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“Afternoon tea session with Cacao 80. I decided to try grandpa style thermos brewing, and (spoiler alert!) I was not disappointed. For reference, I used the whole 7g mini in my 500ml thermos, added...” Read full tasting note
“Grandpa Style! I only did half of a coin snapped, along with quite a lot of fresh basil leaves muddled up and steeped together in the liquor grandpa style, just to do something a little more fun...” Read full tasting note
A unique small batch ripe Puer tea fermented using our own material and under our own supervision.
For people who feel like all shou Puer tea tastes the same, we occasionally push on the boundaries. As the name implies, this tea will brew up like a cup of melted dark chocolate. Thick, dark and heavily bitter.
Each purchase is for one 7 gram mini or a ~49g stack of 7 minis.
Afternoon tea session with Cacao 80. I decided to try grandpa style thermos brewing, and (spoiler alert!) I was not disappointed. For reference, I used the whole 7g mini in my 500ml thermos, added boiling water and left it for ~2 hours before drinking. Once close to empty I topped up with fresh boiling water.
I was originally drawn to this shou because it’s described as “melted dark chocolate in tea form” and it didn’t let me down. It brews up super smooth, but also has the dry bittersweetness of raw cacao, cooking chocolate, and (in later steeps) 80-90% dark chocolate. It is super rich, definitely suited to sipping on every so often across a stretch of hours. Drinking a lot of this quickly is borderline overwhelming!
I drank most of my cups straight, but you must believe me when I say that it is absolutely fabulous with white sugar and whole milk, even though that sounds like a really odd thing to do to shou. The bitterness is massively reduced, and it becomes very reminiscent of hot chocolate. I enjoyed interspersing the odd cup this way to break up the richness a little, particularly when reaching the end of each flask. Variety can also be found by sampling cups within the first hour, which have more wet wood notes and milder chocolate characteristics.
I’m so glad I decided to give this one a try; it’s definitely different from the earthier shou I’m used to drinking, and is one I’ll happily revisit in the future.
Grandpa Style!
I only did half of a coin snapped, along with quite a lot of fresh basil leaves muddled up and steeped together in the liquor grandpa style, just to do something a little more fun and experimental. The result is still pretty delicious with a very, very bitter dark cocoa note swiftly followed up by a whole lot of fresh, savory herbaceousness. Even though this isn’t even close to being a sweet brew, there is something sorta indulgent about it. If you’ve never had dark chocolate dipped or coated basil before, I’d highly recommend. It’s a unique juxtaposition of flavours, but it works shockingly well and this is basil just the tea version of that!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIHpb49yGcA/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7szEV16-wI&ab_channel=TheBrook%26TheBluff
