Laoshan Roasted Oolong

So far I have had this tea grandpa style and gongfu, and it’s wonderful both ways.

The aroma is enticing: raisins, brown sugar, brown toast, cocoa.

The brew is also lovely, and reflects the aroma well. There’s raisins, brown sugar, cocoa, and toast. There’s also a bit of spice like cinnamon. The mouthfeel is thick, warm, and borderline creamy.

I can see all of the tasting notes being correct for this tea. Honey and barley. Someone in my office did mention that this tea tasted like pumpkin spice. The brightness could be orange. Bittersweet is also a good adjective for it. This tea is complex and oh so tasty.

I think I want to move to the Laoshan region, please.

Delicious bready malty tea. Doesn’t taste quite as raisiny as Mountain Tea’s Black Pearl, but they still seem much in the same vein. I also appreciate that this tea is tightly rolled, it makes it so much easier to measure.

I didn’t follow the directions at all, as I can never taste anything after a 30 second steep. Did 3 minutes and it turned out lovely.

As of today, I’m still mowing down the oolongs. After a solid week of 24/7 on-call duty with my local crisis response team, I was in desperate need of something to help me wake up this morning. I wasn’t feeling black tea, so I decided to stay the course and keep plowing through my reserve of oolongs. Today, this Laoshan Roasted Oolong got the nod.

This tea is from the May 2015 picking and was first released last Autumn. I purchased this one in either April or May, but only started drinking it in late July. I prepared this tea gongfu style, but kind of went against Verdant Tea’s suggestions. Following a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of this tea in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 10 seconds. I followed this up with 12 additional infusions with an increase of 2 seconds per infusion. So, steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 seconds.

The aroma of the infused brew was absolutely lovely. I detected rich, robust aromas of chocolate, black cherry, vanilla bean, cream, oatmeal, and rye toast. In the mouth, the first 3 infusions presented a lovely mixture of brown sugar, sweet potato, black cherry, candied orange peel, vanilla bean, cream, oatmeal, chocolate, toasted bran, and rye toast notes. The next 4-5 infusions were milder in aroma, offering somewhat delicate scents of chocolate, cherry, cream, oatmeal, and vanilla with a slight mineral tinge. In the mouth, I noticed that all of the flavors remained intact, but were milder, smoother, and more balanced. A slight mineral flavor had also started to emerge. Through the remainder of infusions, the aromas and flavors continued to grow milder as the tea faded. The mineral aromas and flavors started to become more dominant, though I noticed that traces of candied orange peel, black cherry, sweet potato, vanilla bean, rye toast, and chocolate were still detectable when I really focused my attention on the sensations I was experiencing.

I’m seriously impressed with this roasted oolong. So far, I have yet to be disappointed by Verdant’s Laoshan offerings. Compared to the almost equally excellent Laoshan Green Oolong offered by Verdant, this tea is stronger and more complex, and if monitored rather closely, can really hold its own in a longer session. As far as roasted oolongs go, it is also very approachable, as it lacks the overly strong roasted character that can be so off-putting for some people and it does not shock the nose or palate with turbulent combinations of aromas and flavors. All in all, I think this tea could please the oolong neophyte and the serious, experienced oolong drinker equally. I recommend it very highly and without reservation to anyone looking for a consistent and enjoyable oolong.

This tea is a dark oolong that is deep amber in color with a toasted rye bread aroma. It tastes like a mix of rye toast and cocoa.

Sipdown(1)? I’ve never done one of those before but this seems an appropriate tea to start on. Sorta. Anyway okay so this one’s been really strange for me, it’s probably the only tea I’ve ever had that I liked better western style than gongfu, and I don’t really know why.. But .. Well anyways,

2015 autumn harvest.. I think?

It’s very strongly cocoa for me, and lots of oats, maybe a little vanilla , hints of floral but very subtle ones. It’s quite astringent as well, gets a hint of citrus notes later, when the florality gets a little bit stronger, it still does have the darkness to it, with a bit of wet earthy notes, it has a nice thick, slightly creamy mouthfeel. It’s kind of reminiscent of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, except if you used dark chocolate chips in it instead. But in later steeps, the astringency becomes so strong and the nice cocoa and vanilla notes are basically gone after like 5 steeps? It’s still sweet and oaty but that’s pretty much it, I don’t really see the reason for all the hype around this one, like it’s pretty decent but it’s not amazing for me.

November 2015 Harvest

5g in 100ml porcelain teapot, gongfu style.

Dry leaf smells rather light. Can’t detect much aroma at all. That is, until I throw them into a prewarmed teapot and WOW is this tea leaf or warm cherries dipped in chocolate? This is before I even add water, by the way.

Verdant says this has notes of chocolate, cherry, sandalwood and vanilla. These flavours absolutely spot on.

A huge reason I bought this is because cherry is listed as one of the main notes. I haven’t had access to something like that since Cocoa Amore by Whispering Pines (will that ever come back?)

Laoshan Roasted Oolong is my Cocoa Amore replacement. And at a much better price point too.

Recommend recommend!! I may even buy a yixing pot just for this.

From Dark Matter 2016. I used all 5.5g I got in a 100mL gaiwan with 190 degree water. I did a brief rinse followed by steeps of 10s, 10s, 12s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 60s, 90s.

The dry leaves smelled like dark chocolate to me, with a bit of an added malty note once rinsed. The first two steeps were chocolatey with a bit of a toasted bread note probably from the roast. I think that might be where some people tasted sweet potato. On the third and fourth steeps, the texture thickened up nicely and it tasted like I was drinking creamy hot cocoa with a bit of a malty note in there as well. The flavor stayed in my mouth well after each sip starting from those steeps. As the flavors muted in the final steeps, it took on a bit of an earthy feel to it, with some sweetness but not the overt chocolate notes I had earlier. This was a good tea, and probably not one I would have tried without Dark Matter, as some of Verdant’s prices are a bit steep for me.

