Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Nuvola Tea
Tea Description:
Taiwan Oolong Black Tea (US$7.7)
Oolong Black Tea is a special black tea created from Oolong Tea. The infusion has a rich amber colour with a luxurious fruity flavour and a smooth mouth-feel. It is not only great as a hot drink that can retain its flavour even after multiple infusions, but also is delightfully refreshing when served cold – a delicious diversion from the everyday.
(Unit Price US$7.7)
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Premium Taiwan Oolong Black from Nuvola Tea has a sinful aroma! It smells sweet, deep, intoxicating. There is a malty aroma cutting through the sweet aroma, then nutty, woodsy, so many wonderful sensations – and this is just the initial smell!
First sip … mmmmmm….always impressed with Nuvola teas! I have to admit, as an oolong lover, I was confused when I read the name of this tea. However upon investigation – which means reading their description, it makes sense. I do plan to do a little more research on this type of tea however because I am very intrigued.
There is a wonderful fruity flavor to this tea, perhaps a berry like fruit. Then we get a deep and earthy note, the mouthfeel is rather on the light side in contrast to the deeper and earthy flavors. Now to qualify, when I say earthy, what I am finding in this tea is a light mineral note, and a slight woodsy note. The deeper, earthy notes would be that of wood, nut, and hay caramel, and cocoa.
The thing is this is one of those teas you want to prepare gong fu style and enjoy multiple steeping sessions. What I am reviewing here are merely steeps one and two. This tea however has so much to offer and will certainly hold up for many more steeps to come! I will be steeping this through out the day and enjoying every wonderful cup!
Steep two for me provides a richer cup, one that is heavier than steep one. It is just lovely! More of the earthy notes come out with a darker sweetness from the cocoa note. The tea becomes more caramel flavored but I can still detect that mineral note shining through along with some slight flavors of the hay as mentioned before. The berry note does not seem as apparent on the tongue but in the after taste it comes through as a cherry flavor. Wonderful! Steep two also has an near creamy texture to it yet somehow still remains refreshing and bright, not heavy or cloying. As the tea cools even slightly the mineral notes get stronger.
I love the complexity of this tea! On one hand its sweet and makes me feel like Willy Wonka in a candy shop but as soon as I find myself relishing in the sweet goodness this fresh breeze rolls in offering a light refreshing note of rock mineral and hay as if I am strolling through the woods on a sunny day. I do a double take and have to ask myself which side of this tea I prefer more but I can’t make that call, no way, both are so wonderful! This is truly a tea for a dual sign like myself, being Gemini I want the best of both worlds and this tea absolutely provides me that! I get my earthy hay and mineral notes that even have an ever so delicate vegetal edge, right down to my need to curb my sweet tooth.
This is a rare and wonderful delight and I highly recommend trying some tea from Nuvola! I know so far I have sampled about 5 of their teas and I have yet to find one that is less than stellar!
See more reviews from the SororiTea Sisters for Nuvola Teas here.
Da Yu Ling Oolong from Tea from Taiwan
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea from Taiwan
Tea Description:
Da Yu Ling oolong tea (wu-long tea) is a premium-grade oolong tea from the Da Yu Ling area of Taiwan’s Taichung county. Its high altitude (more than 2400 meters) makes this one of the highest tea plantations in the world.
Learn more about this Oolong here.
Taster’s Review:
The website states that this tea was harvested winter 2012, and the package was vacuum sealed to preserve the freshness … and it is evident in the tasting! This tastes really fresh!
I chose to try this tea because I didn’t recognize it as one that I had tried before, but now as I’ve read the entire description on the website, I see that this is a tea that is grown on the Li Shan mountain. I guess that makes it similar (or possibly identical to?) a Li Shan Oolong … but, as I taste it, while I do note some similarities, I note also some striking differences to Li Shan Oolong tea (which I do love, by the way!)
What I notice in this first cup (the combination of my first two infusions, following a quick 15 second rinse) is a very crisp, almost “perfumed-air” quality to the flavor. But not perfumed as in a chemical taste, but more like the air that you might taste if you were in a meadow where orchids and lilies bloom. Imagine what that air that surrounds the meadow might taste like … that is what I taste here. It is quite floral – tasting primarily of orchid, with hints of lily.
It is refreshing and sweet and very enjoyable. There is a gentle creaminess to the cup, not overly buttery or like milk or cream, but something quite similar to that, lighter though, perhaps. There is an undertone of fruit, reminiscent of the apple pear … or what is also known as the Asian Pear. Crisp, sweet and juicy, but also delicate as the Asian Pear is delicate in flavor. Very pleasant.
In subsequent infusions, the flavors become less distinct, as they seem to meld together to offer a sweet, smooth, delightful flavor. It is at once: floral, slightly creamy, vegetative, and sweet. Lovely!
Oriental Beauty Tea (Dong Fang Mei Ren) from Driftwood Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Driftwood Tea
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.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a rather unusual Oriental Beauty – and I mean that in a very good way.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Oriental Beauty Oolong teas, they are one of my favorite Oolong varieties, but, I have come to expect certain things with Oriental Beauty and this one surprised me with some of the flavors I’m tasting here.
Normally, I expect a strong essence of a fuzzy, ripe peach, and I do detect some peach-y notes here, but I’m also tasting a strong muscatel note – so much so that it’s almost Darjeeling-esque! It tastes of fermented grapes, with a hint of wood and musk, and a sweet, apricot/peach note.
