Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where to Buy: Tea Ave
Tea Description:
This is it: the original Dong Ding Oolong, grown on the Dong Ding Mountain in Nantou County in central Taiwan, where Dong Ding Oolong originated. One of the best oolong teas in the world. A perpetual favorite among oolong lovers, it has a strong, clean flavor and an aroma of ripe fruit. Partially oxidized and lightly roasted, Dong Ding is an approachable tea—a good choice for oolong newbies to whet their taste buds with.
Dong Ding turns an amber color when infused and possesses a sweet, fruity flavor and aroma. Longer infusion times will yield a stronger, more vivid tea, with a fuller body and aroma. Smooth, with a clean aftertaste. Don’t blame us if you develop a Dong Ding habit.
Tea leaves are green and come curled into balls.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Dong Ding Oolong from Tea Ave. What can I say? It’s everything you expect in a might-fine Dong Ding Oolong! It has a strong yet clean flavor and aroma. The nose and tongue also features a lightly roasted characteristics, too! The aftertaste has subtle notes of ripe stone fruit. This will please new Oolong sippers all the way up to Oolong Gurus!
It’s also an extremely versatile Oolong. What I mean by this is that you can steep it in a tea bag, warm your water in a tea pot and infuse the loose leaf that way, cold brew it overnight, or go with the traditional Gaiwan.
This Oolong is pretty heavy-duty, too, as it offers multiple infusions with optimal flavor. This is a real winner among Dong Ding Oolongs. YUP! Dong Ding Oolong From Tea Ave is a goodie!
Rose Oolong Tea from Tea Ave
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where to Buy: Tea Ave
Tea Description:
Our Rose Oolong is a flower tea prepared using the ancient method, in which the tea absorbs the flower fragrance during the baking progress, producing a scented tea that’s aromatic and flavorful without using any additives or chemicals.
We blend our Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong with fresh Taiwanese roses to create an elegant flower tea that is both full-bodied and mellow, with rose petals lending delicate floral notes to a robust oolong body. Rose Oolong has a floral fragrance and a rich, sweet taste. Smooth and exhilarating. Dare we say a little bit like falling in love.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rose Oolong from Tea Ave is a very ‘pretty’ oolong tea. I say PRETTY because it really DOES have rose petals IN the tea not just rose liquid flavoring. Another reason I’m impressed with the rose in this tea is because it’s incredibly FRESH. Many rose teas I have had in the past the actual rose petals go stale easily and quickly but Tea Ave must have something up their sleeves to keeping them prim and proper!
On to the leaves themselves, shall we? I must start off by saying the Tea Ave is very upfront about their tea profiles as it takes up a good amount of the packaging and product page on their online shop. I really like this about them and appreciate the time and transparency they show by doing so.
The Oolong they use in this rose flavored tea is an Ali Shan Jin Xuan originating from the Ali Shan Mountain Region of Nantou, Taiwan. These leaves are functional for about 4 sturdy infusions.
I found the flavor to be elegant, sweet, rich, and smooth all at the same time. The surprising feature was that it was thirst-quenching as opposed to other rose flavored teas. For this reason I continued with my ‘two thumbs up’ rating.
Cape Jasmine Oolong from Tea Ave.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea Ave.
Tea Description:
An elegant, luxurious tea, Cape Jasmine Oolong has a subtle fragrance of the fog and snow-covered mountains that it was grown on. Cape Jasmine Oolong has a clean, aromatic floral scent, and its flavor is slightly sweet with just a hint of spice. Classic vegetal oolong undertones. Breathe in the mountains.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this one as a free sample in my last Tea Ave. order; and while I have not tried this tea previously I did get a chance to try ‘Jasmine Oolong‘ prior to Tea Ave’s launch; initially I wasn’t 100% sure what the difference between the two blends was, but what I’m gathering from reading the descriptions for both is that Jasmine Oolong is meant to be a little more earthy with perhaps some stronger base tea notes while Cape Jasmine is naturally sweeter.
I steeped this one up hot, and drank half of the mug that way and then half after it had cooled down. Initially with the hot cup I thought that the jasmine was coming off fairly dominant, masking most of the creamier milk oolong-like notes of the base tea. The aroma was incredibly strong and lovely, with a plump sweetness to it – but monotone and without much nuance. I far prefer the taste of the cold half of the mug which tasted similarly but had an underlying fruitier sweetness to it, was less aromatic and ‘in your face’ overall, and which also floral notes like peony as well.
As far as the comparison between Tea Ave’s Jasmine blend and this one goes – I had to go back and reread my previous review to refresh myself but I do think there are differences; the former definitely had stronger flavours from the base and was more vegetal overall, the latter (this tea) was sweeter and fruitier and the natural flavours from the base that were present were more the floral/fruity aspects of an oolong rather than the vegetal ones. Think peach! Overall, both were good jasmine oolongs, though it’d be redundant to have both on hand because despite differences they are quite similar. I think I just SLIGHTLY might prefer this one more because of the extra sweetness though.
