Puer tea

When in Portland earlier this month for XOXO, Jonny Gotham and I walked over to the Tao of Tea off Belmont, as I had wanted to pick up some tea sipping cups similar to the ones I had purchased at the Chinese Tea Garden years ago. When I asked recently at the Tea Garden entrance if I could forgo the Tea Garden admittance fee, as I had just wanted to make a purchase at the Tea Garden's shop, and would leave straight away, I was told no, to make that $8 purchase, I would have to buy an $10 dollar admittance ticket. Not worth it to me, and visiting the SE Belmont store was added to my "Do in Portland at some point."

While there, I did pick up my tea cups, and also some teas that I hadn't tried before, but looked interesting. One of them was a puer tea.

For the uninitiated tea drinker, exactly like myself, puer tea is fermented tea. Originally, named for the town of Puer, such teas were pressed into bricks then sent out into the world, often by horse and camel. You can imagine as this bricks of tea travelled slowly, they went over different terrains, through varying climates, and with ranging weather. Which is to say, the tea basically rotted somewhat on its journey.

But you can't stop a tea drinker, especially one who has waited for his tea. So, early drinkers of such tea from Puer embraced the flavor.

Which is to say, this dark, inky color tea tastes like shit.

I'm glad I have a small tin of it, because I really can't stand the taste. I might just compost it, since that's where something that tastes like this belongs.