Citrus Pu’erh Tea

Posted on June 11, 2018 by vanbraman

While in Shanghai I visited a tea market and bought several types of tea. One of them is quite interesting.

Citrus Pu’erh tea is made with citrus from Xinhui in Guangdong Province and tea from Yunnan Province.

Citrus Pu'erh, Tea, Xinhui, TeaThe tea comes in little wrapped balls. They may not look too interesting here, but wait until you see it unwrapped.

Pu'erh Tea, Mandarin, Xinhui, Orange Pu'erhThese little balls of tea are made with an interesting process.

A round hole is created in the outer peel of a citrus fruit. Several varieties of citrus (oranges, limes and tangerines) are used and I am not really sure which is used in this case. The pulp of the citrus is removed and the peel is filled with aged pu’erh tea from Yunnan province. Typically the tea is already aged for several years.

Pu-erh tea, citrus tea, Yunnan provinceAfter the tea is placed in the peel the little balls are dried in the sun and aged for perhaps another year. The tea absorbs flavor from the oils of the citrus peel as it ages.

After the aging process is complete the balls are individually wrapped and prepared for market.

tea infusion, pu'erh tea, citrus teaThe first infusion wakes up the tea. You can see the color leeching out of the opening in the peel. I always like to taste the first infusion, especially if it is something new that I am trying. There was definitely a citrus taste to the tea.

The first time I let the tea infuse for a couple of minutes so that it absorbed as much water as possible.

Pu'erh Tea, Yunnan province, TEa CultureThe second infusion only took about 20-30 seconds till I had a nice rich red tea. The tea is a bit sweet with a very smooth mouth feel. There are definitely some citrus notes from the peel. There is a bit of tang, but not much of an aftertaste. For as dark as the tea is, it is surprising that there was very little astringency.

Later infusions took just a bit longer. I had a bit of trouble understanding the guy at the tea market in Shanghai, but I think I may be able to get 12-15 infusions out of each tea ball. I should make sure I keep track. I think I am on number five 🙂

Steven

 

 

 

Posted in China, Culture, Food, Tea | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Manteca Murals

Posted on June 10, 2018 by vanbraman

About four years ago I shared some pictures of a mural in Manteca in a post titled Cruising Manteca.

I mentioned in the post that Manteca had quite a few large murals in the downtown area. I was in Manteca today and took pictures of some of them. At some point I may write a little more about the murals, but mainly tonight you will just see pictures.

Manteca Snow, Fruit Tree Blossoms, Agriculture, orchards, muralThis mural caught my eye as I pulled into the Manteca library parking lot. The mural is titled Manteca Snow. Of course it is the blossoms in the orchards that look like snow. I really like driving down I-5 in the spring and looking out over acres of orchards that look like fields of snow, so I truly understand the title.

This is a great mural with the painted frame. It really looks three dimensional. Do you see the cup of tea or coffee and the little bird on the sill? Look closely.

Manteca Mural, Manteca Mural Society, Painting, Wall ArtThe sign about the mural is also just another small mural. You can see that the Manteca Mural Society dedicated the Manteca Snow mural back in October of 2009.

The next three murals are on a wall to the west of the library. I am sure that they have names, but I don’t have time to look them up tonight. I may write more about each of them sometime in the future. For now, only a brief description will be given.

Manteca Murals, Manteca Business, Manteca HistoryThis mural shows some of the history of industry in the area around Manteca. There is definitely some interesting history there.

Manteca Murals, Agriculture History, San Joaquin County, CaliforniaThis mural shows some of the agriculture products from San Joaquin county, as well as a historical look at harvesting.

Manteca Murals, Settlement History, History of Manteca, MuralsThis mural shows some scenes from the early settlement of the area.

There are some great images in these murals. There are a couple more murals in the park that surrounds the library, but I will post pictures of them at a later time.

Steven

Posted in California, Culture, History | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment