Day 7!
Have you had any figgy pudding yet this season? How about fig newtons? If you like figs, you will love today’s tea: Sticky Fig Oolong. This tea is also our first oolong of the 12 Teas of a Christmas set this year.
This tea has plenty of the bright, mineral taste oolongs are known for. These flavors are the right match with the sweet-yet-fresh fig taste. Beneath all the oolong brightness, the tea has a bit of complex, roasted, caramelized taste, making the fig part of the blend feel more like a candied dessert.
I’m always a bit intimidated by unflavored oolongs, so having a touch of holiday dessert flavor mixed in made this oolong more approachable for me. The sticky fig flavor isn’t overpowering, so if classic oolongs are your favorite teas, you will still find this blend to be very enjoyable.
I haven’t run into many fig tea blends so this is a great unexpected flavor for a holiday tea set, rounding out the Christmas theme.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description:
This tea was inspired by one of my customers who is also a frequent poster on Steepster, who – in one of her posts – mentioned that she’d like to see a fig tea from me. So here it is (and it won’t be the last, fig is one of my favorite fruits, I just haven’t gotten around with experimenting with fig in tea yet . . . but now that I have, I think I’ll keep it up because – YUM!)
So I started with these three ideas in mind: Holiday tea, Oolong tea & Fig tea. I crafted a blend of Oolongs – Ruanzhi, Wuyi and Qingxin cultivars – which I chose because I wanted the Oolong to be a little more fruity and a little less floral. To this lovely Oolong blend, I added some figs. For the holiday element, I added some cinnamon. For the final touch, I added a little honey essence.
Really lovely – this tea. The oolong is smooth and sweet. It has pleasing notes of fruit with just a hint of floral. The fig is well-defined and the honey compliments the fig nicely. The cinnamon is warm and inviting without overwhelming the cup. As I say: really lovely! It’s also organic, VEGAN, gluten free & allergen free!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Red Jade Black Tea from Oollo Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
A perfect marriage between Burma Ashamu and Taiwanese wild tea. The long twisted whole leaves give distinct smooth raisin, date and cinnamon infusions with traces of peppermint.
Origin
Varietal: Taiwan No. 18
Curator: Yoshi Lo
Location: Yuchi, Nantou, Taiwan
Elevation: 800m
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Red Jade Black Tea from Oollo Tea has already been reviewed by Anne here at Sororitea Sisters but some teas are worth reviewing more than once. This is one of those teas and I agree with Anne thoughts as to how AWESOME this tea is. The following are my additional thoughts on this tea.
As for the aroma it’s one I truly adore in a black tea. It’s toasty and date or raisin like. The aroma matches the first sip of the cuppa, too. I can certainly pick up on the raisin notes and paired with the dark, rich, carmelly notes it’s unlike anything I have ever tasted. The end sip of the pipping-hot tea is a mish-mash of heavy, dark black tea flavors and a sugary syrupy type taste all in one. Keep in mind there are NO flavors added to this tea! This flavor is all from the leaf! It’s all natural!
As I continue to sip the post-infused liquor cools with the room temperature – unassisted – and I notice the end sip morphs into something of a minty aftertaste that is very refreshing and welcomed.
No this isn’t ‘tea voodoo’ – folks – it’s just a mighty-fine tea that has levels and levels of complexity and for that I will appreciate it until the end of time. This is a marvelously-fantastic Red Jade Black Tea that should be celebrated at every turn!
Date Nut Bread Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Organic honeybush is the perfect compliment to this melding of delicious and aromatic organic flavors, including date, orange, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and pecan. This might seem like a strange thing to flavor an iced tea like, but just wait til you try it!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I just ate some Spicy Sriracha Cosmos and let me tell you, my mouth is on fire! Acha-cha! Spicy!
So, I needed something cold and refreshing and easy to drink (read: gulp!) to help cool my palate. Since I brewed this Date Nut Bread Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas last night so it could chill in the fridge overnight, I figured it was the perfect thing to help me cool down my mouth.
And not only did it do just that, but I was happy to say that the flavors came through LOUD and CLEAR even though my palate might have been somewhat impaired after eating those spicy nuggets of fluffy goodness. (It’s the very good kind of burn!) After a tall glass of the tea, my mouth was feeling back to normal, but I wanted to wait a while before I finished the review so that my palate was back to a functioning level.
