Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea Source
Tea Description:
This rare regional oolong from Wuyi Mountain, Fujian yields a light liquor, but with great aroma, taste, and texture. You’ll experience: sweet, nutty, fruity, honey, and silky over many steepings. These long, large, twisted, bronze/brown leaves are produced at more than 1000′ elevation from the Qi Lan cultivar.
Learn more about this tea here.
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Taster’s Review:
This is a really nice Oolong! This Rare Orchid Oolong Tea from Tea Source is an example of why I really love the Steepster Select boxes – I get the opportunity to try teas that maybe I wouldn’t have tried if not for the Steepster Select program.
I’m loving the malty notes to this Oolong. It’s not a flavor that I usually associate with an Oolong, and I love it when I discover an Oolong that offers me something a little different that I haven’t really tasted in an Oolong before.
Over on Steepster, some of the other tasting notes on this tea mention an Asparagus-like flavor, and I’m not tasting that yet. I’m hoping that in later infusions, I’ll pick up on that flavor. But for now, in this first cup (infusions 1 and 2 following a 15 second rinse), I’m happily enjoying the flavors of malt, a sweet honey flavor, and a sweet, creamy vanilla note. There are some lovely floral notes to this cup too.
With my second cup (infusions 3 and 4), I noticed more vanilla notes … this second cup is so creamy! More honey notes, less malt than in the first cup, and the floral tones seem somewhat subdued compared to the first cup – not quite as sharp, or perhaps the vanilla has softened the floral tones just a little bit. Either way, I really like the way the vanilla flavors seem to really envelop the palate. And if I focus, I taste hints of the asparagus note that I was searching for in that first cup, and I’m also picking up on a distant fruit note.
My final cup (infusions 5 and 6) was a mellower tasting cup. I still tasted the vanilla, but this was less creamy than the second. I could taste the fruit notes a little more than I did in the second cup, but, I’m tasting less honey and malt this time around. Still a really flavorful cup, though, and definitely worth the effort!
This was a really lovely Oolong, I’m glad that I was able to try it – thanks to my Steepster Select subscription! Interested in subscribing to the Steepster Select program? Click here.
