Welcome to the third in our series of top-shelf Ripe PuErh blended with aged Chen Pi (Tangerine peel). Find Your Sunshine 3 is a creamy and rich Bulang Ripe which pairs sublimely with proper aged Xinhui Tangerine. Chocolate, yeasted buns, antique woods and candied peels with a powdery sweet finish.
Tea and Chen Pi is an ancient blend. Over a thousand years before tea was brewed in the Paocha (loose-leaf steeping) style, tea was first used as a food ingredient in soups and porridges. There are ancient recipes showing that the much revered Chen Pi was one of the most common ingredients to blend in the tea soup.
We only select a PuErh for our Find Your Sunsine series which we would love to sell as a pure tea - bold, rich and delicious on its own.
We have stepped up the creamy and bready levels in Find Your Sunshine 3 with a Bulang Ripe made from old tea trees and aged since 2012.
This tea is rich in yeasted, soft and bready notes with some dark chocolate and toasted almonds for added confectionary pleasure. The tea pairs this creamy richness with a distinctively herbaceous floralty and adds some dank basement intrigue in the mix.
It leaves the mouth with a parma-violet sweetness.
Combine this with the marmalade and burnt orange notes of the Chen Pi and suddenly you have chocolate and orange marmalade babka paired with chrysanthemum tisane all enjoyed in a farmhouse attic with antique woods and a little fuggy humidity.
The finish is mineral, fresh and powdery sweet while the empty cup is warm with sawn woods and caramel.
Body sensation is digestif and settling but I note an extra kick to this blend to give you a little pep during your session.
ABOUT CHEN PI
Chen Pi (mandarin peel) is a valued ingredient and Chinese Medicinal herb used in cooking and medicine. Its flavour and medicinal effects increase as it ages and it can become very expensive, selling for between $1-5 per gram for Chen Pi aged over 30 years.
The ageing of Chen Pi concentrates and deepens its aroma and effects while calming the very transient volatiles and settling the flavour. Aged Chen Pi is used in Chinese Medicine to move Qi downwards and is often prescribed to stop bloating, belching, nausea, stomach pain and vomiting.
Chen Pi also dispels dampness making it a common ingredient to relieve chesty, heavy coughs, reduce phlegm and general feelings of being congested in your respiration. Chen Pi should not be taken for dry coughs.
The character of aged Chen Pi is gently warming while still providing a comfortable, cooling citrus sensation in the mouth. It is very settling and grounding.
The most famous area for producing the best Chen Pi is Xinhui in Guangdong.
The Chen Pi used in this tea blend is from 2014 making it nicely aged (and it will continue to age with the PuErh tea) and it has been sourced from Xinhui. It is blended at about 20-25% in proportion to the tea.
There are many blends of tea with young Chen Pi - they can be bright and delicious but do not have the same effects so we had to find some good aged peels.
