Oolong is such a delicate tea.
If you eat or drink anything heavy before some, like this one, you’ll often find that some of the intricate flavors are hidden. I find it best to cleanse my palette with a few small cups (maybe 4-5 tablespoons worth) and then begin to decipher flavors after that.
This seems like your typical Ti Kwan Yin. Some orchid notes in both flavor and aroma along with slight marine and grassy notes. A shorter steeping time reveals sweeter characteristics with stronger floral emphasis while a longer steep will, like most teas, bring out more tannins.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Enjoying Tea
Description
This Oolong comes from the province of Fujian and is great when brewed Gongfu Style. This tea is named after the Iron Goddess of Mercy. When brewed, this tea offers a smooth taste, nutty flavor, and a sweet lingering aftertaste. This tea is also great served chilled.
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Sijichun / Fong Mong
Using a Yixing clay tea pot along with an aroma cup set in order to fully extract all the greatness from this tea. It has a 6 minute steep, though I highly suggest taking sips along the way till you reach that point as you will find the flavor profile will change. The dry leaves are beautifully rolled and curled with a mix of lighter and darker greens. As the leaves unravel in the water you can see the care that was taken to make sure to only pluck the most tender and attractive leaves. So far, through three steepings and many sips at different times throughout, the mineral flavor remains constant while the vegetal flavor seems to appear more as you steep. The mouth feel is very silky and leaves an after taste that is somewhat reminiscent of butter with spinach.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Fong Mong Tea
Description
Sijichun, plucked from Taiwan peculiar Four Seasons Spring tea cultivar, in addition to stringent management of planting, Taiwan fruity oolong tea (Sijichun) was handcrafted to refine into circumspect & traditional oolong tea. This Four Seasons Spring oolong was strictly selected as a higher grade oolong tea, possesses particularly pure and strong fresh flower fragrance plus smooth taste which you, tea lovers, won’t miss it out.
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Lemongrass Oolong / The Tea Club
In the world of tea and tisane, there are some ingredients used that are overpowering. One of these is lemongrass. This tea is a perfect example, in taste and aroma, of how careful a tea blender must be in combining their ingredients.
The lemongrass is all that can be smelled, good thing it’s a calming scent.
Whoever blended this tea did a wonderful job. At first I wasn’t impressed All the flavor was lemongrass.
Even the after taste was lemongrass. Don’t get me wrong it’s a gentle flavor that can easily be enjoyed but what I really wanted was to taste the oolong. With a bit more steep time the uniqueness of this tea came forth. It is very apparent that whoever blended this tea has taken a class or five on tea blending. The oolong may be the main ingredient but in this case it aids the lemongrass. The floral, citrus, and tropical notes are subtly amplified.
The only thing I’m not really fond of in this tea is the pineapple pieces. They add a unique tropical tone to the tea but because of this the aftertaste is a bit artificial.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: The Tea Club
Description:
This was a special blend in the December Tea Club pack.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Drink Me Oolong from Plum Deluxe
Drink Me Oolong from Plum Deluxe has a warm and toasty roasted oolong base with added mango and almond essence. The darker oolong tea keeps the blend from getting too sweet, adding an almost savory nuttiness with each sip. The almond adds its trademark, almost-floral marzipan candy taste. The fruity mango adds a nice brightness to keep this blend uplifting and not too dense or cake-like.
I believe the name of this blend is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, but even without the reference is it a cute name to have looking back at you from your tea cupboard on rainy days. With sunny mango, bakery sweet almond, and a mid-level of caffeine, this is a great tea for the afternoon slump or a mid-day tea party.
Drink Me Oolong from Plum Deluxe was a limited edition blend, that should cycle back around in their seasonal blends or as part of their subscription service. In the meantime, give Pick Me Up Oolong a try, with almond and maple flavors and a similar oolong tea base.
Or try another flavor of oolong tea. Plum Deluxe teas always have great flavor combinations, and include things like “love” and “gratitude” on their ingredients list, so you can’t help but feel good when you brew a cup of their tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
This tea is no longer available but click below for other options!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Vietnam Gui Fei Oolong from What Cha. . . .
I may have gone a bit overboard this past Black Friday. I was splurging on tea orders right, left, and center. Normally those orders would be for flavored teas but a friend of mine was ordering from websites that have huge selections of straight teas and I decided to join in on her orders. One such site was What-Cha. I have had several of their straight teas thanks to others sharing samples with me and I’ve always been impressed.
More than just straight teas, I decided to go wild when it came to the oolong sections of these sites. In hindsight this was a weird choice for me since up until recently I wouldn’t even try a flavored oolong tea, let alone a straight one. I guess as time goes on, your tastes change and my tastes are moving towards oolongs. What Cha must have sensed that because this tea, Vietnam Gui Fei Oolong Tea, arrived as the sample in our order.
This tea has a really nice honey sweetness. That is what stands out sip after sip. As I continue to drink it does become a bit more nuanced with the honey giving way to a touch of signature oolong toastiness. The more I focus, the more I can taste. In addition to the honey, the sweetness has a slight taste of stonefruit and raisin and a little citrus zip intermingled with the toastiness. Also, floating about is a touch of rose/floral that could be present because I expect that in an oolong more than because its actually there.
What is nice about this tea is that the sweetness gives it some body and that body reads almost like a caramel / malt making this come off like a dessert tea despite it having no dessert flavorings. It is light and rich at the same time which makes it easy to drink again and again.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: What Cha
Description
A highly aromatic oolong with a wonderfully sweet honey aroma and taste accompanied by citrus fruit notes of orange blossoms and peach.
Gui Fei is notable as it requires the leaf to be nibbled by leafhoppers just like Oriental Beauty. The tea plant responds by releasing more polyphenols into the leaves, resulting in added sweetness and complexity in the tea.
