Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
Renowned for its beautiful five colour dancing leaves. This traditional beauty exudes apricot and peach scents followed by indulging orchid, muscat grape, and apple flavours.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oollo Tea offers some outstanding teas and this Oriental Beauty Oolong is a perfect example. It’s one of the nicest Bai Hao Oolong teas that I’ve tasted in a quite some time!
The aroma is lovely – it reminds me of warm peaches – like the filling in a peach cobbler. Warm and bubbly and sweet! That’s what I think of when I smell this tea!
The tea has a wonderful fruit flavor – I taste stone fruit and flower. The above description suggests orchid and when I focus on the floral notes, yes, I would say that the flower I taste is indeed orchid. I taste notes of peach and apricot and hints of a honeyed sweetness.
I don’t taste muscat grape or apple yet, but perhaps those flavors will reveal themselves in later infusions. For now, I’m quite happy with the notes of honey, orchid and peach-y apricot!
With my second cup (infusions 3 and 4) I am picking up some of those aforementioned notes of grape and apple. Really nice! I taste less of the peach and apricot flavors – those seemed to have disappeared – but I still taste a lovely orchid note and a lovely sweetness that I’d describe as more of a sugary sweetness now rather than a honey-like sweetness. This tastes a bit like the sugar notes I’d experience if I were to eat a handful of raisins.
This cup is really smooth with just a hint of astringency toward the tail. I taste a light, hay-like note to this too, similar to what I’d taste from a Bai Mu Dan (white tea). Every once in a while, I’ll also taste the slightest whisper of vanilla.
I started to notice the flavor waning with my third cup (infusions 5 and 6), so I decided it would be my last of this tea. But I had three marvelous cups of tea! The third cup still had plenty of flavor – lovely notes of apple and grape and almost a melon-like background note that I hadn’t noticed in the previous infusions! Still sweet, still lovely.
A really wonderful tea – this Oriental Beauty from Oollo Tea! If you haven’t checked out their website yet, you should stop in and check them out!
Rohini Jethi Kupi Black Tea from Udyan Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Udyan Tea
Tea Description:
Jethikupi is a word from the Manipuri dialect (from the North-east Indian State of Manipur) and it means ‘jasmine flower.’ In the Nepali dialect the word ‘jethi’ means the eldest girl child, while ‘kupi’ is a funnel or cone shaped object. Hence this tea points out to the earliest first flush of the tea garden. Rohini Jethi Kupi Black Tea brews into a crisp, full bodied, deep yellow cup with a malty finish.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have enjoyed the different teas that I’ve received from Udyan Tea to review. But I – without realizing it – think I may have saved the very best for last because this Rohini Jethi Kupi Black Tea is absolutely DELIGHTFUL.
It has that crisp and clean flavor that you expect from a first flush Darjeeilng tea, but this is more full flavored. It has notes of malt! It has a richness to the flavor and it’s nicely round. It’s not “heavy” – it is crisp and light, but it’s not quite as light as a typical first flush Darjeeling. This has a more robust body to it and it’s SO wonderfully sweet!
It’s nice and smooth with very little astringency and absolutely no bitterness. It even has hints of muscatel to it – a note that I don’t usually expect in a first flush Darjeeling, but am always happy to find when I do find it.
This is exactly the tea I needed this afternoon. I’ve been a little stressed out lately (I’ve been SO busy!) and I needed some time to just sit back and have a tea that tastes so good that the stress melts away. This tea did exactly that for me. This is one of the best first flush Darjeeling teas I’ve tried this year. I highly recommend it!
Brown Sugar Organic Oolong Tea from Tea Leaf Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea Leaf Co.
Tea Description:
A wonderfully bold and smooth organic tea blend of dark oolong and maple, a perfect pairing. While the oolong is bold, full-bodied, and lightly smoked, the maple is light, aromatic, and sweet. The combination of the two flavors results in a well-balanced, featured favorite maple tea blend.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! This Brown Sugar Organic Oolong Tea from Tea Leaf Co. is the first from this new-to-me tea company that I’ve tried, and it’s a good one!
