Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
True luxury tea. Sloane Tea exudes elegance and old world charm and has a line-up of premium teas, beautifully packaged. Their teas are sourced, selected and blended by in-house certified tea sommeliers. The director studied perfumery in France, so her blends are amazingly aromatic and skillfully scented and flavoured.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea was the first that I tried from this month’s Amoda Tea Tasting Box (Yes, I’m actually trying a tea from January’s box… in January! Maybe I am getting caught up!), and it is a good one! Oolong Crème from Sloane Tea is a milk Oolong that has been lightly flavored to enhance the naturally creamy notes of the milk Oolong.
I brewed this the way I brew most Oolongs – in my gaiwan. Using short steeps, I produced three very lovely cups (combining the first two infusions for cup one, infusions three and four made cup two, and infusions five and six made cup number three). I suspect I could have gotten a fourth cup from these leaves too, because the third cup was still very flavorful (and to tell the truth, it may have been my favorite of the three!) but my time was required elsewhere, so I wasn’t able to work on a fourth cup.
But the three cups I did enjoy were lovely. The first cup was very much like a milk Oolong (which it is, so, I guess that should be expected!) the flavor is sweet and creamy and delicate in this first cup. This first cup is so creamy, it is difficult to discern any floral or fruity notes, they seem to be somewhere in the background … almost lost but not quite. The creaminess makes up for it though, because it is so wonderful!
With the second cup, I found that the flavor had intensified. Still sweet and creamy … but less delicate. The mouthfeel is remarkably smooth and silky. Now I taste a little bit more flower. A hint of fruit begins to emerge in the background reminding me vaguely of plum. Very soft and pleasant overall. I find this second cup to be extraordinarily soothing and peaceful. A perfect cup with which to unwind.
I notice a crispness to the third cup that I didn’t find with the first two. The creaminess has waned somewhat, making way for a lighter flavor that is refreshing and crisp. A slight astringency comes forward here too. It is still creamy though, and certainly sweet … just a little less creamy than the first two which allows some of the other characteristics of the tea to appear. I almost taste … a minty note here … the crispness gives off a minty kind of note, and although it’s not a strong and obvious note, it’s certainly a surprising element.
This was a very enjoyable milk Oolong, certainly worth a try for those who love milk Oolong – and I know that there are a lot of you out there!
