Honey Black Pomelo Tea Balls
Honey Black Pomelo Tea Balls
Like some of our Dong Ding Oolongs, this tea has hundreds of years of history. This unique tea is high-quality Honey Fragrance Black Tea mixed with the pulp of a Pomelo before being placed back in the intact Pomelo peel and then processed in the traditional Hakka way. Through a series of steaming, sun drying, and baking steps these ingredients create a tea ball that can be aged or drunk right away, and which has a unique flavor profile that you can't find anywhere else!
Unmistakable medicinally flavors of this more traditional tea are a stark contrast to the other types of Hakka tea that we offer on the site. Strong citrus, sour notes, bitters and black tea are the name of the game for this one. Used as a medicine for colds and the flu in the past, you can understand why this tea would have been used for medicine!
These are living teas and will only get better with age. If you do plan on aging this tea make sure the area you store it in is dry with no strong odors. Throwing it in a ziplock bag would be a good idea as well, but don't forget to let it breath every once in a while!
**Like all our teas, there are no artificial added flavors, colors or chemicals in this tea. All flavors are completely natural and agrochemical-free!**
Elevation: 300m
Status: Agrochemical free garden
Cultivar: Big Leaf Oolong and Organic Valencia Orange
Season: Winter 2021
Method: Traditional Hakka Dried Fruit Tea Processing
Region: Rueishuei, Hualien
Recommend Brewing Style: ~100C water, 5-10g of tea and peel
You can treat it like a puer, or a black tea, or even a pour over coffee. Water-to-tea ratio is also up to you. You can include the orange husk or just chip out the tea. It seems drinking it with the peel is a much better experience as the fruity sweet sour taste is more pronounced. Treating it like a puer with short steeps seems to work well also.
***While this tea is legally preserved for export, it may fall under gray areas for some bureaucrats/zealots. If it does get confiscated unjustly at customs please rest assured that we will refund the money to you. We will take that risk upon ourselves!***
For more information on how to break and brew these teas please see the video below.
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I bought a 10g sample on a whim, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it tasted! It has a sweet, citrusy and floral aroma, combined with a smooth depth that comes from being a baked and aged oolong. The citrus notes were well balanced and not overwhelming. I plan on buying more of this.
I've tried all three tea balls and this one was surprisingly my favourite. I say surprisingly because I normally don't like pomelo all that much and have never had pomelo flavoured tea so I didn't no what to expect. However, I was pleasantly surprised! Black tea and pomela are a wonderful combination. The tartness and slight bitterness of the pomelo works really well with the sweet honey of the black tea. I honestly could not recommend this more. It is a really unique tea, with no hint of artificial flavour that you are unlikely to find anywear else.
If you like the taste of grapefruit then you'll love the taste of this black tea preserved in a pomelo fruit! It's good Taiwanese black tea with all the sweetness of a pomelo. I know some citrus fruits can exude a twangy flavour but I find this to be much more on the sweet side. It's delicious and a perfect brew to warm up to in the cold of winter. I imagine it could be good as a cold brew too or served over ice in summer. If you are at all a lover of ruby red grapefruits as I am then I highly recommend trying this!