So now that my taste buds are refreshed and ready to taste things again – I’m really amazed at how much this actually tastes like date nut bread! I taste the dates – this is a strong flavor. The nutty flavor comes from a hint of pecan flavoring as well as the natural nutty flavor from the honeybush. I taste notes of a cake-y/bread-y type flavor, as well as notes of brown sugar and butter and just a dash of cinnamon.
There is a bright note to this that didn’t taste immediately like “orange” to me until I got to the aftertaste. The aftertaste has a sunny orange flavor. I like that while I can taste the orange and cinnamon here, these flavors were added carefully and offer more of a gentle note rather than overpower the tea.
It’s a surprisingly refreshing iced tea. Not flavors that I would normally think of when I think “Iced Tea” but it works and works very nicely!
Ball and Chain Oolong Blend Tea from Indie Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Indie Tea
Tea Description:
“Till Death” Is Oolong Time, But When You Pair Together Lots Of Dates and Flowers, The Old Ball and Chain Might Actually Be A Lot More Fun.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! I love dates, but they are a fruit that I don’t partake of very often because … well, to be honest, I’m not sure why not. I guess because when I find them in my usual “thrifty” grocery store, they don’t look very promising, and when I’m shopping at my higher end grocery store like Whole Foods or Chuck’s Produce, I don’t usually think about dates, because I usually go in there with a set list of items that I’m purchasing … and well, dates usually just are not on that list.
So, when I find a tea that is flavored with dates, like this Ball and Chain Oolong Blend Tea from Indie Tea, I get excited and want to try it!
And this is really a tasty blend! The Se Chung Oolong is sweet and has a nice, roasty-toasty kind of flavor that melds really nicely with the flavor of the Medjool dates. There is a slight smokiness to the Se Chung … not an overpowering smoky tone, but just enough to keep things interesting.
There is also a stone fruit kind of flavor to the Oolong … and together with the smoky, toasty, nutty tone, it almost tastes like a roasted or grilled fruit. Think fresh, juicy peaches that have been grilled to a slight char over smoky charcoal! Yeah, now that sounds yummy, doesn’t it?
The date flavor is not an overpowering note – it doesn’t overwhelm the Se Chung Oolong … and that’s a good thing. The date flavor is strong enough to taste that sweet, sugary note that is very “date-like.” The flower petals do not add much to the flavor of this, in fact, there is very little floral tone to this at all. If you slurp the sip enough to aerate the tea on the palate, you might notice the faintest whisper of a floral quality to the tea, but it is so very faint. But, the date flavor and the smoky, toasted nut flavor of the Oolong is so tasty that you won’t miss the floral tones to this tea! It’s quite nice just the way it is!
A really enjoyable Oolong blend … and another tea from Indie Tea that you should add to your shopping list!
Thé du Hammam from Le Palais Des Thés
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Le Palais Des Thés
Tea Description:
One of our most popular teas, this fruity blend is inspired by a Turkish recipe using green teas that evokes the characteristic fragrances used to perfume a hammam: roses, green dates, berries and orange flower water. Sprinkled with flower petals in the pure Eastern tradition, its extraordinary fragrance comes from a subtle combination of Chinese green tea and rich, fruity aromas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After reading the above description, I found myself somewhat lost, as I had no idea what a hammam was. And thinking that this was not only a good opportunity for me to learn something new, but that perhaps a few of my readers also might not know what a hammam is, I decided to look it up. According to Wikipedia, a hammam is a traditional Turkish bath in which warm air is used to promote perspiration, after which bathers are brought to an even hotter room before splashing themselves with cool water, and then they are bathed.
And while the idea of “bath water” doesn’t really sound like a delicious tea, this blend allows you to toss the bathwater and simply enjoy the essences of the perfumed Turkish bath. The sweet notes of date dominate this cup, while lovely hints of floral tones weave their way in and out of the sip.
The green tea has a light, fresh kind of flavor that is delicately vegetative. It has a somewhat buttery quality to it, offering a creamy texture and taste that harmonizes quite deliciously with the flavoring. The date flavor is what I find particularly enchanting about this tea. I’ve had a few date flavored teas, but I do not remember any that have managed to express this flavor better than I taste with this tea. This tastes like a sweet, juicy date – and it is really delicious!
Of the teas that I’ve tried from Le Palais Des Thés (and I’ve still a few left to try from the gift set), this one is my favorite! I like it a lot!