Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Zi Chun Tea Co.
Tea Description:
High quality hand picked jinxuan oolong blended with natural jasmine flower.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I do love Jasmine teas, as I’ve mentioned many times before, and while white Jasmine teas tend to be my favorite now, I really like Jasmine Oolong teas. I like the way the sweet, exotic essence of the jasmine flower melds with the smooth, creamy notes of the Oolong tea – in this case, a jinxuan Oolong – it seems to be a marriage made in heaven when jasmine flower and Oolong tea comes together. This is certainly true of this Premium Jasmine Oolong Tea from Zi Chun Tea Company.
This is really delightful. The heavier “creamy” notes of the Oolong seem to offset the sometimes sharp notes of the jasmine … and together the two components offer a flavor that is soft, sweet, delicately floral and smooth.
The natural floral notes of the Oolong tea and the jasmine complement each other in a very lovely way … sometimes I find the natural floral notes of a greener Oolong like this tea to be somewhat overwhelming for the palate … but here, even though this is a FLORAL tea, the floral notes do not inundate the palate the way an unscented green Oolong tea’s floral notes sometimes can.
This Oolong tea – like so many other high quality Oolong teas – can be steeped multiple times. I find that the later steepings of this tea are especially wonderful … the jasmine notes subside just a little bit, and really unify with the Oolong.
A really fantastic tea journey awaits with this Jasmine Oolong from Zi Chun!
Cupcake from Old Wilmington Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Old Wilmington Tea Co.
Company Description:
Who can resist a cupcake? Treat yourself every day with our yummy blend of black tea, natural vanilla & caramel flavor with fun colorful sprinkles mixed in! A celebration in your teacup!
Taster’s Review:
This is definitely a celebration in a teacup!
Ahh… a cupcake! Is there any dessert that elicits more child-like delight than a cupcake? I – being of strong sweet tooth – love cupcakes. I’m sure that probably comes as no surprise to any of you who have read many of my reviews! But, I must admit, my love of cupcakes is somewhat of an obsession.
So when I found this tea as I was browsing Old Wilmington’s website, I knew I had to try it. Fortunately, Old Wilmington offers generously sized sample packages, super fast shipping, and very courteous service.
The black tea base used for this blend is very robust. Although Old Wilmington does not reveal what black tea they use for this tea, I suspect that it is a blend that contains Assam, if not made entirely of Assam. My reason for believing this is that this is a very strong, malty tasting tea and you just don’t really get that from an average, everyday Ceylon. Yes, occasionally you might find a Ceylon that can pack this kind of punch, but, it doesn’t happen often. Whatever the tea in this base, it brews to a very stout, delicious liquor.
I don’t know that what I’m tasting here in my cup actually tastes like a cupcake. I can taste a deliciously decadent caramel flavoring, as well as a creamy vanilla note. That creamy note is further enhanced by the addition of milk or cream, which I did add, to make it a latte. I tried it first without the milk, but I do think that it is much better with it. The milk gives it a real smooth, rich flavor that makes a very good cup quite extraordinary.
I strongly recommend to anyone who is trying this tea for the first time to experiment with your steeping time. I recommend starting out at just 2 or 2 1/2 minutes. The first time I brewed it, I brewed it for 3 minutes and quickly learned (within moments following my first sip) that this was too long. The tea can take on a slightly bitter taste when brewed too long… and nobody wants a bitter cupcake, am I right?
Despite an unsuccessful first attempt (well, it wasn’t really unsuccessful, it just was slightly bitter, but not undrinkable), I will say that this is one “cupcake” that is worth the effort of finding the right time for your perfect cup of tea. (I found that 2 1/2 minutes is just perfect for me) It is a delightful treat any time of day, a great way to indulge without consuming a lot of extra calories (let’s face it, cupcakes do taste good, but they aren’t particularly waistline friendly, are they?) Even adding just a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk to your cup to enhance the vanilla and caramel flavors only adds a fraction of the calories than consuming a cupcake.