The aroma of the brewed tea offers a floral note as well as a woody tone, but I don’t taste a strong floral essence. There are some flowery notes to the flavor, but, the majority of the floral tones remain in the fragrance, and do not translate so much into the flavor.
But that’s alright, because I’m loving the way the flavors come together in this cup, with its strong fruity presence and background notes of wood and musk, hints of spice and whispers of flower. It’s a beautifully complex cup, and offers some surprises to what I expected might be an ordinary cup of Oriental Beauty tea. And while there’s nothing wrong with the typical cup of Oriental Beauty – I love Oriental Beauty Oolong! – it’s nice to have a tea challenge me and question what I thought I knew about this tea!
I love this!
Lemon Rose Bud from Fusion Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Fusion Teas
Tea Description:
Taiwanese oolong blended to perfection. With floral notes and hints of lemon and ginger it isn’t just pretty to look at. Instead of picking up that bouquet for your better half try surprising with this one of a kind blend.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf is absolutely gorgeous! The leaves look like a fine quality, green Tie Kuan Yin – although the description is vague about the type of leaf that it is, stating only that it is a Taiwanese Oolong, the leaves are forest-y green and tightly wound into pellets, similar to most Tie Kuan Yin Oolong teas that I’ve encountered – and there are lots of tiny, red, perfectly formed rose buds tossed amongst the tea leaves as well as bits of lemon grass. It’s so beautiful, I was almost reluctant to brew it, because I just wanted to look at it! But, the key word in that sentence is almost! I wasn’t going to let the beauty of the leaf keep me from brewing it.
The aroma is also quite lovely. The dry tea smells very intriguing, evoking thoughts of exotic pastry that is made with rose water. The fragrance of the rose is very distinctive, with bright notes of lemon, a fresh, vegetative note and a touch of ginger. But there is also a bread-y, pastry-like scent to this too, something that is difficult to place because of the ingredients … that is to say, I don’t know why I am smelling a pastry-like scent, but I am! And it smells mouth-wateringly delicious! Once brewed, the fragrance is different, smelling primarily of rose and Oolong.
And I’m very happy to report that the flavor does not disappoint. Sometimes, it happens where a beautiful looking and smelling tea does not carry through with the flavor, but that didn’t happen here. The flavor is definitely rose: sweet and floral. It has a taste that is very much like the rose water I mentioned previously.
The Oolong tastes sweet and slightly creamy … almost buttery. There is a vegetative note to it that marries with the rose notes in a lovely way. The lemon notes are very faint here, almost overwhelmed by the rose, but, I’m liking the way its an accent flavor … sort of like squeezing a drop or two of fresh lemon juice into the teacup. The ginger is also faint, and for this I am glad, as ginger does have a way of becoming a rather overpowering flavor … here, the flavor is very subtle, adding just a hint of spice to the cup. The ginger is most distinct in the aftertaste, where I notice a developing warmth in the back of my mouth. Not strong, nor is it developing in a powerful sort of way, but in the aftertaste … long into the aftertaste, I notice ginger. It’s quite nice.
I’d recommend this tea to those who generally love rose flavored teas – it is a deliciously different approach to a rose tea! I’d also recommend it to those that love Oolong, because it is a really unique Oolong blend, quite unlike anything I’ve tasted before.
Taiwan Honey Black Tea Oolong from T-Oolong Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black … or … Oolong
Where to Buy: T-Oolong Tea
Tea Description:
This high quality Taiwan Honey Black Tea Oolong is all natural, handpicked, handcrafted and produced from Qingxin Dapa varietal, the tea leaves used to produce Oriental Beauty. This tea has an intense honey aroma and taste, very pleasant and enjoyable. The taste is a mixture of black tea and oriental beauty oolong. This tea is very rich, complex, smooth and delectable with almost no bitterness and astringency. The aftertaste is very sweet and long lasting and makes you want another sip.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
At first glance, it might appear that this tea suffers from an identity crisis or perhaps a split personality. At the very least, it probably seems confused.
From what I understand of this tea, the leaves that would generally be used to make an Oriental Beauty Oolong are used to make this tea: fermented to the point of being deemed a black tea. I could be wrong, and if any of my readers know more about this particular tea, please feel free to comment as I’d love to learn a little more about it.
What I do know, though, is that this is delicious! Sweet and rich – with notes of chocolate and caramel throughout the sip. This is reminiscent of a favorite tea that some of us on Steepster probably remember quite fondly: Dawn from the Simple Leaf. The Simple Leaf has since closed shop, but the memories of this tea linger! It was a remarkable tea, and this Honey Black Tea Oolong is, at the very least, equally as remarkable.
The honey notes are profound, and meld deliciously with the caramel-y notes to create a honey-caramel taste that is lip-smackingly delectable. It has a dense richness to it, a creamy sort of mouthfeel with very little astringency. After the first few sips which are indulgently honey-esque, I start to notice hints of fruit and even a floral note somewhere in the distance. These are notes that require a bit of a “slurp” to really detect, because the chocolate-y, caramel-y notes are so forward that the other notes seem quite content to tantalize from afar.
A really delightful tea – if you miss Dawn from The Simple Leaf … try this tea! If you like sweet, naturally chocolate notes in your black tea … try this tea! If you like the mouthfeel of an Oolong but want something richer and deeper … you know what I’m going to say, don’t you? Try this tea!