Mi Lan Temple Blend

Not from last weekend but the one before that…

I’ve been doing a really good job staying on top of my tasting notes for Adventageddon, but the few times I’ve managed to sneak a non-advent tea into my daily assortment (admittedly not many times) I’ve done a poor job of getting those notes written in a timely manner. This was nice though; I don’t remember a lot of the finer details at this point, aside from the fact there was a fruitiness to the cup but then also this pine-y woody quality that reminded me – in a very positive way, of the smell my Grandfather’s wood shop used to have! I always felt a little uncomfortable going into the wood shop as a kid because there was lots and lots of tools and saws lying around in the open, including massive buzz/circular saws, but I used to love to stand in the doorway and just smell it. There was a moment with this cup that brought be back to be a seven year old in that doorway, and it was complete bliss.

When I read the description for this tea, I was not thrilled. Inspired by inscense in temples… inscence can be nice to smell, but I rarely want to drink it. However, when I smelled the dry leaf I was really surprised. It does not smell like inscense (to me), but instead dead up like molasses-covered grain (horse feed). I know that sounds like a bad thing to many people but it isn’t! Some of my favorite Fujian black teas remind me of molasses grain, and it’s a pleasant olfactory memory for me anyway.

There are (also surprisingly) not too many crazy ingredients in this one. The one that is an unknown quantity is the Aloeswood Tincture. That sounds like something that I wouldn’t care for, just because anything called “tincture” sounds medicinal and herby and gross.

Brewed, the smell of the mi lan oolong comes out. Kind of woody, slightly sweet smelling, a bit like autumn leaves. It tastes like… um, I’m not sure. At first I thought “nothing” and then I changed my mind to “dirt” but then maybe it was like “dead leaves on the ground”. Ok but that was when it was still quite hot. It cooled down and then it tasted like… not much. I mean, it did have flavors of autumn leaves and a bit of honey (the dirt taste went away mostly), but honestly it wasn’t very interesting. I couldn’t taste the berries, I couldn’t taste the aloeswood.

I would think my lackluster experiences might be due to needing to change my water filter (and I might anyway, it’s been a while), but I did just have a delicious and satisfying cup of Dammann Frères tea, so I doubt it. I will try to brew this one stronger and see if it can’t leave more of an impression.