Looking a gift tea in the mouth
Dec. 20th, 2019 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ratbonesSo a little while back, a powdered donut with meme filling named sylleblahsome told me I was a "smol lovable doofus" and then bought me TEA for my birthday. (More accurately, they funded a purchase of tea.) (Yes it really went exactly that way.)
Picture the most confused rat. How did I friend, what happen, why nice to me? Why? Help? TTwTT
Anyway, after an hour of deep contemplation and emotional processing, I chucked three things in my cart, and now they are heeeere. And I've sampled one already. No, it's not my birthday yet. Fuck the police.
I picked out lapsang souchong, monk's blend (strong Indian black tea blend), and gui hua/osmanthus oolong. The latter two came recommended by sylleblahsome, as did the Guangzhou milk oolong, but that'll have to wait till next time. I expect to be pleased but not surprised by the monk's blend, and I'm always a ho for lapsang souchong, which probably reveals something unsavoury about my character, so I went for the osmanthus oolong for this post, as I've never had it before.
First impression, as it was brewing, was that it smelled great: floral in a deeper way than jasmine tea, borderline apricot-y without being fruity, if that makes any sense. It also smells...like a good, stronger oolong. The Tealyra website says it's a "green" oolong, but it really does not smell green to me; it's richer and tangier than that. The flavor lives up to the aroma, no surprises there. The tea-ness is in no way overpowered by the floral-ness, as you sometimes get with jasmine teas, and it's got a sweet, honeyish aftertaste that I really enjoyed. In terms of mouthfeel, it's super super smooth with basically zero astringency. It's easy drinking tea.
Also, as I would expect, it tolerates multiple steepings. It loses a bit of that rich base after the first round, but it's still got a lot going for it, and the third steep was about as strong as the second, so I probably could have stretched the leaves further still. I got to a point where I wasn't sure if I was still tasting the floral note or if it had just worked its way into my sinuses, but either way, I had a very pleasant time being pretentious with this tea, and I'm looking forward to doing it again.
I steeped and drank it outside for the photos. And because the weather is nice.
C'mon LEAF WATER
There are tiny little yellow osmanthus flowers floating at the top, but my phone camera can't quite handle them.
Prettyyyy.
BONUS: irrelevant cat
Thank you so much, esteemed conspiratorsylleblahsome! I love the tea and you are the bestest! ❤︎
sylleblahsome told me I was a "smol lovable doofus" and then bought me TEA for my birthday. (More accurately, they funded a purchase of tea.) (Yes it really went exactly that way.) Picture the most confused rat. How did I friend, what happen, why nice to me? Why? Help? TTwTT
Anyway, after an hour of deep contemplation and emotional processing, I chucked three things in my cart, and now they are heeeere. And I've sampled one already. No, it's not my birthday yet. Fuck the police.
I picked out lapsang souchong, monk's blend (strong Indian black tea blend), and gui hua/osmanthus oolong. The latter two came recommended by sylleblahsome, as did the Guangzhou milk oolong, but that'll have to wait till next time. I expect to be pleased but not surprised by the monk's blend, and I'm always a ho for lapsang souchong, which probably reveals something unsavoury about my character, so I went for the osmanthus oolong for this post, as I've never had it before.
First impression, as it was brewing, was that it smelled great: floral in a deeper way than jasmine tea, borderline apricot-y without being fruity, if that makes any sense. It also smells...like a good, stronger oolong. The Tealyra website says it's a "green" oolong, but it really does not smell green to me; it's richer and tangier than that. The flavor lives up to the aroma, no surprises there. The tea-ness is in no way overpowered by the floral-ness, as you sometimes get with jasmine teas, and it's got a sweet, honeyish aftertaste that I really enjoyed. In terms of mouthfeel, it's super super smooth with basically zero astringency. It's easy drinking tea.
Also, as I would expect, it tolerates multiple steepings. It loses a bit of that rich base after the first round, but it's still got a lot going for it, and the third steep was about as strong as the second, so I probably could have stretched the leaves further still. I got to a point where I wasn't sure if I was still tasting the floral note or if it had just worked its way into my sinuses, but either way, I had a very pleasant time being pretentious with this tea, and I'm looking forward to doing it again.
I steeped and drank it outside for the photos. And because the weather is nice.
C'mon LEAF WATER
There are tiny little yellow osmanthus flowers floating at the top, but my phone camera can't quite handle them.
Prettyyyy.
BONUS: irrelevant cat
Thank you so much, esteemed conspirator
sylleblahsome! I love the tea and you are the bestest! ❤︎
