With a name like De-Lovely, you can’t help but expect a tea that will bring a smile to your face. De-Lovely from the Tea Crew is an oolong tea with sweet almond and chocolate flavors.
Chocolate teas can be tricky, sometimes they aren’t very chocolate-like, and other times they end up like watered-down hot cocoa. However, De-Lovely smelled very promising, both in the dry leaf and in the brewed tea.
Upon my first sip, I knew this chocolate tea was a winner. The oolong base is more roasted than green, and goes very well with the marzipan almond flavors. With a rich and nutty base, the chocolate notes thrive, bringing a dark chocolate, almost-floral sweetness. When I looked at the ingredients list, I noticed that there is even a bit of coconut in the mix to help add a buttery mouthfeel and creamy richness.
The oolong tea base helps keep this from being too decadent or overpowering. The tea leaves themselves still have a strong bodied presence among all the sweet desserts. Nutty, roasty, chocolatey, this tea is just lovely!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: The Tea Crew
Description:
Somewhere between green and black tea lies Oolong tea, semi-fermented loveliness.
This blend is sweet, nutty and chocolatey. It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Tsuei Luan Oolong Tea by Tea from Taiwan . . . .
I steeped this tea for three minutes with five grams of leaf in six ounces of water at 190 degrees.
It smells so lovely in the packet that I kind of want to eat it. The tiny densely rolled-up leaves (which I let float free in the cup so I can watch them moving around and unfurling) are so cool! It seems about half of them are floating and half are sinking. It smells fruity, orchidy and a bit savory.
First sip: Super rich! So much flavor!! The tea leaves have unrolled into large, intact leaves and the tea liquid is a gentle yellow that reminds me of winter sun.
As I sip the tea, it’s astringent, creamy/buttery, a little grassy, viscous, and a little nutty even, with some floral/orchidy notes flying around too. It’s also a bit “leafy” so I may have steeped it a bit long, or maybe that’s just supposed to be part of the flavor. Either way, it’s a very interesting combo with the buttery and the fruity and the vegetal/savory aspects.
It’s a full and rich cup, and I don’t think it needs sugar or milk. I really enjoyed finishing this cup off and I’d love to have more of it sometime. Apparently this tea is very popular with aficionados of Taiwan teas (according to Tea from Taiwan’s website), and although I myself am not an expert in that area, I can definitely see how that would be the case.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea from Taiwan
Description
Tsuei Luan Oolong tea (wulong tea) is grown in the Tsuei Luan district of Li Shan (Pear Mountain). This area is a former fruit producing region which was converted to tea plantations in the late 1970’s. The soil quality of the former orchards is excellent, and the high altitude (more than 2,000 meters) of this district provides a cool, moist climate – ideal conditions for growing tea.
Tsuei Luan oolong tea has an exquisitely sweet aroma and interesting flavour profile. The slightly floral taste has a definite fruit undertone – said to be the result of growing tea on orchard land. This tea has a very pleasing flavour that makes it one of the most popular teas amongst Taiwan tea connoisseurs.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
