Generally any decent ripe puerh mixed with a spoonful of honey will make for a very good cup of tea. However as this is a blog entry, I decided to make things more interesting by using age ripe puerh together with forest honey I picked up in Cambodia. The honey was gathered by the local people and crudely filtered allowing much of the pollen to remain. The bees wax and bits of unknown and mystifying matter are an added bonus and provide an unexpected source of protein. That said, the complexity of the honey is wonderful and having so much pollen in the mix is a treat as it adds a wonderful floral creaminess to the tea when stirred in. As the honey can easily dominate the tea I would advise to start with adding a little honey at first and taste. It is better to err on a lesser quantity than having added too much.
A Taste of the Wild - This Cambodian honey gathered from the wild is as raw and natural as I have come across. Despite appearances the taste is clean, very rich and complex. The taste gives you so much more than simply sweetness with the spectrum of flavors reaching out to touch on aspects of bitter, sour, earth, medicinal, floral and more. For me wild honey such as this really illustrates the diversity and complexity that nature brings for our enjoyment.
For those who love their honey below are a few interesting links on the health and medicinal benefits related to honey.
5 Things You Didn't Know About Honey
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/20/health-benefits-honey.aspx
Honey: Health Benefits and Uses In Medicine
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264667.php
Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609166/
Honey as Medicine
http://itotd.com/articles/218/honey-as-medicine/
Traditional Uses of Honey in Ayurveda
http://www.mapi.com/ayurvedic-knowledge/miscellaneous-ayurvedic-articles/ayurvedic-uses-of-honey.html
