Osmanthus Laoshan Oolong

I bought a sample of this in the quest to taste osmanthus for the first time.

Gone gaiwan. 5g, 150mL, 205F, flash rinse, 5/10/20/30/40/60/90s.

Autumn 2017 harvest. The dry leaf smelled strongly of – this is just my association, I kept trying to think of better descriptors because it was lacking the preservative/coloring smell – cherry cough syrup, dark chocolate and faint baby powder. Warmed and rinsed leaf scents were similar, dominated by dark chocolate, followed by cherry cough syrup and mandarin orange with floral here and there. So very fragrant.

The tea remained somewhat unchanging in taste and lacked a gravitas. It wasn’t a flavor-bomb and created a sense of being-light bodied even though the mouthfeel told another story. The cherry cough syrup of the leaf turned into something more like a medicinal? cherry candy. Now that I think about it, combined with the dark chocolate, it tasted similar to a kind of candy I’ve had before but so much lighter. There were also notes of wood, minerals and metal. In the second steep, an intensely warming and pure cinnamon came in, said goodbye. There was a separate cypress cooling sensation that arrived midway and joined with the cinnamon appearing again at the end, tasting like camphor and persisting in its warming/cooling effect. I can an hour later still feel it in my ears. It feels like medicine.

Despite the liquor being light in taste, it was rather thick and oily in body. It was also lightly astringent, and like the Laoshan gongfu black I had recently, I was salivating furiously.
Combined with the oily texture and the taste of minerals, this all created a sense of palate cleansing, diminishing the astringent effect. Weird. Bottom of the cup scent was honey, dark chocolate and again with that cherry which all faded as the steeps progressed. In terms of energy, it seems to have for me a tolerable amount of caffeine. I became verrry relaxed and meditative.

At first this tea was off-putting due to the leaf aroma, and I sat skeptical the whole session. But you know what, it’s growing on me as I type this. It comes across as both refined and not. I find it very intriguing. I might be perplexed. It’s definitely not a daily drinker but I would like to have some on hand and also give western style brewing a try. Gonna leave it unrated.

I’m still left wondering what osmanthus tastes like. I should buy just the flowers.

An interesting experimental batch from Verdant. This is their laoshan roasted oolong blended with osmanthus flowers. I’ve loved the osmanthus scented Taiwanese oolongs I’ve tried so far, but those were green oolongs. This blend is quite different from those floral-focused teas. It’s darker, more savory and the osmanthus plays a supporting role rather than a leading one.

I brewed this grandpa style. The tea appearance is black curled leaves interspersed with orange flecks of osmanthus. Upon sniffing, all sorts of interesting aromas pop out. I detect incense, eucalyptus, spice, and dark soy sauce. The taste is more akin to a laoshan black. There’s the signature chocolate note along with malt, osmanthus, and a hint of orange zest in the finish. As it continues steeping, the flavors begin to round out. The sweetness and osmanthus flavor grow stronger. Mouthfeel becomes soft and a tad oily. A hint of cinnamon spice dances in the background.

Though I enjoyed this tea, it wasn’t a favorite. The roasted notes of the laoshan oolong didn’t really play well with the osmanthus. I think a green or light roasted oolong would complement osmanthus flowers better.

Interesting. 10 grams to contemplate, and I liked this one greatly but did not love it.

So it had the awesome qualities that we look for on here: it was an oolong, but it was roasty and chocolaty as any of the blacks we all love, so it was smooth and floral. But the addition of the roasted osmanthus adds another weird dimension of EXTRA buttery florals and roast like….popcorn and cherries. Yes, popcorn and cherries. More specifically, kettle corn popcorn with some florals and a hint of cherry sweetness. And then it provides me an image of a calligraphic painting of a deep black cherry wood tree with red blossoms amidst sunny orange and intense white background.

So it should be an amazing tea if it makes me have a wild image, right? Well, I am not sure I would buy it again and again. This is worth it for a small sample, the novelty, and waking up in an intense cold Michigan winter that you don’t want to wake up from, but that’s where it belongs and what I like it for. As for those of you who get this, know what it is before you get it because it really is a unique tea.