Tropical Pu’erh is a pu’erh and shou mei white tea blend with tropical flavoring. This interesting tea comes from Kally Tea, an online loose leaf tea seller.
I won this tea as part of a giveaway that was posted on Steepster. I got to choose which tea I wanted, and it was a difficult choice with all of Kally Tea’s interesting line of teas. I went with Tropical Pu’erh as it sounded very different and unique.
DRY LEAF: Tropical fruit punch smell coming from this tea. I was expecting a more pu’erh smell, but it’s not present.
Interesting presentation with the loose pu’erh accented with large white tea leaves.
STEEPED: On the packaging, it cites a 3 minute steep with boiling water. However, during my email exchange with Kally’s Tea, they said they’ve been experimenting with steep times and found Tropical pu’erh had good flavor at the 1 minute mark.
I intended to steep for 3 minutes, but I did a sip at the 1 minute mark and love the taste there and didn’t want the pu’erh any stronger. I did not do a rinse to ensure I don’t lose any tropical flavoring.
Tropical Pu’erh has a deep pu’erh smell, like I’m walking into a dark, muddy forest. A pretty dark, muddy forest.
TASTE: Very deep, earthy, tree flavor followed up with a sweet wave of tropical flavor at end of sip. The tropical in this is kind of a mix of fruit juicy pineapple, maybe papaya and coconut. The sweetness reminds me of shou mei white tea. The after taste is more robusty pu’erh. There is no fishy or bitter taste.
I tossed in a bit of rock sugar for my first cup, and the tropical taste comes out much more. I really like the addition of the rock sugar here. At the bottom of my cup that was more sweeter, the pu’erh took on almost a caramelly taste.
I showed this tea to a friend and I sampled his cup, which he doctored with a bit of this tea with honey and milk – Tropical Pu’erh is very good with honey!
RESTEEP: No tropical taste that I can pick up. The pu’erh flavor is still there and very similar in strength. I wish I got the tropical flavoring in the resteep. I can tell I could get another steeping or two but it would be all pu’erh taste.
COMMENTS: I find Tropical Pu’erh a pretty interesting tea. You know those white or green flavored teas that the flavoring is light or pops out at the end? Tropical Pu’erh is like that, but with pu’erh. I love how the flavoring really pops with sweetener. I’m thinking this tea would be really neat to try with coconut milk and honey to pull out the tropical even more!
Tropical Pu’erh would also be a fun move for a black tea blend drinker to try pu’erh – this tea is good with sweetener and milk, the pu’erh taste is not fishy, so it would be an easy transition.
Overall, very interesting tea! If you like Pu’erh blends and want something different, try Kally Tea’s Tropical Pu’erh for something new!
