Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Dammann Freres (However it’s not currently listed)
Tea Description:
“Rose de Mai” is a subtle blend of the vegetal notes of a spring oolong tea, to those fresh, bright and dazzling of a 1st press rose essential oil extracted from a rose of exception. A well-balanced tea for lovers of resolutely flowery notes.
Learn more about this tea on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
Since I haven’t done one in a while, I decided that I’d do a blind tasting with this blend! Obviously it’s got rose in it, but I wanted to see what I noticed by drinking my cold brew prior to do any reading on it. I actually had some interesting results this time around:
My immediate observation was that this was a highly floral from the rose but also from the natural floral notes of the greener oolong base; specifically I thought I picked up notes of both orchid and sweet jasmine. There were a few sips where the intensity of all the floral elements felt a little overwhelming and I definitely think those wary of floral teas in general will find this too much, but overall I think they were all pretty well balanced/in check.
The big surprised was that throughout the entire cold brew I kept tasting the same juicy fruit note that I thought tasted pretty obviously of lychee. I was quite surprised when I finally did look up the tea ingredients only to see that there’s no added lychee flavouring. For me, that flavour was unmistakably present. I suppose, since lychee is quite a floral fruit, all of the other floral components of this tea could have contributed to the flavour, though.
Regardless, I thought this was a really pleasant cold brew; quite refreshing and thankfully with flavours other than a flat, monotone rose note. I’d definitely revisit this one, perhaps trying it hot instead of cold brewed.
