Fujian Rain

Tastes sort of like a light pu-erh, or over brewed bai mudan, maybe. Overall, I’m not impressed. I think green oolongs are more my thing.

This oolong has a nice mineral aftertaste just like the other rock oolongs I’ve had. I taste a little bit of the honey but the peach is very faint. It has an interesting grittiness that the other wuyi oolongs didn’t have, almost sandy. The roasted flavor is great and comes through strongly without being overpowering.

Fujiam Rain is one of the best Shui Xian Wuyi oolongs that I have had the pleasure of drinking. If one is poetic in their tasting notes fujian rain would be the perfect description of how it tastes assuming that rain would have a light and sweet taste to it. Just be careful about getting this tea too strong as it quickly goes downhill but brewed right it is a very nice light and sweet wuyi oolong with amazing reinfusability. When gaiwan brewed I have literally brewed easily 10 cups or more from a single set of leaves.

Nice, quite toasty, but with good clean oolong notes, some honey and good aftertaste.

Adagio CommuniTEA – April 17th, 2023

I haven’t historically been a huge fan of shui xian, it tends to be a bit too floral for my tastes.

However, this just tastes like a very generic Wuyi oolong, so I needn’t have worried. It has that trademark mineral flavor that makes me think of cliff teas (not unlike licking a cliff, LOL). And then there’s some toastiness and autumn leaves, along with a clear sweetness. The description mentions apricot and spice, but I definitely don’t taste any of that.

Not a bad tea, but completely lacking in personality. Very drinkable though.

Reminds me of Formosa Oolong.Love it.

This is one of my favorite morning teas. Very smooth with sweet mineral/earthy notes. Very relaxing.

Sample 9/19 – This is sooo good!! It reminds me a lot of the Verdant tea Laoshan Black. The dried leaves reminded me of fruit cake and panettone. It has some of the roasted/toasted rice smell and flavor of the genmacha i’ve tried. But, something about this tea is just 20 times better.

March Sipdown Madness

When I chose my teas for my sipdown bracket, the two conditions that I had were that I needed to have enough of the tea on hand that (if it won every round up until finals) I wouldn’t run out, and that I wanted teas that I would be okay with brewing Western style.

For that last reason, I almost didn’t include this tea because I do have such a strong preference for dark roasted oolongs brewed Gongfu. However, I’m glad I did include it because it’s also very nice steeped Western style. It’s heavily roasted with deep char, petrified wood, mineral, and buckwheat notes and a pleasant nuttiness – all of which eventually break and tease a slight floral undertone and finish accompanied by dark stonefruit/prune notes. It’s surprisingly complex and tasty, and very good quality IMO for its price point. It’s an excellent approachable dark roasted oolong suitable for a daily drinker…

That made choosing between this tea and Applevania, the one it was paired against, very hard for me because both of these oolongs are really nice for their cost and fit in that “daily drinker” style/mindset for me. I could really see myself making a cup of Applevania regardless of my mood, but with roasted teas I do think I have to be in a more specific mind space to want to make one.

That said… I chose this as the winner because, even though I don’t think I would want it whenever, my love of roasted profile teas is ultimately WAY stronger/higher than the more baked fruit profile of Applevania…

It was a TOUGH call though!

One of my old Adagio samples that I’m working on sipping down, now that I’ve finished all my old Tealyra stuff off. The leaves are very long, twisty, and dark, and smell almost chocolately in the bag. Brewed western, 2.8g in 350ml @ 205F for 3 min.

The tea smells like malt, honey, caramel, and strongly of roasted nuts. It has a pleasant roasted flavor; I’m getting notes of malt, toasted bread, roasted nuts (particularly a more earthy walnut flavor), honey, and a bittersweet cocoa that settles toward the end of the sip. There is a hint of a cherry note, as well, but it is subtle. There is some earthiness and minerality as well, but the tea is quite smooth. I’m really enjoying this one.