Thursday, May 14, 2009

Tea Quiz and Lapsang Souchong

So I have this book at home that has a Tea Quiz in it for you to determine what type of tea "suits" you best :P I figured it might be fun to share:

1. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
a) Vanilla
b) Mint Chocolate Chip
c) Banana split with chocolate syrup, nuts, and cherries

2. What is your favorite dining experience?
a) Four-star restaurant
b) Fast-food
c) Backyard bbq

3. What is your favorite type of food?
a) Light salad and broiled salmon
b) Burgers and dogs
c) Spicy ethnic dishes

4. You have an unexpected day off from work. Would you be more likely to:
a) Visit a museum
b) Spend a day at the beach
c) Ride the roller coaster at an amusement park

5. Which beverage do you prefer to drink?
a) Wine
b) Beer
c) Coffee

Here's what the results say:

If most of your answers fell into the A category, you will probably enjoy a more sophisticated, refined tea, such as: jasmine pearl green tea, white tea, pu-erh tea

B, a heartier tea such as: Earl grey, black teas in general, roasted oolong tea

C, spicier, fun, more full bodied tea such as: Lapsang Souchong, Spicy Chai Black Teas, Fruit Flavored Teas

But of course, that doesn't mean that you don't like a mixture of all those teas :P

Now this leads me to my first tea review - Lapsang Souchong

It is a black tea, which means that its leaves have been oxidized longer than green, oolong or white teas (white being the least oxidized). It is from the Wuyi region, in the Fujian province of China. I had been curious about this tea for a while after reading about it in the aforementioned book. The problem is that I had only seen it in large containers and didn't want to buy one until I had tasted it. I didn't know much else about the tea other than that it existed and was "full bodied".

Last year, I went to visit Linda in Toronto and at Au Bon Pain, they happened to have it on their menu. So I tried it.
This was probably the WORST tea i've ever tried. It smells like smoked fish and tastes like you're drinking pureed smoked fish. I like smoked fish, but in its actual solid form. Wiki says Lapsang is distinctive from all other types of tea because lapsang leaves are traditionally smoke-dried over pinewood fires, taking on a distinctive smoky flavour

So there you have it. If you like drinking smoked fish, you will probably enjoy this tea. For me, it was a rather nasty experience and I drank it as quickly as possible so as to be done with it and never drink it again.

I give Lapsang Souchong
out of 5

4 comments:

Vegenaut said...

I find it rather ironic that there is no "Tea" answer option for question 5.
The quiz overall has a distinctly Canadian flavor.
Associating beer with Earl Gray! Blasphemous, just not sure towards which one...

p.w. said...

weird. i usually like the 'refined' teas, like jasmine green tea and pu-erh. but according to the quiz, i should enjoy the 'full bodied' teas...

p.w. said...

by the way, i like your rating system.

njosnavelin said...

yeah, i agree with you. I consider myself more of a category A tea drinker. ah well :P
Glad you like the system :P