Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
A present from the loving Bodhisattva of Compassion. Tightly rolled, the full leaves unfurl to emit pleasant stone fruit and wild honey notes with a hint of roasted nuts.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As these last few days as a tea reviewer have been winding down, I’ve had the opportunity to try some really fabulous teas! This Iron Buddha Oolong Tea from Oollo Tea certainly belongs with that fabulous group. It’s absolutely lovely!
I brewed this in my new gaiwan which has gotten quite a workout this past week or so. My much utilized gaiwan broke so I needed to replace it and since I didn’t want to wait around for a new easy gaiwan to arrive, I decided to – for the meantime – use one of the smaller gaiwans that I happened to have on my tea shelf but have never used. I have to admit that the thin porcelain China does get very hot and it’s more difficult to pour so I’ll be glad when my new gaiwan arrives.
It takes three infusions to fill my little teacup (my old gaiwan filled it with two infusions), so this first cup is the combination of the first three infusions after a 15 second rinse.
The above description pretty much nails this tea – it’s sweet with notes of honey, nutty and toasty with a very pleasant peach-like flavor. It’s very smooth with a silky mouthfeel. Such a delicious drink – it disappeared almost instantly.
My second cup was even sweeter because the peach notes began to emerge. Still honeyed, nutty and toasty, these flavors merged with the peach notes to create a flavor medley that tasted a bit like a peach dessert.
With my third cup, I started to notice flavors waning so I decided to stop there – but I still got 9 amazing infusions out of this tea! Delicious!
Milky Jinxuan High Mountain Oolong from Oollo Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
The true milky Jinxuan oolong tea with natural cream milk accent and luscious texture. The Alishan family farms tea trees that were bought from our family in 1990. They practice zero pesticide natural farming.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s no big secret that I absolutely adore a good Milky Oolong tea. This Milky Jinxuan High Mountain Oolong from Oollo Tea is one of the very best I’ve tried thus far. It’s so delightfully sweet and creamy but the creaminess isn’t heavy. It’s not overwhelming my palate.
I love the texture to this first cup (infusions 1, 2 & 3 – yes three infusions in one cup, I’m using a smaller gaiwan today), it’s very silky and softly creamy. Smooth!
The flavor is sweet with notes of orchid. It’s not sharply floral because the creamy buttery taste helps soften the floral taste without overpowering this delightful flowery essence. It’s not bitter or astringent. It’s just … lovely. Oh so delightful.
My second cup (infusions 4 – 6) still has some of that silky texture, although much of the milky taste has waned. This is much more floral than the first cup. It’s sweet with spun sugar notes. I taste light vegetal notes to this too. I am also tasting a light nutty flavor that almost tastes “popcorn” like to me. As the tea cools slightly, some of the creamy notes seem to develop so it’s not completely without that milky note.
My third cup (infusions 7 – 9) was softer in flavor than the second. Not as creamy as either the first or second cup, but still beautifully floral with more nutty flavors and even a hint of peach can be detected! I still get that light, spun-sugar type of flavor that I really like.
What a lovely tea!
Oriental Beauty (Bai Hao) Oolong from Oollo Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
Renowned for its beautiful five colour dancing leaves. This traditional beauty exudes apricot and peach scents followed by indulging orchid, muscat grape, and apple flavours.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oollo Tea offers some outstanding teas and this Oriental Beauty Oolong is a perfect example. It’s one of the nicest Bai Hao Oolong teas that I’ve tasted in a quite some time!
The aroma is lovely – it reminds me of warm peaches – like the filling in a peach cobbler. Warm and bubbly and sweet! That’s what I think of when I smell this tea!
The tea has a wonderful fruit flavor – I taste stone fruit and flower. The above description suggests orchid and when I focus on the floral notes, yes, I would say that the flower I taste is indeed orchid. I taste notes of peach and apricot and hints of a honeyed sweetness.
I don’t taste muscat grape or apple yet, but perhaps those flavors will reveal themselves in later infusions. For now, I’m quite happy with the notes of honey, orchid and peach-y apricot!
With my second cup (infusions 3 and 4) I am picking up some of those aforementioned notes of grape and apple. Really nice! I taste less of the peach and apricot flavors – those seemed to have disappeared – but I still taste a lovely orchid note and a lovely sweetness that I’d describe as more of a sugary sweetness now rather than a honey-like sweetness. This tastes a bit like the sugar notes I’d experience if I were to eat a handful of raisins.
