No matter the time, place, or situation, drinking Pu-erh tea is exciting. Most of the time, we drink Pu-erh tea on its own. Since the tea stands on its own so well, why not enjoy it in its purest form? Still, the world is full of many wonderful flavors, many of which can complement and enhance the flavor of tea, and vice versa. Today we begin a series of new ways to experience Pu-erh, starting by adding milk to the tea.
Milk tea (often enjoyed in the form of Boba Tea) is a drink that’s popular in Asian countries and increasingly popular in the United States. In the vast majority of cases, milk tea is made from black tea, or even green tea. While our own Black Tea is perfect for making milk tea, today we experimented with adding milk to a few of our Pu-erh teas.
We started by mixing the milk in with our newest product, the 2016 Commemorative Ripe Pu-erh. The gorgeous dark hues of the ripe tea mixed with the milk to make a very satisfying tan color. We chilled the tea before adding the milk, attempting to recreate the classic milk tea formula. The result was an incredible reimagining of milk tea as we know it. The flavors of the ripe tea still came in strong, but were balanced with the nice creaminess of the milk (we used 2%). All in all, this proved to be a highly successful experiment, and we’ll certainly be drinking this new version of milk tea often.
Next we decided to try adding the milk to that tea’s counterpart, the 2016 Commemorative Raw Pu-erh. Since raw Pu-erh is quite different from the sort of tea that is typically used in milk tea, we were very curious about the results of this particular fusion of tastes. For this tea, we decided to mix the milk in while it was still hot, so that we’d have two very different experiences to compare. The final product here was even better than we were expecting. The delicate floral notes of the raw Pu-erh were brought to the forefront of the palate, while the milk added great texture and even served to enhance the natural flavor of the tea.
There’s a reason milk tea is so popular these days, and it’s got everything to do with the perfect chemistry between milk and tea. Today, we learned that Pu-erh tea makes an especially good companion to milk, and we urge you try this out for yourself at home.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at info@denongtea.com.
Leave a comment