Tea Type:
Oolong Tea
Where To Buy:
T-Oolong Tea
Product Description:
Season: 2012 Spring (harvested in 2012 May)
Altitude: 300 meter above sea level
Varietal: Tikuanyin (Iron Goddess of Mercy)
Origin: Muzha district, Taipei City, Taiwan
Semioxidized
This Premium Muzha Tikuanyin tea is competition grade. The tea is handpicked, handcrafted and produced from Tikuanyin varietal. The production method of Taiwan TKY is complicated as the tea leaves must be repeatedly rolled and cloth twisted and then charcoal roasted for several days. The aroma and taste is this tea is fruity and sweet with this attractive and lovely Tikuanyin fragrance. It is rich and complex, and stands up very well to multiple infusions.Muzha tea region is located on Muzha township in Taipei City and it is also known as the home of Muzha Tikuanyin tea. Tea plantations are spread between 200 to 500 meters above sea level. Tikuanyin tea trees are less productive and more difficult to maintain comparing with other varieties of oolong tea tree.
Tasters Review:
You can tell that this oolong is deeply roasted by looked at the color of the leaves that are tightly-rolled. It may be the darkest I have seen thus far! Once infused the aroma really magnifies! It has a charcoal and mushroomy type aroma paired with a cross between an oolong and a green.
The flavor of this is very clean for a roasted/toasted oolong. It has a deep and rich flavor. It’s a bit charcoally but also a little reminiscent of cocoa, too. This is very unusual but in a fascinating way!
Totally YUMMY and totally unique! EXCELLENT craftsmanship!
Fig Formosa Oolong Tea from TeaLeafs
Tea Type:
Oolong Tea
Where To Buy:
TeaLeafs
Product Description:
Origin: Taiwan
Ingredients: Oolong tea, Cornflower, Poppy Flower, Natural flavor
A full, whole leaf base with a rich taste of Smyrna figs.
Tasters Review:
I will remember this one until the day I die! I LOVE it that much! It’s truly amazing! It had me at ‘hello’ and at first sip! It’s smells Awesome!!!!
I cannot express how much I LOVE this tea! I know that’s redundant but it’s true! It is a flavored oolong, a flavored Formosa. It’s WONDERFUL!!!
It’s sweet, plump, luscious FIG with natural sugary notes. It’s perfect as-is hot or cold but the first time I tried this was with my husband as an ICED tea and he always has to have sugar/sweetener in it and we were splitting it…so…I added agave and rock sugar and it took incredibly well to it. It didn’t change the awesomeness at all and accompanied it well! My husband doesn’t generally drink oolongs because he doesn’t understand them and he absolutely LOVED this one!
I can’t find anything wrong with this. I MUST give it a 100! It would be one I should have bought more of right away and certainly will the next time I visit! THIS…is a household favorite! A REAL Crowd-Pleaser!
Peach Spice from Design A Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Design A Tea
Tea Description:
It’s time to order the best tea you’ve ever tasted. Why? Because you choose the flavors! The concept is simple, choose a base and one or two flavors to blend your own unique tasting tea. Top it off with a personalized name and brag to your friends about your gourmet style or give it away as a gift.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Designing your own tea can be so much fun. Peach Spice from Design a Tea is one of my favorites. It has a lovely flavor, a good oolong base, and reminds me a of a peach beer. In a way there is also a slight banana ester which is interesting since banana ester is something used in beer brewing.
As many of you may know, I love peach lambic. I had Stacy with Design a Tea make me my perfect peach lambic tea blend. However, if you want to give blending a try, and spare the expense while testing out a few concepts, design a tea is an excellent place to begin! Their prices are more than fair and they have a lot of flavors and bases to select from.
I have designed many teas with Design a Tea and Brian, the owner, is a really nice guy. The process is quite simple. If you click the link above you will be taken to a page where you can design your very own tea. Not all of my creations have been perfection, but more often than not I come up with a really great idea. Brian does his part in making your tea the best it can be by adding other items when necessary even if not on the list.
