthy woodsy cedar. As the sip goes on, it gets tart grapey, just like nibbling on a wine grape with the thick skin. End of sip it is pretty fruity, mostly grape, some blackberry flavor and a dried mission fig backup with a tart finish. I’d give it a 4/10 on the Tart Meter – it’s moderately tart, enough to sip as is, but some may want some sugar. If you sip Rishi Tea’s Pu-erh Bordeaux quickly, it combines to a woodsy red wine flavor. The aftertaste is interesting – it’s mostly cedar, some tart and a bit of fig. With each sip, the dryness in this tea grows to about a 3/10 on the Astringency Meter, tying in with the tartness of this blend.
There is no fermented flavors in the pu’er tea base, nor is this tea heavy or thick. The bottom of my cup has quite a bit of debris that I can feel texture wise. I ended up pouring out the last bit of tea before the next infusion. I used a fine stainless steel infuser which is pretty reliable so I was surprised I had debris.
Second Infusion: 6 minute resteeping. Wow, big flavor shift! The berry, red grape and tartness are mostly gone. With that said, I’m tasting mostly the pu’er base. The flavor is creamy, woodsy and earthy with a light tart finish of raspberries and grape. The tart level is a 1/10, and the dryness is gone too.
Iced: I poured a stiff steeping of Pu-erh Bordeaux over iced. This one, as expected, was good iced – it was pretty woodsy with a grapey finish. The blend has just enough sweet from the fruity notes that you don’t need to add any extra sugar. I prefer Pu-erh Bordeaux hot, but iced is a nice alternative to enjoy tea on a hot day.
Comments
Rishi Tea’s Pu-erh Bordeaux is a tea for the wine tea and fruity tea lover. This blend is very good for a pu’er blend – one of the best pu’er blends I’ve had and a pu’er blend that is quite friendly to non-pu’er drinkers. I’m not big into wine, but found this tea grew on my after a few cups as the pu’er base is quite nicely paired with the fruity flavor.
In the end, I need to try more Rishi Teas!
