Rather than an old favorite tea today (which, despite my best efforts, there simply wasn’t time to prepare *sigh*), I thought I’d review a long-time favorite tea house.
For a while now, I have been remiss in pointing out how much i love Lab. Lab is a local Ann Arbor coffee house that brews some really incredibly teas. For a long time it’s been my favorite/go-to tea house (non-bubble tea) when I can’t leave campus. They have about six or eight set teas that they keep from year-to-year and about four or five they switch out every season. Although the price point/cup is rather high and the wait for your drink is quite a bit longer than you might expect if you’re used to Starbucks or Tully’s, the benefits far out way the drawbacks. Not only does Lab use organic teas and a vendor I’ve never been able to put my finger on (the mystery maybe enhances my experience?), but each tea is really well-rounded: aroma, taste, texture and even presentation (each is brewed as if it were delicate) have all managed to consistently exceed my expectations. If Lab sold loose leaf tea, they would probably blow past Goldfish in my regard.
Blood Orange Pu-erh isn’t a combination I’ve had before, but it’s still totally delightful and lives up to expectations. An aroma of ripe orange and crisp Pu-erh is balanced against an amazingly thin pu-erh texture with a heady just slightly fermented orange tea flavor. If you’ve ever had orange pekoe (and believe me,you have, you just didn’t know it was called that), Blood Orange Pu-erh is so far distant from the experience that comparing them (or placing them in the same sentence) is almost a travesty. I highly recommend Blood Orange Pu-erh to anyone, especially if you don’t have much experience with tea: it’ll open your tastebud’s eyes. ;)
選別 parting.gifts 