I am sipping my last cup of Peach Spice right now and I will probably get this one mixed for me again. I may ask for a little more spice this time, but that is the beauty of your own creation! You can always tweak it and make it better. At 4.75 USD for 30 grams, its a great deal and a wonderful way to explore those creative notions you have.
Brian has always included coupons with my orders which is a nice touch, I just have to dig one out for a reorder!
Caramel Apple Oolong from 52 Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Here’s a premium oolong tea from the Fujian province in China blended with large pieces of freeze-dried Fuji apples and natural and organic flavors. And no, I didn’t mistype: Fujian Oolong and Fuji apples. Serendipitous. I didn’t even realize I had done that until I typed it.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Caramel Apple Oolong from 52 Teas is one of those teas that I begged and prayed for a re-blend of, and it was indeed re-blended! I love how on 52 Teas website you can sign up to be notified of a re-blend, and it is also 52 Tea’s method to determine which teas are most requested for a re-blend!
So this tea has an excellent oolong base, and the perfect flavors to make you feel like your sipping on sweet succulent caramel apple juices! The caramel flavor is well balanced so that you also get a wonderful fresh fujian apple taste as well, and I do know my apples, I love Fuji apples, and this tea tastes exactly like them! The apple tastes so fresh I swear I can taste the skin!
Some sips provide a slight bit more caramel flavor and some a slight bit more apple flavor but overall most sips are well balanced. I find I enjoy that sip now and then with one flavor more than the other because I do love both apple and caramel so now and again I get a boost of one flavor or another to give me my fix.
Oh and let’s not forget the oolong, its a nice quality oolong that does provide a very good base for this flavor combination, as Frank says, serendipitous, but it works perfectly!
I will savor each sip of this tea, then put in my bid for a re-blend and once again, cross my fingers. A stash must have!
Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Oolong
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
A warm and comforting take on classic Genmaicha with the addition of Wuyi oolong and cacao nibs. . .
Genmaicha has humble origins- originally toasted rice was mixed into a pot to make expensive tea leaves go further in a time of less plenty than today. Toasted rice was combined with green tea or even broken twigs and stems to make a hearty and warming brew. At the time, green tea was for more widely available than black tea, but given the warming qualities of genmaicha, we thought that a humble hand-picked black tea from Laoshan Village would be the perfect companion for toasted rice.
This batch of Laoshan black is particularly malty and sweet, qualities drawn out by hand-crafted Minnesota wild rice and organic fair trade jasmine rice toasted in small batches. We add organic cacao nibs to give a darker and more comforting aftertaste, and a touch of Shui Jin Gui Wuyi oolong for its nutty caramel notes and savory aftertaste. All together, we think this new take on Genmaicha very much embraces the tea’s humble origins and stays true to the warm and satisfying nature of toasted rice tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love Genmaicha and Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha from Verdant Tea is no exception! This tea delivers exactly what it says it does in its description! I love the use of a Wyui oolong which provides a nutty sweet backdrop but I love even more the rock mineral flavor that gives this tea an overall earthy quality. I guess it makes me feel like while even though this tea is on the sweeter side it is also quite savory and I love nothing better than a sweet and savory flavor combined!
I was rather surprised at what a clear cup this turned out to be, a lovely amber brown color but I can see right to the bottom of my glass. The mouthfeel is on the creamy side but has a bright finish.
I love the toasty rice flavor and it really shines through! The cocoa nibs offer a delicious chocolate taste that is really nice, not fakey tasting at all.
I was expecting a bit richer of a flavor though. While there is a lovely caramel note, chocolate holds its own, and the rice is a lovely touch, overall I find it rather on the thin side in comparison to Laoshan Black on its own. Even with that said however I really think Verdant did well to offer us something completely unique and I would recommend this tea as it is so comforting as it is toasty, warm, sweet, malty, and quite decedent.