Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Steenbergs Organic
Tea Description:
Milky Oolong loose leaf tea from Steenbergs is delicious, refreshing and quite sweet in flavour. This Oolong tea comes from China. Drink without milk.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
My first impression of this tea came with the opening of the package. The tea looked different from other Milk Oolong teas I’ve encountered. Usually, the leaves are all pretty uniform in size and shape, typically wound into a tight pellet. These leaves are less uniform, with some very tiny leaves, some pellets, and some leaves that appear to be in a twisted shape rather than a pellet shape. But the leaves are a pleasing, dark forest green color and possess a lovely fragrance that is floral and sweet, so I decided they definitely deserved to be tasted.
The flavor is delightful. It has a sweet, creamy flavor – quite what I’d expect from a Milk Oolong – but there’s more to it. It isn’t quite as creamy as some Milk Oolong teas I’ve come across. Whether this means that the leaves get their “Milky” status naturally or if they’ve been flavor enhanced, I don’t know, but, I believe it means that these is a naturally derived “Milky.”
It has a very pleasant floral note to the flavor, a little sharp and agreeably sweet. I like that while it is a sweet Oolong (I can’t recall ever tasting a Milk Oolong that wasn’t sweet), it isn’t overly so, and it isn’t saturating my palate with a creamy sweet taste. The flavor overall is quite light and smooth.
The earlier infusions tended to be creamier than the later infusions, and with each subsequent infusion, I notice a slight fruit note that begins to emerge. It’s a sour fruit – which seems to immediately evoke thoughts of sour apple. However, I don’t know that I would actually describe the note as a sour apple note. Whenever I think “sour fruit,” sour apple is what usually pops into my head. This is more of a juicy, stone fruit but with sour overtones. It is more like a sour mango to me.
The vegetal notes begin quite softly as well, with mere hints of vegetation appearing in the taste in the first couple of infusions, and more of a grassy/vegetal note presenting itself in the later infusions. It never really becomes overwhelmingly vegetative, and it mingles quite nicely with the other flavors of this cup.
This is quite a pleasant Oolong overall, one that is deliciously complex and refreshingly light. It is one that kind of “grows” on me, and I find that the more that I sip on it, the more I like it.
I also was really curious about milky oolongs when I first heard of them, because I found some sources saying that the milky quality was naturally occuring, and others that said that the tea’s production actually involved flavoring with steam milk, with other sources mentioning artificial flavoring.
If you’re curious to read, I put together what I could find on RateTea’s page on milky oolong.
I think you can’t know anything for sure solely on the basis of a tea being labeled as “milk” or “milky” oolong…you need to check with (and trust) the company selling it.