Laoshan Roasted Oolong

So I’ve been looking forward to this tea since I read about it on Verdant’s website. It sounded so good that I almost got a full ounce of this, but managed to contain myself (just in case) and just get two samples of it. I’ve been wanting to make this tea for awhile, but found that I didn’t have enough time to be able to fully appreciate all of the steepings I was bound to get from this, so I kept putting it off. Finally I decided to go for it since I have a late shift for work the next day so I could possibly stay up late if necessary to drink through this. Lol. Originally I was going to use my new gaiwan for it, but Verdant had western style brewing suggestions on the site and I felt kinda lazy.

I used the one tablespoon per cup recommendation (that’s alot of tea, yeesh), which was exactly what I had in my sample packet. Into my ingenutea it went, followed by 205* water. Then to sit and wait. The following steeping opinions I wrote as I made them over the course of a couple hours. (Yes, I was a slow tea drinker tonight.)

1st steep – 205* / 3min – I can understand the wheat bread descriptions since that’s what I first thought when I opened the sample packet. Kind’ve a grain-y, roasty smell. The steeped leaves have the same smell. For the brew, the same roasty flavor, but this is bordering on more of a burnt flavor. Actually I can’t really get past this to find any other flavors. The burnt taste really overpowers everything else for me, which makes me kinda sad. But hopefully it’ll get better in the second steeping.

2nd steep – 205* / 4.5min – Still roasty, but the burnt flavor has died down quite a bit. Don’t get much more than that roasty flavor still.

3rd steep – 205* / 6min – The roasty flavor is gone mostly, not in your face, but kinda chilling in the background. I’m not quite sure what to think of this third brew really. It’s sweet by itself, but I can’t really associate any particular flavor or impression to it. It’s not a weak tea flavored water. It’s more than that but I can’t figure out what. It’s very frustrating actually.
Originally I had done this for 5.5min, but found it watery and dumped it back in the leaves for a bit longer steep, which came out much better tasting, all things considering.

4th steep – 205* / 8min – So I think this is the last steep I can get from this. I probly should’ve stopped at the 3rd, but I couldn’t resist at least trying. After all, it’s only water I’d be using, not like money or my bottled fairies (kudos if you get the reference). This brew is just slightly roasty in an oolong-ish sort of way, but mostly just watery and getting unpleasantly astringent. I actually might just pour this one out since it’s definitely not appealing to drink at this point. If it weren’t so late I might try just dumping the brew back into the leaves and letting it sit awhile longer. But alas, I have to have a cutoff sometime and quarter past 1 in the morning seems as good of one as any. Lol.

My impressions overall are that I don’t think this one is for me just yet. I’ve decided not to leave a rating on this one since I think my dissatisfaction with this tea might be more my own taste than the tea itself, especially since there’s so many other people here that it’s such a big hit with. Normally I’d probly have rated this a 48 or 49 on my own opinion scale (which is at the higher end of my ‘good to try, won’t reorder’ area), but I feel it’d be unfair to potentially bring the rating down because my taste buds are uncooperative. Lol.

I might try my second sample packet later on down the line to see if I can find the nuances of this better. Or I might just try this with cooler, more oolong temperate water and see if that helps. We’ll see, but for now, this isn’t going on my reorder list.

I got this sample from Nichole (thanks!)

I love trying new oolongs and I haven’t had many roasted ones before. This one is rich and full – slightly bitter and sour, like a good beer, but better, if that makes sense. I like it.

This one has been sitting around while I focus on my beloved green oolongs – just figured I should try this one at some point. So, I love Laoshan black, but black teas make me shaky (disproportionately to their actual caffeine level – bit of a mystery). So I feel very lucky that this oolong so strongly resembles it! My feeling on it is that if I could drink the black, I would prefer it for its boldness. This is lighter tasting and will an added fruitiness I don’t detect in the black. I’m surprised how much this roasted-oolong avoider really enjoys this. It reminds me of the first time I tasted hojicha and was comforted by its toasted green notes.

Thanks to Fuzzy_Peachkin for the baggie and Nicole for the sample.

I haven’t tried too many oolongs yet, and this was same-same, yet different from other teas I have tried. I’m trying to imagine that this tea might be good paired with roasted or boiled peanuts.

Enjoyed this throughout the day today. Nice and malty, with some stone fruit and chocolate notes. Just a bit roasty, with the roasted flavor complimenting the natural sweetness nicely.

Thank you Derk :D

Autumn 2017 version:
If you like black tea but don’t like oolong, this is the oolong for you. :) I like both and so I enjoyed this interesting roasted oolong that had characteristics of both black tea and oolong. Throughout the infusions, it was never bitter nor astringent. I got sweet potatoes, malt, brown sugar, honey, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg), some cocoa. There is some fruit and also a slight floral background with minerality. Earlier infusions were similar to a good black tea, the malt, the breadiness, the cocoa, and sweet potatoes… As I progressed, the spices, a little citrus, and mineral notes stepped forward. Good stuff. :)

Porcelain gaiwan, 5g, 205°F, 110ml, rinse, 8 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s

I think this was my first Tea of the new year 2019…I’m not sure, it was in a tin marked with just “LRO” i don’t know why i do things like that lol.
I’m quite sure it was this Tea tho I’m not sure what year or season tho ive had most of them, oh well.
It tasted very similar to loashan black but with Oolong character.
Dark sweet and delicious, with some rocky mineral note, tastes higher oxidized really rather than just dark roasted.
Oolong is my go to tea on a rainy day and this old tea was lovely tea to start off a Rainy New Year :)
Happy New Year Folks!!!

This sample had been sitting in my tea drawer for nearly a year, waiting for me to notice it. Finally I got tired of it staring at me and decided to give it a try. Being familiar with Laoshan teas in general, I had a sense of what this tea was going to taste like and for the most part I was right. Dark laoshan teas consistently have a chocolate flavor profile while all laoshan greens have the signature soybean-vegetal taste.

Out of the pouch, the dry leaves smelled of wildflower honey and cocoa. A sweet potato pie aroma wafted out after steeping for a few minutes in the tumbler. The tea began with brown sugar and honey and then as it cooled, the familiar cocoa notes of Laoshan Black appear. In fact that’s exactly what it tasted like with perhaps a tad more sweetness.

A good tea for sure, but there’s also a feeling of been there done that if you’ve had Laoshan Black before.

Short review:

Got this in a sample pack, wish I went for more. This tastes almost just like the laoshan black, but without the harshness or acidity. Just saw now that someone else wrote that it’s the ‘laid back little sister of laoshan black’ and I couldn’t agree more. Definitely prefer this over the black version of it

067/365

Another from the Dark Matter group buy. I’ve tried Laoshan black once, maybe twice, before…but it was a long time ago and I don’t really remember much about it. For an oolong, though, this reminds me quite a lot of a black. It’s chocolatey, sweet, and most unlike an oolong – I say that because I don’t really like roasted oolong all that much, but I do like this. There aren’t any of those odd burnt-metallic/brasso notes that I associate so much with this type. This is one roasted oolong I’d consider keeping around, and that’s a rare thing for me to say.