The maple flavor is strong but I like that it’s not overpowering the Oolong tea. Tea Leaf Co. has managed to strike a really delightful balance between the sweetness and rich flavor of the maple and the Oolong tea with its fruit notes and hints of smoke.
The base tea possesses notes of stone fruit (peach) and I taste wisps of smoke. I like this delicate smoky note and how it plays to the notes of the sweet maple. Nutty flavors develop as I continue to sip and I like how these interact with the maple notes as well. This is a full-flavored Oolong, it’s rugged and has notes of wood and earth. It’s a strong flavor that doesn’t wimp out behind the sweetness of the maple. The contrasts in flavor from the woodsy, earthy, nutty and smoky flavors help keep the maple in check and keep it from becoming too cloying a drink.
The maple notes are sweet and pleasant. They don’t taste chemical or artificial. It tastes like someone drizzled a drop or two of real maple syrup in my teacup! Quite delectable!
A real treat – this “Brown Sugar.”
Green Dragon from Canton Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Canton Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Blended for us by Rare Tea Hunter, Phil Mumby, this is a base of China Green Sencha given a full makeover with the citrus kick of lemon zest, lemongrass, lemon oil – and ginger. The combination of the fresh, green grass sencha notes, the lemony flavour and the warming ginger is completed by the subtlest hint of liquorice root to give a lingering sweetness.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! When Canton Tea Co.asked me to try their new Green Dragon – I was excited! I’ve been really impressed with the quality of teas that I’ve tried from Canton and I love the combination of lemon and ginger – so I was sure that I’d enjoy this new blend of theirs.
And I do! The lemony notes are tart with just enough sweetness to them to keep me from puckering when I take a sip. The warmth from the ginger is mild. And the licorice root is barely noticeable – even those who don’t typically like licorice root would probably enjoy this because the licorice root doesn’t really stand out as an obvious flavor. It’s more like a hint of sweetness toward the tail.
The Chinese Sencha is a sweet, fresh taste with a hint of grassy flavor. It has a pleasant creaminess to it, light and buttery. I like the way this buttery quality melds with the lemon-y notes, creating an almost lemon custard type of experience with each sip. It’s very smooth.
As I continue to sip, the warmth from the ginger builds slightly in the back of the throat. It never gets really warm though. It’s a very mild, gentle peppery note that offers contrast to the creaminess of the tea and the tangy lemon notes.
A really lovely tea – it’s a delightful summertime tea that tastes great as a hot tea or a refreshing iced tea!
Tequila Sunrise Iced Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Tequila-, orange- and cherry organic flavors blended with our awesome organic Chinese sencha fannings make this iced tea bliss. Blow your guests away with this awesome iced tea!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
As I mentioned in my review of 52Teas Tequila Sunrise Black Tea – it’s been quite a while since I’ve had the cocktail. To be honest, tequila isn’t my favorite alcoholic beverage – but as far as cocktail inspired iced teas go, this Tequila Sunrise Iced Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas is a refreshing drink.
I don’t really taste ‘Tequila Sunrise’ here. Then again – it HAS been a long time since I’ve had one, so don’t rely upon my memory of what a tequila sunrise should taste like.
During the sip, I taste green tea with hints of citrus. In the aftertaste, I taste cherry and orange more distinctly and occasionally, a flavor crosses my palate that reminds me of tequila. But that doesn’t arrive until the aftertaste. During the sip, I taste green tea and notes of bright, sunny citrus flavors.
What I do like about this particular iced tea is that it’s refreshing and it’s quenching my thirst without tasting overly sweet. I’m enjoying that I taste more green tea than flavor.
It’s a pleasant iced tea. Not my favorite from SBT, but they can’t all be my favorite. Even so, I like it enough to say that I might buy it again.