Summer Vacation! Today is my last day of doing Chinese teas on my Summer Vacation monthly theme, and starting tomorrow I’ll be moving onto another country… Japan! I still have quite a stockpile of things I’ve bought from Yunomi and have yet to try, and I’m also a big fan of the flavored blends from Japanese company Lupicia so a few of those may make an appearance. I still have yet to try some of the teas my BFF from San Jose brought me back for my birthday when he went to Japan last March, which I really need to rectify…
Tonight, though, I have brewed up a Chinese oolong which I was craving… I think the migraine I’ve had all day had something to do with it. I forget what this stuff is called from other places, but it’s a green oolong from Fujian where the leaf is sprinkled with ginseng and licorice root before its folded into the tiny pellets. Normally I hate ginseng so I originally tried this with a sampler from a site that sources from TeaSource, and oddly enough, fell in love with it, because it didn’t have that strong medicinal taste that I had experienced before from ginseng tea. The oolong base and sweet licorice just balance it the right way. I knew I had to add it to my collection after that.
The smell of this tea really soothes me, though I think I’d have a hard time trying to describe the aroma properly. It comes off very sweet, silky, with a slightly minty/mineral quality, and the oolong base has that roasted/nutty quality, and when they all come together it has almost this dessert-like quality to the warm aroma. The flavor of the tea has that roasted nuts taste of a Se Chung, but it is followed by this really sweet aftertaste, so the final impression comes off like honey-roasted nuts. And there is just something quite soothing and settling about it. Despite having ginseng and licorice root, neither effect the flavor in a significant way; I don’t like the taste of ginseng and don’t notice it, and I love licorice root (yes, I’m one of those rare people) and don’t notice it, either; there is a natural sweetness to the tea, but it isn’t even the sort of heady “sticky sweetness” you normally taste with licorice root, but a soft, smooth, rather subdued sweetness.
I’m rather liking honey-roasted nuts in a cup. Especially when my head feels like butt.
Flavors: Honey, Mineral, Nutty, Roasted, Roasted Nuts, Smooth, Sweet