Note: I had started drinking this after my 8-9 cups of 2005 CNNP Aged Ripe. Therefore, I was a little tea drunk from the morning session.

Anyway, I had about 5 steeps from the sample via Dark Matter 2016. I must say that overall these teas have been pleasing. This one was especially great. Then again, I’ve liked a majority of the teas that I’ve tried from Verdant thus far.

My notes during the session:

First steep: 5s—Nutty, chocolaty, sweet roasted oolong flavors. The mouthfeel is nice. The flavors remain in the mouth for a while after the first cup. I think this’d be a great substitute for chocolate, that is, when I desperately need “the fix.” Unfortunately, this is a small amount of tea, but would definitely considering buying more.

Second steep: 15s—Less chocolate, more oolong notes. The roasted oolong flavor really comes out in this cup. Reminds me of a Taiwanese oolong a friend had given me a few months ago. Really has that nutty quality to it. I’m picking up a hint of squash(?) or raw pumpkin(?) in the tea. Still very sweet.

Third steep: My wife, who by all means is solely a coffee drinker, is wanting a cup. Her thoughts are, “A bit astringent . A bit grassy, yes? A bit woody? Somehow sweet. Nothing much here—kind of light.” However, I asked her whether or not she had tasted the nutty/chocolate notes. She had given it thought, and considered that “it did.”

I was pretty tea drunk this morning, though; therefore, my notes are a scattered mess. I did write in caps, “THIS IS TEA, RIGHT? MARIA THINKS THAT I’VE REALLY STARTING DRINKING….” I recommend this tea. The one downfall to it is that is doesn’t last too long. I had a total of 6 steeps before the flavor dispersed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFHFTTOA-4W/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFHGtZGg-9C/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFHI2Vzg-0p/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1 (Tea Drunk)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFHoxH7g-3B/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

From 2015 Dark Matter group buy:

I finally get to try one of these dark matter teas! I’ve been rather busy so I’ve been trying to sip down some of my older teas and sample packs rather than to rush through these and forget what I’ve tasted. I chose this one since unless it wowed me it doesn’t really sound Ike something that I would be interested in and I wasnt quite able to give in 100% attention anyway with making dinner and whatnot.

I was expecting something like a darker TGY but the leaves were in small smooth compact irregular balls with a ruddy dark chocolate color. It definitely smells toasty like hojicha or roasted barley tea. The tea unfurls into very nice whole leaves a only slightly lighter chocolate color than the dried.

I brewed this for 3 steps western style. Just under boiling water with about 1.5-3 min infusions. The first one was mostly toasty. Like pure toast, with an edge to it that almost suggested burnt or charcoal. It wasn’t bad but I started to question if there would be much of a taste difference if any plant matter was so thoroughly toasted. Later steeps still had a lot of toast but actually had some identifiable tea flavor although it was more like a malty black tea than a green oolong flavor.

I think this tea would probably benefit from some shorter steeps to tease some other flavor out from the toast. I’ll probably brew the remainder of the sample in a gaiwan and do so at a time I can pay more attention to it. As is though it’s pleasant enough to drink but not something I would ever buy for myself.

I’ve only had a couple of roasted Oolongs before. Maybe the ones I’ve had were poor quality, even though one I had was supposedly good. They mostly tasted like tire fire or burnt rotting wood to me. Not that there’s not a place for that, like having a tea to satisfy an immersion in self contempt, or an occasional anomalous craving, but certainly far from my favorites. This tea… Yeah. This one is delicious.

The first steeps were all intense dark chocolate. The smell, the flavor, everything. I pick up a lot of chocolate in most Keemun, and some ripe Puerh but this is uncanny. If someone blindfolded me and told me that I was drinking hot chocolate made with water instead of milk, I would believe them!

As the steeps went on, the bitter dark chocolate (a very good thing) started to sweeten up. The chocolate was still undeniably present but milder than at first. All of the flavors really lingered a long time, chocolate and sweetness going on forever. The tea started picking up some sweet potato skin flavor. The body, smooth, and creamy.

This beauty was still going, the sweet potato flavor was now in full tuber mode, meaty interior, skin and all. And what better to accompany sweet potato than with marshmallow. Favors of marshmallow roasted over a campfire were now present and picking up with every infusion, as was the sweetness already present in earlier steeps.

The main flavors were now a ghost of their former selves, but the sweetness still held on. The whole time through, the tea was never overly tannic, the dryness being somewhere along the lines of a gentle Keemun, rather than a green Oolong, or a typical black. And I had brewed it up at a higher temperate range, 200 to 205F. Just to see what it’s like, I’ll go lower next time, 180-185. I have to thank LP for including this in the Dark Matter buy, I was pretty close to giving up on roasted Oolong. I could have kept this going for a few more rounds of hot water with lingering sweetness, but it’s time to stop watching Star Trek and get outside. Even if it is taking my taste-buds to strange new places, where I have never gone with a roasted Oolong before, it’s beautiful outside!

I used 2.7g of leaf in a 160ml Easy Gaiwan, a little less than half full, so about 60ml or 70ml. I steeped it at 200F to 205F. The infusions were flash steeps for the first 4 steeps, between 10 to 30 sec for the next 6, then a minute and up for the remaining 6 to 8, the last few being a few minutes each. (I didn’t do an exact count)