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“I noticed this morning that the leaves here, even in a very large open vessel, don’t all completely open in four minutes. But I know from past experience that more than 4 minutes gets bitter and...” Read full tasting note
Also known as Profound Orchid. It has a very distinct taste that consists of a unique blend of raisin sugar, roasted barley and honey suckle. Also, makes a delicious iced tea.
Origin: Fujian, China
Company description not available.
I noticed this morning that the leaves here, even in a very large open vessel, don’t all completely open in four minutes. But I know from past experience that more than 4 minutes gets bitter and impacts later steepings. This oolong may be a better candidate for rinsing than my pu-erh.
This oolong is a lot toastier than the TeaG one I have right now, which is a lot tippy-er. These leaves are all chocolate brown, whereas the Formosa Superior Choice has the whole spectrum of white, green, and shades of brown.
This tea makes me realize that, come next autumn, I will have taken a sufficiently long break from lapsangs, that I am going to want to put some real smoke back into my rotation. I may even go back to my old habit of creating my own tea blends. I used to do a 60/40 of pu-erh and lapsang, but I may try a 50/25/25 with pu-erh, this oolong and lapsang. If anyone cares, my lapsang of choice is Upton Tea’s “Black Dragon” which is a strong, imposing tea without being overwhelmingly “meaty” (doesn’t make people think of bacon while brewing).
By the way, I learned through a friend that Omni Tea is just re-selling Rishi Tea, so in the future I will probably buy direct from Rishi and hope that solves the shipping speed problem.
Do you mind if I’m nosy for a moment and ask why the long lapsang break?
I just kind of over-did it, I think. For a long time (like, years) all I was drinking was my 60/40 pu-erh and lapsang blend and I just wanted a break from the smoke. I also found out that they don’t use hardwood to smoke the tea, they use softwoods, and softwood smokes are particularly bad for you, so I thought maybe it would be a good idea to not drink quite so much of it.
Gotcha – that makes sense. Now I have to ask, why softwood smokes are bad for you? Because I will be the first to admit that I love my smoky teas and I really don’t want them to be evil!
Well, the chemistry of wood smoke is a very complex topic and I’m not expert to speak on it completely. But the short version is that there’s a very good reason why all cured meats, smoked cheeses, barbecue, bacon, grilling charcoal and fireplace wood is hardwood and not softwood.
Also, I have no idea if any of these bad things from the smoke actually get into the tea, and even if they do, if they get from the leaf to the cup.
SO, I don’t want to become the start of an urban legend that lapsang will give your cancer or something. I just connected some dots in my head, got freaked out, and took a break. I’ve enjoyed so many other teas since then it made me realize that I could have lapsang once in a while which I tend to think is OK for anything, no matter how bad for you it is, and that this wouldn’t leave me without tea to drink.
Side note: all soot is carcinogenic. Grilling meat over open flames producing smoke and soot is very bad for you. this is why grilling should be done over coals, not flames and thus why we use charcoal instead of fresh wood to make a hot grill. And pressing on burgers to squeeze out the fat, which then causes flame flare ups may reduce your fat intake, but produces a great deal of soot which is worse for you in the long run.
Thanks for the information – and for the desire to not induce lapsang-panic! I might have to poke into this a bit more just for curiosity’s sake.
Lemme know what you find out.