Formosa Pouchong

In honor of today’s Steepster Select, I decided to go thru the set again. Light and smooth, slightly crisp. A great choice for a not all that warm summer day when you still want hot tea… although this entire set would be amazing iced as well. Not to mention it’s a gorgeous tea to watch steep!

The dry leaves smell fairly uninspiring. A little floral and perhaps a bit of salty plastic (the type of plastic that they make Cabbage Patch Kids faces out of). Post brewing, though, is a much different story. Sweet, floral, creamy.

The taste isn’t as thick as some pouchongs I’ve had but it is very tasty. Creamy, green, it is simultaneously a warm cuddle and a happy puppy. The front end is somewhat heavy, thick and creamy with floral and some sweet milk-oolong-like notes. Then the second half of the taste brightens up, tasting less cuddly/cloudy and more clear/springy as it brings up hints of white grape and gardenia and a faint astringency after the sip.

I tend to like my pouchongs on the richer side of the spectrum and the end note here makes this one seem brighter, but I really like it. I’d like to see what it would do at a lower temp – if I could get a little more cream, a little less grape – but I’m pretty sure that no matter what, I’m going to enjoy working my way through the sample.

Second Steep (1min) It tastes wilted and boiled. Not even worth drinking the cup. Boo.
5g/10oz

Adagio’s Masters tea collection claims to be a cut abouve its normal teas – it certainly is a cut above their usual prices so I wanted to see if the teas were actually worthy the price before I forked over the money for a whole tin.

The appearance of the tea is certainly a cut above your basic green oolong – the leaves are beautiful jade-green twists that unfurl into large, whole leaves. The first steep is quite light with a very faint lilac scent with much of the same daintily-sweet floral quality to it.

The second steeping (@ 2:30) is fuller but it retains that floral quality without tasting or smelling like a cup of perfume. It’s still quite a ‘light’ tea compared to other oolongs that I’ve tasted and it feels quite smooth and clean in the mouth with no unpleasent aftertastes.

What a wonderful vegetal tea. So clean and crisp. I will continue to drink this tea.

Got this as part of Adagio’s Maestro Collection Sampler 1 and have been eager to try it. My patience has been rewarded with this tea. The flavor makes me reminisce some vegetal green teas while being a very complex and multi-layered oolong at heart. The first steep resulted in a light liquor and a sweet aroma and the 2nd and 3rd steeps became much more floral while losing the “green tea” flavors. Very much enjoyed this tea and look forward to experimenting with it more in the coming days.

I followed Adagio’s recommendations of 205º for 2 minutes, using 3g leaves/8oz water.

Oolong tea from Taiwan. The tea leaves are dark green color. Beautiful looking tea leaves. This oolong is very similar to a green tea.

Nose and Color: Very light color
-Just a slight pale green hue
-Looks like plain water almost
-I was very surprised
-Slight floral hints similar to the jasmine pearl in the same collection

Tasting:

-Second steeping is highly recommended. Adagio says it will fully unfurl the leaves and the floral notes will really come out.
-After trying multiple steeping I agree that the floral notes really do come out a lot more but the green tea flavor is lost a little bit.
-Tastes like a very light version of formosa ali shan. This flavor profile makes sense as they are both from the mountains of Taiwan.

Full Review here: http://www.indieteas.com/home/2010/4/12/tea-review-16-adagios-formosa-pouchong.html

Wonderfully light and floral with a slight butter aftertaste. Second steeping really transforms into an almost jasmine like floral taste and you lose the butter quality. It definitely costs enough, I’ll have to do a comparison with their standard pouchong back to back but this one does not disappoint and it holds up well to many resteepings.

Light beige green brown. Pretty aroma. Cloud like, steamed sticky rice, a hint of jasmine blossom. Body is good but not as supple and juicy as the ali shan or fancy bai hao for instance… a little brisk, tannins may be masking juiciness of body. Very solid though. Second steep a definite step down.

Buttery mouthfeel. The characteristic orchid notes are present, though always fleeting, and layered with faint toasty and spice notes. The floral notes popped in the third steep, but disappeared by the fourth. Very planty, minerally fourth steep; the fifth was just sad leaf juice. It’s a good tea, but I’ve had better pouchongs, and I’m not sure it’s worthy of its “Masters Collection” status/price.

Great tea!
I’ts the first time i taste Pouchong and it’s definitely a style i must explore.

Wet leaves had me worried; smelling a bit like greens cooked on an open fire. But that smoky note does not carry over to the tea.

At first, it’s a delicate and sweet infusions. It re-steeps with more body to a milky and floral cup. Light yet complex enough to keep you intrigued, the mouthfeel moves from mineral to chalky to powdery in the most enchanting way.

I would recommend slightly longer steeping times.