Tentacle Tea is a habanero-infused pu’er blended with meyer lemon, home toasted brown rice, cinnamon and mint. This tea is blended and sold by Pelican Tea, US based online tea seller.
I came across Pelican Tea on /r/tea on reddit. Another new tea seller? I decided to check out their tea line up – HOLY HOOTS their tea line up is wild and quite unique! Habanero-infused teas. They habanero infused whites, greens, blacks, pu’ers and oolongs!
Tea peeps, I love spicy food. If you see me eat a burrito, before each bite there’s a dash (or 3) of hot sauce. A work friend of my tea-hating husband gave us a jar of home canned jalapenos and I ate them like pickles. I’m the type that finds commercial, regular grocery store or fast food place’s “hot” condiment to taste like ketchup level. I do like my chais spicy and have sampled a few “spicy” teas, but nothing listed with habanero. The hottest peppers I’ve had so far are habaneros and they are at my limits.
Tentacle Tea is an interesting choice of name. We must also note, on the packaging this tea is rated a 2 pepper. I have another sample from Pelican Tea that displays 3 peppers.
Dry Leaf
A confetti looking dry leaf – curls of pu’er, small lumps of cinnamon stick, dried lemon and green mint. The dry leaf of Tentacle Tea is nice and fragrant – fresh, citrusy and minty – like a very fresh nighttime herbal tea. Then it hits you… a spicyness that burns your nose. Whoa! I’ll be sure not to rub my eyes after handling this tea.
Steeping Instructions
I followed the instructions on my package of Tentacle Tea, so about 1.5 teaspoons steeped in boiling water for 5 minutes. Check out my sweet octopus cup!
After 5 minutes I had a dark woodsy brew that smelled pepperminty citrus with a delicious cinnamon, quite similar vibe to a cinnamon stick laced hot apple cider. No spicy smell. I wonder if I’m prepared for this tea.
Tasting of Pelican Tea’s Tentacle Tea
Unique and busy! Tentacle Tea sips in with a delicious fresh lemon flavor followed with a cooling peppermint sensation. These two flavors are so fresh, I could be mistaken for using a lemon out of my backyard. The main flavors I’m getting is the lemon and peppermint, but there is a nice earth pu’er base. The pu’er here is pretty forgiving – it’s not fishy or strong, it just adds a grounded effect to the tea. I don’t taste the cinnamon here, but the scent is quite strong. After all that, and with each further sip the spice catches up to you, and wow it’s hot!
Tentacle Tea‘s spice I’d give a 7 or 8/10 on the Spice-o-meter – it’s spicy! It lingers too! Personally, this is a perfect heat level to comfortably consume without breaks so I would consider this a medium hot, but I can see this being too much for others. If I was eating this at CoCoCurry, this would be a 7, so it’s not blistering heat, but pretty hot. This tea does have habanero essence, as it’s a clean intense heat, without any bitter, grassy, smokey or tart flavor.
Altogether, Tentacle Tea is busy in flavor, like I’m losing track of all the tentacles with a final sting like I got poked in the eye – pleasantly. I guess if you are a crazy hot food lover, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Resteep: I resteeped Tentacle Tea for 6 minutes and discovered the busy storm subsided. What I’m left with is a lovely light pu’er earth flavor, strong cinnamon spice with a citrus finish. It is like a spicy apple cider with citrus. The spice level here is a 4/10 – like a good chai level. The tea evokes a sweet effect, maybe my association between sweet and cinnamon. A very good resteep, however I found further resteeps the pu’er base was too light to be enjoyed.
Comments
Spicy Heat lovers – you need to check out Pelican Tea! Pelican Tea also sells a sampler pack, so you can get their entire line up in 20 gram sized samplers. So far, I’m impressed with how fresh their teas are, with Tentacle Tea being a interesting offering of refreshing citrus, mint and earth. This tea is one of a kind!
Tentacle Tea would be 100% perfect to drink while having a cold. The citrus and mint would feel amazing on the throat. I also always drink ripe pu’er when sick as I find it does double duty at getting rid of congestion and throat issues. No longer will this tea blogger be dumping cayenne pepper into my tea! Other than colds, I could see this being a great tea to wind down after work with the refreshing flavors and a reset button of heat!
Bonus: Tea Owl and Tea Octopus bonding over tea
(tea provided for review)
