The best tea in the world!

I think this is the best tea in the world. Actually I would even say the best tea in the Universe.

Have you ever had pu-erh tea? It is a tea made through a special process that gives it a distinct, unique, delicate flavor.

But what really makes the tea I am writing about is how it is prepared. You have to try this!

So far my favorite brand of pu-erh tea is from a company called Two Hills. I have a small mesh tea ball which I fill one half of, then steep it in about 400 ml of hot water. As it steeps the tea will become this amazing reddish color, which is a sign of really excellent pu-erh tea. Steep time can vary. I usually steep it up to a few minutes but generally not longer. If you steep it longer obviously you’ll get more caffeine. I try to keep my caffeine consumption limited. In general though pu-erh is not really a high-caffeine tea.

After it has steeped you can do a couple things. One thing I like to do is then put in about a teaspoon of dried spearmint leaves and a pinch of dried stevia leaves and let them steep for about 10 minutes, then strain it and add a bit of unsweetened organic soymilk. Instead of using dried stevia leaves you can also add 4-5 drops of stevia extract. You can also just skip the mint and add the soymilk and stevia drops and drink it right away.

One thing I always do – I don’t know exactly why but this seems to have some effect – after I steep the pu-erh leaves and add the soymilk, I then transfer the tea to another drinking vessel. Then I add the stevia drops. What happens is that the first vessel – I use a 16 oz. glass salsa jar (the nice thing of which is that you can really see the nice color as the tea steeps) – absorbs a lot of the heat. When the tea is transferred to the drinking vessel it is then a bit cooler and that temperature change affects the flavor.

Pu-erh tea by itself kind of reminds me of Chinese restaurant tea, which is basically oolong. But when you add the soymilk, stevia, and optionally spearmint it transforms into something that is simply sublime.