191 Tasting Notes
well, this one was an accidental leftover from a past steepster box, and i don’t even remember drinking it before…WOW, this is delicious! usually the chinese non-oolong greens underwhelm me, but this? this is made of rainbows and light and sparkles and unicorns! yet, somehow it ISN"T overwhelming, it is a light light flavor, even if strong. like drinking sunshine filtered through spring green forest canopy onto a dappled forest floor covered in spring wildflowers.
yep, that’s exactly it. darned good stuff. now i need to figure out who made it and where i can get more, coz also? it’s like crack.
Preparation
i sprung for the decaf sampler from Adagio – and this is my first go at them. HOLY cow this is some tasty tea! i’ve been focusing lately so much on the non-flavored (yet still quite flavorful!) teas that i’d forgotten how delightful a nice fruity black tea can be! this cuppa is NOM with a spoonful of sugar and a splash of 2%. yum yum yum.
Flavors: Peach
Preparation
as it turns out, i don’t like Lapsang Souchongs. i thought this one might be better, considering the source, but i think it’s just me. do not like. but then, i don’t really like smokey flavored anything, really. except beef. and pork ribs. but smoke where it doesn’t belong? ew.
ON EDIT: 2nd steeping was a tiny bit milder on the flavor i’m not enjoying, but only a tiny bit. i must say, this is an incredibly smooth tea, considering, and lush and deep and full, but that smoked quality just. ugh. can’t get over it. no third steeping for me!
brewed as per directions on Steepster Select packet, April 2014 mailing.
I highly recommend doing a ‘quick rinse’ of the leaves of a strongly smoked tea like Lapsang Souchong. I pour the hot water over the leaves for 15 seconds (well, with this tea I did 20 seconds, but that’s because I seemed to forget what I was doing in that 15 seconds. My brain isn’t functioning yet.) Anyway … a quick rinse of the leaves, 15 seconds in the hot water, and then pour it off and then steep it for the 3 minutes or however long you might steep it. It will still be smoky, but it won’t be as overpowering.
well, now, this is NOT what i was expecting! while i’d usually consider most oolongs i’ve tried to be light, ethereal, floral, this one is none of those things. not that this is a bad thing, mind you. i went ahead and rinsed once, since i was suspicious of the dry leaf smell (which is not light, ethereal, or floral, but instead earthy, sandy, soil-y. but not in the pu-erh soil-y way), so my second and now third steepings of this are quite deep, reddish-brown colored, a beautiful tea really. the flavor is definitely not based in the scent, the way other oolongs are or can be. this one i just what it is. down to earth, honest-to-goodness, tea. no bitterness, this is quite smooth, which just a bit of astringency making it quite nice. not as heavy as a black tea, not as earthy-mushroom-y as a pu-erh, just basic. i quite like it, although i like others quite a bit more, so i’m not sure i’ll replace this once it runs out.