Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Driftwood Tea
Tea Description:
Osmanthus Oolong combines high quality Jin Xuan variety loose leaf tea with fresh osmanthus flowers to produce a most spectacular tea. Handmade and scented using only natural methods this is an example of an aromatic tea that tastes as good as it smells.
Key Flavours: Bright soft stone fruits. Juicy peaches and ripe apricots with delicate touches of natural creaminess.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After receiving a wonderful mixed box of samples from Driftwood Tea I selected this as the first one to taste and review. When I opened the bag I was greeted with the aromas of a wonderful milky oolong! The dry leaf is quite pretty with small bits of osmanthus flower through out.
The flavor of this tea is creamy which I love in tea. Beyond creamy what I get is a candy flavor! Yes candy. It reminds me of the White Rabbit candies that my daughter loves so much. Okay I admit, I love them too except they are terrible on my teeth! Now I can have my creamy milk candy in a tea! This tea is somewhat sweet but in a natural manner of course which is so much better! I am sure that comes from the fruity flavors in the tea which I find to be far more subtle than other teas with fruit flavors, yet they are present and pleasant!
The peachy apricot notes come out much after the tea cools. They are light flavors however so do not expect a peach flavored pow in your cup.
I did not do an initial rinse and I am glad as thus far it is my favorite steep being the sweetest and most candy like out of my two steeps thus far.
The oolong base is wonderful, light, and fragrant in and of itself so the osmanthus does not totally take over whatsoever, rather just add a lovely light floral element to the tea and I believe also add to the creaminess.
Overall this is a light oolong and while I do love darker deeper oolongs I am absolutely appreciating the wonderful flavor characteristics of this lighter oolong tea! This is what I would consider a late afternoon or early evening oolong.
As I wait on steep three I wanted to mention how fast Driftwood Tea’s shipping is! I was shocked when it arrived within only a matter of days! I can’t remember for sure if it was three days or five days but it was well under a week and I have waited well over a week for teas from some tea companies right here in the United States!
This third steep is so far the creamiest. Its not as sweet nor as fruity but it is like a mouth full of silk! It has a puffy marshmallow like texture that is just so luxurious! As I reflect upon the smooth sensation in my cup I refer to the founder of Driftwood Tea’s philosophy:
Frequently I have encountered tea aficionados – pompous and aloof – seemingly preoccupied by the grade of a loose leaf, or a wonderfully exotic name, when in reality the resulting liquor that was being produced was, well, blah. For me that’s not what tea should be about.
I have now spent the last ten years searching for and sampling some of the world’s finest teas. During this time I have learned many things about loose leaf tea, yet there really is only one point which I have found to be crucial: do I like it? If you like what you’re drinking nothing else should really matter.
I for one agree, and I can say I DO like this tea!
No.7 The Ambassador’s Choice Oolong from Driftwood Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Driftwood Tea
Tea Description:
The Ambassador’s Choice is a driftwood’s exclusive small farm oolong from China’s Fujian Province. A subtle combination of the best characteristics of both China and Taiwan’s famous teas, Ambassador’s Choice is James’s personal preference to serve alongside afternoon tea.
Learn more about this Oolong here.
Taster’s Review:
This Oolong is quite surprising … deliciously so!
It has been my experience that typically greener Oolong teas such as this one tend to have a strong floral overture and very few, if any, fruit notes to them. They tend to focus more on the creamy notes and floral tones. But this tea is much different!
Don’t get me wrong, I do love a good floral tasting, green Oolong but, sometimes, it’s really nice to discover an Oolong that challenges me and what I’ve come to know about certain teas the way this tea does. I like that.
Instead of the strong floral front note, this tea starts off with a creamy introduction and then immediately begins to reveal some intriguing fruit notes – tasting sweet like the intense sweetness one would experience from dried fruit. I notice some more exotic fruit notes in there as well, like a combination between mango and papaya, with a slight acidic citrus note that perks up the flavors toward the end. These flavors seem to intensify as I continue to sip. The finish is sweet and a little bit tangy, too.
I steeped this tea the way I’d typically steep an Oolong: using my gaiwan, I first rinsed the tea for about 10 seconds, and then a series of short infusions. The first two infusions combined make up my first cup, while my second and third cup are the combinations of my third and fourth infusions, and my fifth and sixth infusions, respectively.
The subsequent infusions delivered some different flavors. My second cup was a little less creamy than the first, and began to reveal more of the floral tones that I hinted at with the first cup. The fruit flavors remain but are less distinct now, providing more of a fruit medley taste rather than distinguished flavors. However, the citrus note toward the finish has become a little more obvious, imparting a lovely sweet-yet-tart note for the aftertaste. Still pleasantly sweet, but this one tends to be a little less creamy-sweet and more of a fruit-and-floral sweet.
My third cup (the fifth and sixth infusions) was an equally lovely cup, although, again, I found this one to be different from either of the two previous cups. It possessed more of a unified flavor, with the creaminess melding into the fruit notes, and the fruit and flower notes becoming more seamless as well. It was the most relaxed of the three cups, more of a harmony of flavors that I found very enjoyable.
A truly unique Oolong, one that might challenge you to change how you think about green Oolong teas! I like this one a lot!
Jasmine Oolong Tea from Driftwood Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Driftwood Tea
Tea Description:
Our Jasmine Oolong produces a stunning tea filled with bright, sweet, almost fruity jasmine notes that are tempered alongside light hints of the fresh Taiwanese tea that is used to make this remarkable oolong.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
OH my GOODNESS. This tea is absolutely DREAMY!
As I sip this tea, it is like I can feel my eyes roll back as the liquid rolls over my tongue, I feel myself being transported into some misty, fog-like state where I am lounging in a garden surrounded by jasmine vines.
This tea has such a beautiful jasmine flavor. It is not a sharp or perfume-y taste. It is soft and silky and sweet. There are notes to this that taste somewhat fruit-like, they are so sweet and succulent.
The Taiwanese Oolong is a fresh-tasting tea that has a very pleasing mouthfeel that melds beautifully with the jasmine to help create the soft taste I mentioned earlier. It tastes and feels soft and silky. Very luxurious. Very dreamy.
This is the first tea that I’ve had the opportunity to try from Driftwood Tea … but it won’t be my last. I am so very impressed with the quality of this tea. It is one of the best Jasmine Oolong teas I’ve tried, and it would definitely give some of the best Jasmine White teas I’ve tasted a run for the top spot when considering my favorite Jasmine teas. This one is a contender!