Adventageddon Day 3 – Tea 3/4
This was my favourite tea today, though the name infuriates me a little bit. I mean, why on earth would you call this a pouchong? It just sets up this weird expectation for the blend to be an oolong when it’s actually a very lovely black tea. Rose Keemun sounds just as lovely as pouchong. Like… just make it make sense.
But aside from that the rose in this tea is really, really good. Very fragrant and fresh with an inherent sweetness that plays nicely with the more woody, cocoa-like, and ever so slightly smokey black tea. Mind you I’m a sucker for a good rose blend, but this was really well executed. Not perfumey and gross at all.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0aC3COOTwI/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2modzA5VxE
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I have asked A Southern Season, Fortnum and Mason, and the Rare Tea Company if they have any idea why rose scented Chinese black tea gets the moniker Pouchong and no one could come up with an answer. Fortnum even contacted their source warehouse who also didn’t know why.
I’m not sure why it gets this name either. Pouchong is another name for baozhong, which supposedly means “wrapped kind,” as the tea was traditionally wrapped in paper before being roasted (or alternatively, before being sold, depending on your source, as modern Taiwanese BZ oolong isn’t usually a roasted tea). I’ve seen baozhong used to refer to any strip-style tea, whether oolong or not. I guess any strip-style tea could technically be called pouchong. Still, it’s confusing for customers, and I’d also wrongly assume this tea was an oolong.
I did ask them if possibly this tea is wrapped for the scenting process and they didn’t know. Maybe the mystery will be solved one day!
I obviously have too much time on my hands, so I did a bit more research. Pouchong originated in Fujian, China (or according to one old tea book I found online, in Canton, wherever that is now). It was categorized among several kinds of scented tea. The book describes it as “a bold, rough-looking leaf, dull black in color and peculiar in scent, the latter being imparted to it by the admixture of the seeds of the Chulan flower” (also don’t know what this is). A quick Google search also reveals scented pouchongs/baozhongs made with green tea. Taiwan adopted this wrapped style of tea in the 1880s and it must have gradually become the oolong we know as baozhong without completely negating the original meaning of the term.
As that old tea book suggests, it’s also possible that souchong (a grade of large leaf) got muddled in with all this and created even more confusion.
Has anyone seen an unscented BZ that’s not an oolong?
The only BZ I have that is unscented is Wen Shan and it is an oolong. Maybe there are some out there, though!
Great research! Thank you for sharing that!
I had the shortest layover at Heathrow airport earlier this year and I’m so bummed that in my frantic stop at the F&M shop I didn’t think to grab a tin of this.
I absolutely adored this one – everything about it was perfect. I typically drink Bird & Blend’s rose-scented Belle’s Breakfast but I may buy the Fortnum’s in future as well. I only had the one bag to try so want to do a side-by-side comparison some day!
I have asked A Southern Season, Fortnum and Mason, and the Rare Tea Company if they have any idea why rose scented Chinese black tea gets the moniker Pouchong and no one could come up with an answer. Fortnum even contacted their source warehouse who also didn’t know why.
I’m not sure why it gets this name either. Pouchong is another name for baozhong, which supposedly means “wrapped kind,” as the tea was traditionally wrapped in paper before being roasted (or alternatively, before being sold, depending on your source, as modern Taiwanese BZ oolong isn’t usually a roasted tea). I’ve seen baozhong used to refer to any strip-style tea, whether oolong or not. I guess any strip-style tea could technically be called pouchong. Still, it’s confusing for customers, and I’d also wrongly assume this tea was an oolong.
I did ask them if possibly this tea is wrapped for the scenting process and they didn’t know. Maybe the mystery will be solved one day!
I obviously have too much time on my hands, so I did a bit more research. Pouchong originated in Fujian, China (or according to one old tea book I found online, in Canton, wherever that is now). It was categorized among several kinds of scented tea. The book describes it as “a bold, rough-looking leaf, dull black in color and peculiar in scent, the latter being imparted to it by the admixture of the seeds of the Chulan flower” (also don’t know what this is). A quick Google search also reveals scented pouchongs/baozhongs made with green tea. Taiwan adopted this wrapped style of tea in the 1880s and it must have gradually become the oolong we know as baozhong without completely negating the original meaning of the term.
As that old tea book suggests, it’s also possible that souchong (a grade of large leaf) got muddled in with all this and created even more confusion.
Has anyone seen an unscented BZ that’s not an oolong?
The only BZ I have that is unscented is Wen Shan and it is an oolong. Maybe there are some out there, though!
Great research! Thank you for sharing that!
I had the shortest layover at Heathrow airport earlier this year and I’m so bummed that in my frantic stop at the F&M shop I didn’t think to grab a tin of this.
I absolutely adored this one – everything about it was perfect. I typically drink Bird & Blend’s rose-scented Belle’s Breakfast but I may buy the Fortnum’s in future as well. I only had the one bag to try so want to do a side-by-side comparison some day!