In all the rush of moving and planning the financials of the tea cart I found an old bear. He was hiding in my tea box and I still had 25 grams or so left and I figured it was time I gave this smoky tea a review. Back on Black Friday of last year 2Dog of White2Tea was promoting this fangcha brick by offering it as an add on item for certain orders. As an occasional pipe smoker and lapsang souchong fan I couldn’t pass up a puerh that was smoky. Just me luck this was a very tightly compressed brick that took quite a lot of work to crack into, but that’s just been my luck with puerh these days.

Dry leaf had a faint smell but the real aroma opened up after the first rinse. It had the distinctive mossy and slightly sweet aroma that comes with a few years aged puerh but it was enhanced tenfold by the campfire crackling addition of smoky pine needles. I was immediately taken back to my younger days camping with my father in Colorado. Even deeper in the aroma was the smell of fresh out of the tin Virginia pipe tobacco, particularly aged Virginia which has a mossy and woody aroma.

The first steeping of this tea was surprisingly mild, but I’ve come to expect that from tightly compressed puerh. With the second steeping my senses were shaken by the full on taste of tangy smooth smoke. Unlike a lapsang souchong which has a very intense aroma with the matiness of black tea, Old Bear here has a much milder taste that is growing to be woody with the sweet and sour of white wine, particularly an aged Chardonnay.

The color of the tea soup was a bright tangerine that just got brighter and brighter. Almost Jacko’lantern orange at its height. The body was impressive, meaty thickness was well rounded out by low astringency and a cool aftertaste. I’m still very much a novice when it comes to pairing tea with food, but if I would guess I’d suggest pairing this with red meat or seared tuna.

It’s a shame I’m now out of this tea, I used the last of it to season my new clay teapot I bought in San Francisco. Aroma tea shop in Chinatown is where I picked it up and it’s well worth a visit for their teapot selection if you are ever in the bay area.

White2tea still has the Old Bear in stock, I’d say go order it!

I give this tea one distinguished thumb up.

Even though I’m off to a black metal concert tonight, I’ve been on a Ska kick recently so skank out to some Mighty Mighty BossTones!