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!
Taiwan Oriental Beauty (Bai Hao) from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
- Grown and produced in Xinzhu (Hsinchu), Taiwan
- Tea buds covered in white tips, with one or two leaves
- Bright-reddish orange tea liquor
- A mellow, sweet taste
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
True to its name, this is definitely a beauty!
Using my gaiwan, I steeped this tea using short steeps: following a quick 10 second rinse, I steeped it for about 45 seconds for the first infusion, and a full minute for the second infusion, and combined these two infusions in one cup. Each subsequent cup was poured in the same fashion, adding 15 seconds to each steep, and combining the brewed tea of two infusions. This produced a beautiful golden, honey-colored tea with a delicious honey-esque flavor to match its color.
There are delicate peach notes in the background which add to the sweetness but not in a way that renders it cloying. There is an earthiness to this cup as well, which offers the palate some balance to the sweet flavors of honey and peach.
The flavor seems to get better and better with each cup! The first cup was light and crisp in flavor and quite delicious, but with the second cup, the tea brewed a darker color and produced a deeper, richer flavor. The honey tones are now quite distinct.
The third cup was a little lighter than the second, but richer than the first. As I noticed that the tea was beginning to taper, I decided to stop at three cups … six very delicious infusions from one measurement of leaves!
Another delightful tea from Teavivre. If you tend to prefer your Oolongs to taste more of honey-fruit rather than floral, this would be an excellent choice!
Oriental Beauty from Cloudwalker Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Cloudwalker Teas
Company Description:
Oriental Beauty is a particularly special tea variety from Taiwan being offered at Cloudwalker. At a certain time of year, bees will nibble slightly at the tea leaves and this will cause the leaf to transform slightly into the classic oriental beauty. This tea is only from Taiwan and only from specific central Taiwanese counties. As this tea bursts forth from tea-spout to pitcher, one is immediately struck by it’s luminescence and viscosity. It is a nectarian, mouth-watering, mouth-tingling experience. It is smooth and acts quickly to engulf the palate. This oriental beauty contains superior honey qualities and an added buoyant ‘hui gan’ or returning sweetness on the throat. Ambrosial. This tea comes by its name honourably, and to purchase it you can be sure you will more completely understand its name.
The American Tea Masters Association held Tea Extravaganza 2009 at the Drake Hotel in San Diego, CA and named this one of the top 5 teas (of 14 top shelf teas) on the menu! New stock has just arrived!
Taster’s Review:
Formosa Oolong teas and I go way back – in fact, the very first Oolong I ever tasted was a Formosa and I fell completely in love with it. Since then, I’ve been introduced to many different Oolongs, and some that I might even enjoy a little more than Formosa Oolongs – but, Formosa will always hold a very special and dear place in my heart.
For that reason I was very excited to try Oriental Beauty Formosa Oolong from Cloudwalker Teas. And Cloudwalker Teas did not let me down! This is truly a delightful Oolong experience.
The aroma of the dry leaves is sweet and honey-esque. This aroma translates to the brewed liquor, it’s a little softer, but, nonetheless very inviting.
The flavor is sublime! It is smooth and rich and sweet. Pleasantly sweet – like golden honey! The mouthfeel also reminds me a bit of honey – not sticky like honey, but there is a very pleasing thickness to it that reminds me of honey.
There is absolutely no bitterness to this tea. It is absolutely divine! It has only the slightest astringency to it. THIS is the flavor that I fell in love with all those years ago!
While Formosa Oolong teas do make very enjoyable iced teas – for the fullest flavor and enjoyment of this tea, you should first try it hot… I am not saying NOT to drink it iced, because I love it iced; however, I love it even more hot. It is my opinion that the best way to experience all the subtle nuances of an Oolong is hot and unsweetened, and then, once you’ve experienced them, go ahead and experiment and try it iced. This one is also quite nice with a bit of fruit – either as an addition to the tea itself or a tray of fresh fruit would be quite good as well.
This one is an absolute must try for Oolong enthusiasts. It is truly a lovely Oolong tea.