Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Arum Tea
Tea Description:
Very Smooth. Light golden hue with a fruity and floral fragrance. As the tea develops, the initial earthy flavors transforms into a lingering finish of herbs and flowers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I wanted to try this Light Oolong tea not too long after trying the Medium Oolong Tea from Arum Tea to see if I could describe some of the differences between the two teas.
The appearance of both teas in dry leaf form are very similar. They look very much the way a greener Oolong tea looks (think Tie Guan Yin) with the leaves tightly wound into small pellets. The aroma of the dry leaf of this tea is sweet and fruity, with fragrant floral notes. The brewed tea smells more floral than fruity while the dry leaf smells more fruity than floral. In contrast, the dry leaf aroma of the Medium Oolong tea is nutty and sweet with a slight earthiness.
Parameters: I steeped this tea using my gaiwan as the brewing vessel. I put one bamboo scoop of tea into the bottom of my gaiwan and then poured 180°F water over the leaves – just enough to cover the leaves. I let that steep for 15 seconds and then drained off the liquid and discarded it. (The rinse cycle!) Then I refilled the gaiwan with water (same temperature) and let the leaves steep for 45 seconds. I strained the tea into my teacup and resteeped the leaves for 1 minute. Then I added the newly brewed tea to the teacup with the first infusion. I combine 2 infusions with each cup, and I infused these leaves a total of 8 times for four cups of delicious tea.
The brewed tea here is lighter in color than the Medium Oolong. This cup is a very pale golden yellow, and the flavor is lighter too.
The first few sips were very delicate, but after two or three sips, the flavors began to develop. As the above description suggests, those initial two or three sips were light and earthy. Now, I’m tasting more of an herbaceous floral note and this flavor stays on the palate long after the sip. For as light in color as this tea is and as light in flavor as the first couple of sips were, I was really taken by surprise by just how flavorful this tea has become.
This tea is quite smooth but not so much buttery or creamy like you might expect a greener Oolong like this to be, however, as the tea cools slightly, I find that some creamy taste and texture develops. The floral notes are profound. There is a very distant background note of earth, and equally as distant is a fruity tone. These flavors are off in the distance as if to beckon to the palate, saying, hey! Keep on steeping so you can experience us!
My second cup (infusions 3 and 4) was stronger in color and flavor. The floral notes of the first cup are still present but they’re not quite as sharp as they were toward mid-cup of the first cup. Smooth and sweet! The fruity notes are making their way out of the distance. I find that the flavors here taste less focused and distinct, although the overall flavor is stronger, the notes have become more unified.
Later infusions became smoother tasting. I found the third cup (infusions 5 and 6) to be the strongest in flavor. The flavors at this point are really quite seamless. The individual flavors are less focused than they were in the first cup, but the flavor is richer with this cup. The fourth cup started to become softer in flavor, reminding me a bit of the first cup, although with the fourth cup I could taste more of the fruit and earth notes that were mere insinuations in that cup.
As I promised, I offer the following comparison between the Medium and Light Oolong teas from Arum Tea: while the Medium Oolong has more of a honey and nutty flavor, the Light Oolong is flowery with notes of fruit. There are certainly some similarities to the two teas, but they are two very distinctly different teas, and I think that both deserve to be experienced by those that want to experience Oolong teas from Indonesia!
