Big Red Robe. This tea is as unique as its name.
While some are closer to being a queen dragon with more floral notes this one deserves the title of King Dragon with hints of smoke and earthy notes like oak, cedar, and damp soil.
There is a surprising amount of mineral notes, especially in the aftertaste. Though it may be weird to say one tastes wet rocks, it really does have that flavor.
Perhaps with a bit of granite mixed in. The astringency is also unique. It doesn’t quite make you pucker your lips as some black teas do, however, it leaves a familiar texture in your mouth as often astringent teas do.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Wendigo Tea
Description
All arise for I am King Dragon, an ancient and illustrious oolong tea. I smell of exquisite honey, leather, orchids, and wet stone. My taste is of ripe peaches, earth, and smoke with a smooth lingering sweetness.
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Dragon’s Tooth/Swallowtail Tea
First off, I have to say that this tea is nothing short of amazing—it ties in everything I love about greens and oolongs in a perfectly smooth, sweet cup of tea. I expected something a little more vegetal/grassy with how green the leaves were but I was pleasantly surprised with a nice floral taste.
While this might go good with honey, I wound up not adding anything to it. Any sweetener would cover up something that tastes perfect on its own, detracting from sweeter floral notes.
Part of the sweetness of this tea reminds me of fresh spring water. There’s a hint of minerality, but it doesn’t leave an aftertaste. I got two steepings out of this one and may even try a third, as the flavor didn’t change much aside from losing a little of its floral flavor. It was still about as bold as the first brew.
This one’s a keeper! I’ll definitely be adding this to my “must have” list.
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Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Swallowtail Tea
Description
This wonderful Mao Xie oolong has dramatic floral notes of lilac and jasmine, with the complexity of butter, stone, and steamed greens.
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Moscato Oolong/Tea By C
Tea By C or Tea By Claire saved me this afternoon. Let me explain. My current company is going through a lot of structure change and reorgs which equals lots of meetings to go over all of these changes. Not knowing which tea I wanted to try, I thought I would grab one of our recent samples for SororiTea Sisters and Moscato Oolong was what I grabbed.
This tea blend is a unique tea blend-oolong tea, dried grapes, and natural grape flavor. I’ve had other moscato flavored tea blends before but I can’t say I’ve ever had a blend where there were actual HUGE dried grapes.
Because I wasn’t sure exactly how long the meetings would go, I quickly grabbed my Libre Tea Infuser, threw a few scoops of the tea in, ice, and water. Dialed in for the meeting and started to take notes. A few minutes later I took my first sip.
And can I say, my tastebuds rejoiced. This tea is one delicious cold brew! The oolong has this subtle yet present smoky flavor and there is definitely a moscato/grapish taste throughout the entire sip. The flavors are bright and pop perfectly. At the end of each sip, there is also this touch of minerality that just adds to the pleasant experience of enjoying this tea.
As the meeting continued, so did my enjoyment of this tea. As I would sip down each tumbler full, I would add in additional water and enjoyed more of the cold brew delight.
After a few hours of doing this-I have to say, I’m extremely delighted with this tea. This tea really delivered a different and unique taste that I adored. I’m now really excited to see what other tea varieties Tea By C offers. Because after this particular tea, I’m hooked.
And to get you hooked, Tea By C has offered our readers a 15% discount with promo code: SORORITEA.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea By C
Description
Inspired by sweet Moscato wine, this oolong tea is blended with dried grapes to yield a young fruity flavor. This tea is a treat that will make anyone with a sweet tooth smack their lips and reach for seconds.
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Phoenix Dan Cong Duck Honey Snowflake/SerendipiTea Studios. . . .
Gongfu Brewing. . .something has always scared me away from trying to brew tea up in the tea ceremonial fashion and kept me to western brewing. I think scared may be the incorrect word. I think intimidated is better.
I was intimidated by the amount of teaware you had to have, intimidated by having the right teaware, and also intimidated by making a complete fool out of myself for trying. But when March rolled around and I turned 40-I finally convinced myself it was time to finally immerse myself into learning something new.
And learn something I did. I found myself taking notes after notes from different videos on YouTube from amazing tea bloggers like Tea for Me Please and tea companies like Mei Leaf. By the time it was all said and done, I found tea ware that I already had that would work to get the party started.
So to test this out, I took a sample of Phoenix Dan Cong Duck Honey Snowflake from Serendipitea Studios and brewed the tea both in the gongfu method and western style. The different was night and day.
With the gongfu method, I was able to get these rich gorgeous notes of sweet floral that I was not getting with the western style. These pops of sweet floral thrilled my tastebuds and I found myself eagerly drinking this tea down. Towards the middle brewing sessions, I would find myself describing the tea as being delicate but with a bit of power behind it. Yes this tea is delicate but this tea demands your full attention as well. There was also this slight savory touch that I could note here and there but couldn’t really pull what I would compare the taste to.
With the western style, I was still able to pull out those beautiful floral notes with a sweet touch but I will say that the flavors were not as bold and not as alluring. Still delicious but I would say I prefer the gongfu method for this particular tea. The flavors were just more pronounced and more on point.
Regardless of how you brew this tea, this tea is fabulous and one that I will be getting more of for myself soon. I’m beyond thrilled with the tea itself and have found myself wanting more so I may be ordering quicker than I intended to. Smooth, lush, floral, with just a hit of a contrasting flavor here and there. Can’t ask for more from your tea.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Serendipitea Studios
Description
Elegant just like its name, Duck Honey Snowflake is a seasonal winter hand-picked harvest of regular Duck Honey Aroma all-natural tea. This winter version is much more florally delicate than the regular and contrasted to caramel like sweetness, its sweetness brings a rather icy wintry feel.
From the coastal area in Canton province, Phoenix Mountain possesses mineral-rich soil and is constantly surrounded by mists and fog, covered by wild tea tress and tea farms, as well as the folklore of the Phoenix Dan Cong Tea. Many wild tea trees are at least 100 to 200 years old.
It’s a special type of organic Oolong treasured for its highly distinctive natural aroma, and is also believed to be the ancestor of all Oolong teas. Well-known for its ten aromatic categories, it delivers rich and complex flavor. Local tea scholars and connoisseurs from China study and try to organize these all-natural teas into hundreds aromatic subgroups. Mandarin uses the word ‘Xiang’ or aroma for each specific type that mimics certain flower or fruit aroma. Phoenix Dan Cong’s aroma is never artificially added or perfumed but exclusively cultivated, artisan crafted, and each aroma comes from the tea plant’s natural aromatic compound.
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Gingerbread Latte/A Quarter To Tea
I only recently became a fan of gingerbread and I am a picky one. I like gingerbread just so and I like just enough ginger in food or drink to make it sparkle but not enough to bite!
I am happy to say that this blend is the good kind of gingerbread. I made it as a plain hot tea first in six ounces water with no sugar and it was very good and very flavorful with a steeping time of just over three minutes. Ginger is the main note, followed by cinnamon.
But it is called Gingerbread LATTE so even though I don’t usually add milk and sugar to my tea, I do like lattes – a LOT, even though I rarely drink them. So I heated six ounces of milk with two teaspoons of sugar, and then plopped the infuser basket in for four minutes.
The milk is now a creamy color with little specks of cinnamon and spice swirling in it. Ginger is still up front with cinnamon a close second. The taste and texture of this drink would totally satisfy me as a dessert, no cake or pie needed. The flavor lingers for a long time.
Another A+ for A Quarter To Tea.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for tea blends that are.
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