Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Oolong

Where to Buy: The Mountain Tea Company

Tea Description:

Our Medium Roast Osmanthus Oolong has a delightful taste of caramel and osmanthus with hints of coffee and cacao.

Many of the roasted oolongs you’ll find today are ‘qing xiang’ or ‘light fragrance’ style, popularized by Taiwanese tea makers, which favors a light, floral aroma. This oolong was roasted in-house by our very own tea master; it’s an homage to the traditional style of tea making. To develop a deep, rich character, we roasted this tea over the course of 9 days, for a total of 144 hours. This slow roasting gradually caramelizes the natural sugars within the tea and imparts body and layers of complexity.

Water: 6 oz.; 200-212°F

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Upon sipping Medium Roast Osmanthus Oolong from The Mountain Tea Company I find it to be surprisingly lighter than I had anticipated. Keep in mind however I love oolong, the darker the better, so maybe its just lighter on my palate.

There are woodsy notes, and even some notes that lean toward a vegetal flavor slightly, but I am not picking up on the sweetness of the osmanthus. I do get the floral aspect of the osmanthus for sure which is lovely, fresh, and delightful. I was hoping for the sweetness from it however.

This is a medium roast oolong although it may be too dark for some and too light for others I find it to be quite pleasing even if I am slightly disappointed that it does not taste the way I had anticipated it to.

What is cool about The Mountain Tea Company is they list their oolongs by roast on their website which I find quite handy when needing to restock a specific type.

Now I am a huge fan of The Mountain Tea Company, I repeat, huge fan, but this is not my favorite tea from them. That is not to say it is a bad tea whatsoever! It is quite nice especially if you love floral notes in your oolong. Its not as sweet as some of their teas, nor as complex in my opinion, but what it does deliver it delivers well.

I really love the lingering after taste of this tea and its refreshing qualities. While it has an interesting dryness on the roof of the mouth I find my mouth really watering in anticipation of the next sip. The lingering aftertaste is highly floral.

According to Wikipedia:

 Traditional Chinese Medicine claims that drinking osmanthus tea improves complexion and helps rid the body of excess nitric oxide, a compound that is linked to the formation of cancer, diabetes and renal disease.

So drink up friends, drink up!