Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
Our Jasmine Ancient Beauty tea features fragrant jasmine blossoms permeated with pure hand-harvested oolong loose-leaf tea, giving an amber peach color with a fresh aromatic bouquet and sweet refreshing taste.
This beautiful oolong jasmine tea comes from thousand year-old trees on the Jing Mai Mountain in China. The protected forest reserve is enshrouded in mist and located approximately 5,000 feet above sea level. The best buds and leaves are hand plucked by scaling the tall trees and then oxidized using a traditional oxidation process to reach a specific maturation point. They are then crafted with traditional scenting techniques using whole jasmine blossoms. Drink the Jasmine Ancient Beauty Tea and experience a real one-of-a-kind treat.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Jasmine Ancient Beauty from The Persimmon Tree is a cup that is full of flavors. It is by no means your typical oolong!
As a lover of oolong teas I can see how some people could be disappointed in this tea if they go into with expectations of it tasting like any other oolong they have ever had before.
Or if you are one who loves jasmine teas, I could see some disappointment there as well as this is not your typical jasmine tea either.
What this tea IS however is a tea with some amazing depth to it. The flavors are heady, hearty, and full, yet there are these berry like notes that give the cup a lightness that is just so cheery.
This is not robust like a morning black tea, yet there is an earthiness to the tea that makes it very full, almost thick.
Honestly, if no one told me, or I had not read the label before hand, I would have thought this to be a puerh. The leaves do come from a tree that is over a thousand years old according to The Persimmon Tree’s description and I believe it as this tea does have an aged flavor to it for sure.
Other notes I pick up on aside from honey, berry, jasmine, and oolong, are mushroom, earth, woods, brown sugar, toasted oat bread, to name a few. You really need to discover this tea for yourself.
The other thing I love about this tea, other than the wonderful flavor, is the look and feel of the leaves. They are quite stunning!
I really respect a company that gives back. You can read more about The Persimmon Tree and how it is working toward bettering our earth here.
Oriental Beauty (Dong Fang Mei Ren) from Driftwood Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Driftwood Teas
Tea Description:
Oriental Beauty is also know by several other names including: Dong Fang Mei Ren; White Tip Oolong; and Champagne Oolong. Whatever name it goes by this is perhaps Taiwan’s most special tea and cited by many connoisseur as one of the world’s finest.
Key Flavours: Ripe fruits, honey and sweet muscatel notes combine with hints of warming spices and exotic woods.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oriental Beauty (Dong Fang Mei Ren) from Driftwood teas does what Oriental Beauty always does for me, surprises me. I am always taken aback by this tea because I adore oolong, but this is never what I expect an oolong to be! This tea is light, sweet, and fruity, with notes that lean toward muscatel, and juicy peach.
Then we have the woody and spicy notes that come forward but very subtle on the spice more strong on the woodsy notes. I do love the wood notes in this tea, it feels so natural and wonderful and makes me long to go hiking!
One thing that is a bit different from this Oriental Beauty is that the honey notes are really thick, as in lay in the back of your throat thick, and so wonderfully sweet. Also unlike some Oriental Beauty this tea does not have that drying sensation in the back of the throat. The tea coats the throat and lingers lightly with honey kissed floral notes.
I can’t mention enough how lovely these wood notes are and with the honey sweetness, and that light touch of floral and spice. This may be one of my favorite Oriental Beauty oolongs, yet I find myself saying that in almost every review I do of Oriental Beauty. Yet then I say that I normally do not gravitate toward lighter oolong. Maybe I am changing in that aspect.
Driftwood Tea certainly does bring us a wonderful example of a high quality Dong Fang Mei Ren with a light smooth taste and mouthfeel. Light, yet so very flavorful! You won’t be wishing for more flavor because this tea has it all from woodsy, sweet, fruity, spiced, and, muscatel, almost in a Darjeeling way, to apricot and floral notes.
This is truly a tea to savor through multiple steeps Gong Fu style!
Chocolate Strawberry Mocha Tea from Shanti Tea
Tea Type:
Oolong Tea
Where To Buy:
Shanti Tea
Product Description:
Directions…
2 – 3 min, milk not recommended
Ingredients…
Tea (Camellia Sinensis), Coffee Beans, Cacao pieces, rosehips, safflowers, natural essences
Tasting Notes…
Certification: Conventional
Grade or Quality: full leaf
Aroma: chocolately, smoky, coffee notes
Infusion Aroma: smooth chocolately aroma with mild smokiness and pronounced coffee
Infusion Color: dark amber
Base flavor: chocolate mocha, earthy
Infusion Strength: strong, full bodied
Tasters Review:
Oh.My.Gawd! YUMSVILLE! I know a lot of people are either a coffee person OR a tea person…of course I would say I was a tea person! But any time a company combines the two – I am intrigued!