This cup is really smooth with just a hint of astringency toward the tail. I taste a light, hay-like note to this too, similar to what I’d taste from a Bai Mu Dan (white tea). Every once in a while, I’ll also taste the slightest whisper of vanilla.
I started to notice the flavor waning with my third cup (infusions 5 and 6), so I decided it would be my last of this tea. But I had three marvelous cups of tea! The third cup still had plenty of flavor – lovely notes of apple and grape and almost a melon-like background note that I hadn’t noticed in the previous infusions! Still sweet, still lovely.
A really wonderful tea – this Oriental Beauty from Oollo Tea! If you haven’t checked out their website yet, you should stop in and check them out!
Limited Edition AliShan High Mountain Black Tea from Oollo Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
Alishan Mountain is known for its amazing mountain oolong teas however it also produces small limited batches of black teas. This particular 2014 harvest brews a prominent cacao chocolate flavour with wooden musky aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Ohhh … lovely! This Limited Edition AliShan High Mountain Black Tea from Oollo Tea is absolutely wonderful – just exactly the tea that I needed this afternoon!
This isn’t as robust a black tea as an Assam or even a Ceylon might be. Instead, imagine an AliShan Oolong meets a top-quality Fujian black tea. That’s what this tastes like to me – like the love child of a marriage between an AliShan Oolong and a Fujian Black.
I get those sweet notes of cacao that I’d taste in a Fujian Black but I get the soft, almost creamy body of an AliShan Oolong. It’s rich and full-flavored but not as robust and aggressive as a typical black tea.
And it’s smooth! Oh so smooth. I am getting very little astringency and no bitterness. I taste notes of a woodsy flavor and the aforementioned cacao. Hints of sweet, buttery caramel. Notes of flower and peach.
A truly remarkable tea. This is the kind of black tea that I’d recommend for afternoon tea drinking – it isn’t as robust as I would want from a breakfast tea. But don’t let that dissuade you from trying this tea – because you really should try this tea. It’s so good!
Red Jade Black Tea from Oollo Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Oollo Tea
Tea Description:
A perfect marriage between Burma Ashamu and Taiwanese wild tea. The long twisted whole leaves give distinct smooth raisin, date and cinnamon infusions with traces of peppermint.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Red Jade Black Tea from Oollo Tea is one of those teas that after taking my first sip, the sound that I uttered was “Mmm.” Not a lot of teas elicit that response from me. This one did.
The dry leaves are dark, chocolaty brown. They’ve been rolled lengthwise, producing a very long and wiry shape. Because of the long, curly composure of these leaves, it’s difficult to actually measure a bamboo scoop of the leaves into the basket of my Kati tumbler. So instead, I eyeballed it. Then I added 12 ounces of boiling water and let the tea steep for 3 minutes.
Now I have a cup of perfection!
I enjoy most tea types: Green, White, Black and if I’m going to be totally honest, I even enjoy most of the Pu-erh that I’ve encountered. I’ve enjoyed some of the variations and even the new varietal Purple teas. Oolong teas and Yellow teas are my favorites. But the tea type that I drink the most is Black tea. So, I guess I could amend my previous statement to say that black teas are my favorite, followed closely by Yellows and Oolongs.
And this tea from Oollo is a perfect example of why I love black tea so much. It has a rich, invigorating flavor but it doesn’t get all aggressive on me. Instead, it’s smooth and sweet. The description above is spot on with its comparison to raisin and date. That sugary sweetness that I’d taste if I were to bite into a raisin or a date, that’s the kind of sweetness I taste when I sip this tea. 
There are notes of gently warm spice and hints of rich malt. There is a slight intonation of cacao and a whisper of caramel. And the aftertaste delivers just a hint of minty taste, especially if I draw a breath of air over my palate just after I’ve finished a sip.
The tea is so wonderfully sweet but not so sweet that it becomes all about the sweet. There is a nice complexity to this. Lots of depth to the flavor. Those sugary sweet notes from the dried fruit are top notes, with a mid-note of warm spice. Undertones of caramel that mingle with notes of cacao. Every once in a while, I pick up on a hint of leather. A subtle note of plum comes in here and there. And every once in a while, I even pick up on a floral tone. It’s a wonderful cup with lots of layers of flavor to explore!
This tea is an absolute DELIGHT to sip. If you haven’t had the opportunity to try anything from Oollo Tea yet, I urge you to get to their website immediately and try some of their fantastic teas. And be sure to put this tea in your cart while you’re shopping. You’ll thank me later!