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Thanks Stacy for this tea sample

I’ve come to the realization that I am a person who loves the flavors associated with Autumn.
I love to oven roast Apples and Root Vegetables.
Caramelized Brussel Sprouts in garlic butter, tossed in seasoned bread crumbs.
Short ribs slow cooked in wheat beer (New Belgium) with caramelized onions, beef broth and buckwheat honey.
RIBS! My family has RIBS for our Christmas Feast!

Somewhere mixed up in all these thoughts of favorite foods and feasting I can see a preference for roasty flavors.

I evidently associate flavor and family. Well being with a log on the hearth, a cup of a warm beverage, and lots of cooking going on in the kitchen.
And noise. Lots of talking and noise. Scrabble games, Boggle and Football.

At this time a year ago, I was still mug deep in coffee living my one dimensional life. Every 4 months a box of coffee came from my coffee club in New Orleans and I was thrilled. I had 3 kinds of coffee. WOW! (This makes me laugh!)
I used to think of tea as a flowery drink, a sweet thing in a flowery cup. I had no idea how varied and complex tea was.

Now I know better and I’m learning that Oolongs are much more complex and varied than I assumed at first.

Lately I’ve discovered Roasty Oolongs like this one that I’ve been drinking today. Not just a little roasty either, but VERY ROASTY!

When I saw the dark color of the leaves, I knew I was in for a treat.
I had tasted another Oolong recently called Strong Fire that had a cinder taste and I liked it. I was hoping for a similar experience.

The liquor brewed to a clear Rootbeer color and had an amber honey scent.
The flavor was sweet and woody. It was clear that the leaves had been roasted many times because you could taste the roasting and a cinder flavor that was like ancient trees.
I imagined myself in a log cabin around a very small stove after a storm sipping on this tea. The scent of oak and cedar wood from the woodbox and me shuddering off the dampness. A pan of onions, potatoes and bacon sizzling on the stove.

The sweetness of this tea was extraordinary. There’s woody sweetness that you might get from chewing on sugar cane.
The sooty fire roasted flavor is what I loved the best.

So wild.

Thinking back, I remember melting some butter in a little of the previous Fire Oolong, making a sauce to drizzle over some yams.
Experimentation pays off. This Oolong would be good the same way.

If you like savory roasty flavors, this would be your kind of tea.
It’s not full of flowers or delicate nuance. This isn’t smoky either. Roasty.

Delicious!