Oriental Beauty Oolong from Tea Ave.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea Ave
Tea Description:
Go ahead, search the world—you won’t find another tea quite like Oriental Beauty, the luxurious, highly prized oolong tea so exquisite that it made its way from Taiwan to Queen Elizabeth II, who gave it its name. Processed entirely by hand, Oriental Beauty is produced only once a year, during summer. Our Oriental Beauty grows in the Ping Ling area of Northern Taiwan, known for its breathtaking scenery. The perpetual mild climate and rolling fog makes the growing environment truly unique.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Tea Ave. is a fairly new company that I was fortunate enough to get to sampler prior to their official opening; while I really enjoyed each tea I got to sample there was only one I personally wanted to restock and so I waited for a good opportunity to place that order. Well, they recently announced a Summer Sale where you don’t pay for shipping, which was the perfect chance to place that small order! In addition to the tea I wanted to stock (Ginger Lily), I received a few samples of their other teas as well as a little bit of “swag” in the form of a reusable branded tote bag.
Obviously this is one of the extra samples I had received; while Tea Ave. does let you specify what you’d like to sample I left that field of the order form blank and so they chose for me. Two of three samples were new to me, and one a repeat – though as I’ve been pretty impressed with all of their teas I’ve tried (including this double) I’m far from disappointed about that. This sample came in sachet form, though not all three did. It’s the first time I’ve tried one of their blends in a sachet; I always have mixed feelings about teabags/sachets because I LOVE the convenience but think that most sachets don’t generally offer enough room for leaf expansion – which is definitely a bigger issue with oolong. Though in this case the sachet is very large, and that turned out to not be an issue at all.
I did two infusions of this tea, both turned out to taste very similar so I wont do a flavour summary for each like I tend to do when I steep the same tea several times. I thought the liquor was very light and gentle with an incredibly smooth and silky mouthfeel that made for really easy, calm sipping. The dominant note – though in this case dominant just means “most present” because nothing about this blend was harsh, was honey and it was the right level of sweet but natural and not cloying. Supporting notes were fresh picked Spring flowers, hay, and a soft, roasty note that reminded me of just barely toasted bread. I’d describe the overall combination as ‘ambrosia’.
I do think this was a little watery, and had it not tasted quite as diluted I’d be all over this blend – but it was incredibly pleasant for what it is as well, and a really nice balance between a greener, more vegetal oolong and a heavily roasted, mineral tasting more oxidized one.
Going back to the company itself, it’s definitely always very cool when companies go that extra mile by including samples and other goodies – just like when I received my sample package from Tea Ave. months ago, I continue to be impressed by this company’s branding, their teas, their customer service and now on top of that their quick shipping time! If you like oolong even a little I absolutely recommend giving them a chance and taking advantage of the current sale which is running throughout July.
Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong Tea from Tea Ave.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea Ave.
Tea Description:
Known to some as milk oolong, around here we think of Alishan Jin Xuan as our dreamy, creamy oolong. An elegant tea with a refined, subtle taste, Alishan Jin Xuan’s fruity and floral aromas complement its smooth, milky mouth feel.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I received the amazing package that I received from Tea Ave., I was most excited about trying this Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong Tea. I mean … hello? Alishan? My FAVORITE! Of all the many different Oolong teas out there, Alishan is my favorite … especially a Jin Xuan (aka milk Oolong).
And given how much I adored the other two Oolong teas that I’ve tried from Tea Ave, I knew that I was in for an amazing treat with this Alishan Jin Xuan. So, I got out my special Alishan YiXing mug and started brewing! 
LOVELY!
I’ve had many different Alishan Oolong teas over the years, and many of them were Jin Xuan. Some were ‘flavored’ Jin Xuan where the milky notes were enhanced with added flavors. Others were not. I’m happy to say that this is one that is not. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoy a flavored Jin Xuan, but there is something just so amazingly, naturally beautiful about a pure Jin Xuan!
The creamy notes are generally more subtle in a pure Jin Xuan, but they are so soft and wonderful. I love how the creamy notes don’t inundate the palate with the flavor so that other characteristics of the tea can be explored and enjoyed. Notes of flower mingle with the notes of cream. The floral notes are not sharp. They are mild and meld beautifully with the creamy flavors. Sweet hints of fruit reveal themselves and develop as I continue to sip.
I was surprised to find that later infusions were still just as creamy as the earliest infusions. Sweet, luscious and thick on the palate. The floral notes softened in later infusions as the fruit notes emerged stronger. It’s difficult to really pinpoint the fruit flavors that I’m experiencing because the sweet notes of the fruit aren’t really present. The sweetness of this tea is more from the creamy notes – almost vanilla-esque!
But the fruit notes taste more like the fruit but not so much of the sugar sweetness of the fruit. It’s like an apricot or a peach that has had it’s sugars extracted from it, quite interesting.
A truly AMAZING Alishan Jin Xuan – this is a tea I’d recommend to all tea drinkers. Not just Oolong enthusiasts! I think that this is a tea that all tea lovers can appreciate and enjoy.
