Today is the fifth day of yummy teas from Della Terra Teas. I’ve really been enjoying this year’s countdown, and today’s tea is just entirely too yummy for words. But, since you’re here to read a review, I’ll do my best to come up with some words to describe this confectionery delight.
Cozy Caramel Oolong
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas
Tea Description:
On this, the fifth day, be cozy with this delicious caramel oolong.
As golden as the five golden rings, so is this delicious, warm caramel tea. Enjoy this Oolong, sip the creamy caramel and create a holiday memory.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Cozy Caramel Oolong from Della Terra Teas offers me two of my favorite tastes: Oolong tea and caramel. How could I resist?
Answer: I can’t. This is so yummy.
The Oolong tea is a darker Oolong, and it brings a sweet and toasted nut flavor to the cup. The roasty-toasty notes accentuate the delectable notes of caramel perfectly. I can taste a hint of burnt sugar like flavor in the background, and this elevates the caramel tones, giving them some dimension.
The Oolong has a rich, creamy texture but it isn’t overwhelming. That is to say, it doesn’t inundate the palate with that sort of creaminess that might otherwise obscure the nuanced flavors of the caramel. There is a lot of complexity to this cup, and you want to enjoy each and every layer of flavor!
When it come to Oolong teas, I generally prefer them to be “pure” or unadulterated with flavor because Oolong is such a flavorful experience on its own and no additional flavor is really necessary. However, I have enjoyed many different flavored Oolong teas, and of those that I’ve enjoyed, I’d have to say that this might be one of the very best.
This should be a must try for those of you who love caramel, or the Oolong enthusiast who is looking for something just a little different! This one resteeps really well too – the caramel flavor subdues somewhat, but the second infusion is still very flavorful!
Five Year Aged Tieguanyin Oolong Tea from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
This Five Year Aged Tieguanyin is an exciting and unique offering in that it manages to preserve the entire spring flower and fresh grass essence of the original leaf, all while tempering the flavor with darker, more grounded notes. Most aged Tieguanyin is pan fired again and again to bring out dark caramel notes. This is not a dark roasted tea in any sense.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
An aged Oolong? I’ve had a few aged Oolongs in the past, but, I am still very interested to try an aged Oolong when it comes into my radar, as was the case the last time I ordered from Verdant Tea and I noticed this Five Year Aged Tieguanyin Oolong Tea … so I had to put a sample of this in my cart to try!
And I’m really glad I did. This is really lovely!
This has much of the flavor that I’d expect from a fresher, green Tieguanyin, and some of the rich, earthy notes of a roasted Tieguanyin. This tea is beautifully complex.
My first cup (the combination of infusions 1 and 2 following a quick 15 second rinse) has a sweet note and an exotic floral quality to it. There is a slight grassy taste to it as well, and this grassy note falls somewhere between a vegetative note of a green Tieguanyin and the hay-like note I’d notice in a white tea. The texture is soft and lighter than the creaminess I might ordinarily notice from a Tieguanyin. This is not buttery … it is light and refreshing!
The second cup (infusions 3 and 4) had a similar mouthfeel … light and smooth. Here, I noticed the floral note becoming more distinct. The tasting notes on the Verdant website suggest a lotus-like flavor and I notice the lotus notes more with this cup than I did with the first cup (which was more of a non-specific floral note). A similar sweetness here, but less of the vegetative quality that I noticed with the first cup. Now, I notice a slight … fruity quality to the cup, and a bit more astringency to this cup (I noticed no astringency with the first cup).
With the third cup (infusions 5 and 6) I notice a slightly creamier texture than I experienced with either the first or the second cups. Still not quite what I’d call “buttery” … this cup is closer to that than either of the two previous cups. I suspect this is the “malt” notes that are suggested on the website, because yes, this tastes more like a creamy malt-like flavor than a buttery tone. The floral notes are less obvious with this cup, I find that the flavors seem to have “melded” in a uniform kind of way … becoming more of a singular flavor that consists of several characteristics rather than several clarified notes.
Of the three cups that I enjoyed of this tea, I would say that cup #3 was my favorite (although the first two were quite delightful also!) so this tea is definitely one you want to take on a long journey so you might enjoy many delicious infusions from it.
Another top-notch tea from Verdant Tea … I’d expect nothing less from them, and they always seem to exceed my high expectations!