Brand: Ministry of Tea

Flavour: Chocolate Pu-erh

Ingredients: Black pu-erh tea and natural chocolate flavour

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: 100% organic

Price Range: £2.49

Bags Per Box: 20

Our Review: This was an instant favourite. The smell is earthy and faintly sweet, with a subtle hint of cocoa. It’s soothing, especially on a rainy, grey afternoon. The flavour is similar. It’s comforting and smooth, conjuring up images of drinking it in front of a real wood fire in a stone cottage in wintertime.

If you don’t know, pu-erh is a Chinese tea that undergoes the ‘wet piling’ microbial fermentation process, allowing new flavours to come out. The Chinese call this ‘black tea’ (while they refer to English black tea as ‘red tea’ because it’s technically reddish once brewed). It’s hard to describe the flavour, but you can definitely tell it’s been aged longer. There’s a ‘compost’ edge to it, but in a very good way. It isn’t like standard tea at all.

And unlike English black tea, you can leave the bag in the cup for ages and, rather than getting bitter, it gets better. It has a cleaner taste but is just as wakeful. In fact, it’s so wakeful that you need to be careful about having it too late in the day. (Tulsi learned this the hard way – it not only kept her awake but it made her mind sharper than it had been all day, and she was hit with the most intense visual imagery when she closed her eyes to try to sleep.) On the other hand, it has high levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter that eases anxiety. For these reasons, Chinese monks have drunk this tea for centuries specifically to put them in a bit of an altered state, to aid meditation.

You can get specially aged ‘cakes’ of pu-erh tea for tens of thousands of pounds in shops like Harrods. Thankfully, this one only costs £2.49, and it’s still pretty special.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time

Best time of day to drink this: Anytime, but not in the evening – it will keep you up!

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