The aroma of this is amazing! Juicy-sweet strawberry, Smooth and Sweet Chocolate, Hearty Mocha/Coffee! WOW!
The flavor is wonderful, too! All of the above in addition to semi-smoky Oolong!
It’s sweet, it’s juicy, it’s smooth, it’s slighty smoky, it’s coffee-bean, it’s a DREAM.
This is TOP NOTCH and takes you on a flavorful RIDE! LOVE it!
Peach Oolong from Della Terra Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong, Green
Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas
Tea Description:
Our Peach Oolong combines amazing oolong with a little green tea and peach flavor and peach rose hips. A delicious, light flavor. Flavored Oolong lovers, you will adore this tea!
Ingredients: Oolong tea, green tea, peach flavor and peach rose hips
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Peach Oolong from Della Terra Teas is a must try if you love peach flavored teas or oolong tea!
I was also surprised by the green tea in this blend and even though there is a strong juicy ripe peach flavor, along with an outstanding oolong flavor, the green tea still manages to shine through!
I love peach flavored teas, and as readers of this blog know, I adore oolong. This Peach Oolong from Della Terra really hits the spot for me! I was lucky that they included a sample in my last order. I will be making an order of this tea as soon as the sample is gone!
Della Terra not only has some of the yummiest tea blends around, but they are amazing in their customer service and always have really great sales! If you do not follow them on Facebook I really suggest that you do. They have regular drawings for free teas, as well as the amazing sales I already mentioned. They are always updated on their Facebook page. You can find them on Facebook here.
If you are not sure what you want to order check out their Try Me Packs.
I have many favorites from Della Terra Teas and have reviewed several here on the blog. I am really glad I got to try this one though. The peachy flavor is fresh and juicy, the oolong flavor offers a good support to all the peachiness, and the green tea has a really yummy butteriness that makes the blend taste a little like a buttery peach cobbler.
This tea verges between a replacement for fruit juice in the morning and a dessert tea after dinner.
Shui Jin Gui Wuyi from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
NOTES: Caramel, Hazelnut, Elderberry, Custard, Honeydew, Orchid
Commandingly rich and creamy Wuyi oolong with lingering honey, orchid, and citrus caramel flavors. . . .
In opening the first bag of this tea, sealed in Wuyi, we were struck by the rich honey orchid smell of the dry leaves. Commanding and rich even before steeping, we knew we were in for a treat. As we poured boiling water over a pot of the long twisted Shui Jin Gui leaves, the steam carried the nostalgic aroma of tangy simmering orange caramel in a copper pot.
The first sip filled the whole palate in the same satisfying way as a bit of creme brulee complete with creamy custard and burnt caramel qualities. The burnt caramel depth transformed in the aftertaste to a lingering dark elderberry and earthy hazelnut profile.
Later steepings revealed the rocky mineral taste that tea cultivated on the rocky cliffs of Wuyi is known for. The mineral notes gave way to sweet cinnamon and the warmth of ginger without the spiciness. Towards the very end, the aftertaste transformed into an almost vegetal creamy green bean flavor with a lingering honeydew melon sweet orchid finish.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
What more can I say about Shui Jin Gui Wuyi from Verdant Tea that isn’t already in the description? Except perhaps that I personally want to order a huge supply of this so that I am never out of it! To me this tea is Legen…. wait for it….dary! Yes a How I Met Your Mother reference there. I apologize.
The first word that comes to mind while I sniff the dry leaf is sweet honey sugar succulent dripping with lust omgoodness! Okay that was more than one word, but seriously, I do love oolong, but some oolong are far superior to others and this is like the king of dessert-y oolong!
The caramel is perfection, the elderberry brightens the cup and makes it just a tiny bit “zippy” the honey note gives the tea its depth of character adding to the caramel aspect its like something sinful. There is even a spicy note within this tea. Then there is a wondrous floral note that just gracefully lingers all over the tongue, roof of mouth, back of mouth, its dancing around everywhere with sugar berries, caramelized honey, earthy elderberry, and the nuttiness of almond that also adds a slightly, but never bitter astringency, yet this tea remains so smooth all at the same time.
Oh yes the ever important and expected rock mineral is all over my palate as well as expected from a Wuyi Oolong. It blends completely with the floral aspect of this tea making me think of wildflowers blossoming along a creek bed. Wherever this creek bed is, I want to be right there!
This review is probably up at the top of Azzrian’s reviews that make no sense, but I stand by it, in all its confusing weirdness (the review not the tea). Shui Jin Gui Wuyi Oolong from Verdant Tea is stunning, there is no cohesive way to put it. Yet this tea, is very cohesive, all elements of this tea make perfect sense.