Curious Tea – Pu Muen Assamica Black
This may be the first tea from Thailand I’ve ever had. It’s certainly the first to be reviewed on these here tea pages. It’s produced by Tea Fancier favourite, Curious Tea, so I know I’m in good hands here.
Curious Tea really do produce some smashing teas and this here Pu Muen Assamica Black is no exception. It’s a rich, flavourful brew that you can probably resteep again and again until you run out of energy or hours in the day. I managed six resteepings and I reckon four is probably the sweet spot, but they were all delightful. It starts off quite minerally and gets more floral and fruity the more times you steep it.
Pu Muen Assamica Black is grown in Doi Pu Muen at a tea plantation that was originally opened by King Bhumibol Adulyade in the 1970s. Bhumibol Adulyade reigned from 1946 to 2016 which is some pretty impressive innings. Our Queen beat his stint by a mere 88 days. Although Louis XIV still holds the top spot for longest reigning monarch ever.
According to Curious Tea’s website, Pu Muen’s tea plants grow semi-wild and are allowed to grow into larger trees than is usual most tea plantations. I presume this has something to do with the impressively large tea leaves that you get here. I don’t know what it is with tea leaf size. Many tea producers make a big show of only picking the youngest, tiniest leaf shoots and yet Curious Tea regularly produce teas whose leaves unfurl to the size of pitta breads, and they are invariably amazing.
Although not commonly thought of (at least by me) as a tea-producing nation, Thailand ranks fifteenth in the world for tea production which means it ranks higher than say Taiwan and Korea. Curious Tea have a number of other Thai teas on their books including a green Pu Muen Assamica. Given how much fun I had with the black version, I reckon I should check it out.
Today’s featured book is Wat Phra Sri Ratana Sasadaram by The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. My parents bought this on holiday in Thailand in the early 1980s. But there are, amazingly, copies to be found online.
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