168 Tasting Notes
Lung Ching is another of our flights this weekend and is an early spring tea and is the standard to which all other green teas are measured. It emotes aromas of steamed bok choy and toasted walnuts. It pours a very smooth cup with little dryness. The cup has a delicious meatiness of roasted eggplant, with similar steamed bok choy and toasted walnut flavors as in the aromas. A sweetness of spring clover sneaks through to the top!
Preparation
One of our flights of tea this weekend, it wafts aromas of honey and sweet floral notes of violets, with a vegetal undertone of wet hay and steamed green beans. Unfortunately the taste isn’t as sweet, being overpowered by the vegetal beans.
Preparation
Risheehat is a medium bodied tea; brisker than most Chinese teas, filling the mouth with sensation, but not offputtingly puckery like many other Darjeelings. It is a lively tea, with suggestions of bright fruit flavors like pineapple and grapefruit. In Japan, First Flush Darjeelings are offered to colleagues as tokens of respect, very cool!
Preparation
A blend of cooked stone fruits such as baked apriots, and the dry but slight sugariness of semisweet chocolate. It has a mellow, nutty finish of raw pecans. For a tea developed less than two decades ago, it’s developed a very large following, with good reason!
Preparation
YES YES YES YES YES!!!!! All lovers of black teas are encouraged to try Golden Monkey, especially from a trusted source like Harney & Sons (they didn’t pay me to say that, I swear). Golden Monkey is a wonderful “gateway” tea to the shape-shifting flavors of well-made China Congou teas.
A nice basic Oolong. Nutty with subtle vegetal notes.
Preparation
Is your version a heavily fermented or a lightly fermented oolong?
Hey Jillian! Tea actually isn’t normally fermented, the only fermented teas are Pu-erhs. Most teas are oxidized. Our Formosa Oolong is oxidized approximately 45%-60%, a bit more than most of our other brown oolongs. If it’s too oxidized for you I’d recommend checking out our Da Hong Pao or fruitier Fenghuang Shuixian!
Yeah, oxidized was what I meant to say, sorry.
I’m not very familiar with the different types of oolongs so lately I’ve been experimenting with trying different types. This was one of the ones I’ve been eyeing actually – maybe on my next H&S order. ;)
