Results tagged “Chinese” from The John Company

Adagio | China The story goes that the tea from the Wuyi area was delayed one year because of the passage of an army through the mountains. This greatly delayed the tea harvest and drying of the leaves. In order to meet the great and still growing demand for their tea, the tea producers speed up the drying process by roasting the tea over pine wood fires. This gave the tea an amazing smoky flavor.

I was very surprised by this tea. I had read the story, and another story on Adagio's site about Russian caravans picking up the smoky flavor along the way, but I wasn't expecting such a strong wonderful aroma. It smells like a wonderful campfire, a rich smokey smell with subtle spicy hints hidden inside. I would compare the smell of this tea strongly with the smell of cloves. While I was trying to pin down the familiar smell I went to my cupboard and picked up a jar of cloves and the smell was almost identical. If you were roasting cloves you would get an experience similar to the smell of this tea.

Lapsang Souchong is very dark in color and transparent. It has a subtle taste compared to how powerful the aroma. It is a very easy drinking tea with a wonderful after taste consistent with the taste of the tea. The after taste also has a very slow fade allowing each sip to slowly wind down prolonging the lifetime of a cup considerably.

As great as this tea is it is even better as it cools down. It seems to get even smoother as the heat flows out of it. At room temperature it is still good but I would put the idea temperature between 105 and 110 degrees.

Adagio | Chinese To start off this tea is very fragrant. It was very pleasing as I sat next to it waiting for the cup to cool. It has a yellow, orange color and is opaque. Maybe the orange color is why it is also called Orange Pekoe. I couldn't find an explanation for the origin of the 'orange' in Orange Pekoe so I will assume it is the color. This Green Pekoe is a very smooth drinking tea with a great texture. The aftertaste is stronger than the initial taste of the tea and fades really well. Some teas have the tendency to have a bitter after taste or seem a bit hollow. Not this tea, it is smooth and wonderful and the aftertaste might be better than the taste of the tea.

The leaves of this tea are long, thin and a little curly. I have always felt that tea leaves that hold together make better tea. I think it is the way they form a filter for the water not letting any tea-less pockets exist. This cooperation of tea leaves allows for strong but also smooth tea by also filtering out the tea particles that aren't held in suspension by the tea water. This tea did have a small amount of loose tea flecks in the last sip leading to a slightly bitter taste but only for the last sip. This is a tea I will come back to because of the overall smooth flavor and drinking experience.

Enjoy the color of the tea leaves. They take on a wonderful light green color accentuated by the end of the day's sunlight. Wonderful.