Sometimes I just have an oolong sort of day. When I first started drinking teas, oolongs were definitely not high up on my favorites list and still today I prefer other types of tea more often than not. Yet somedays nothing quite satisfies like an oolong and sometimes if I am shopping for teas and having one of those days, I tend to buy all the oolongs. This tea, What Cha’s Thailand ‘Red Tiger’ Oolong, is one that I bought the last time I stocked up on oolong teas.
What Cha claims this tea has a smooth sweet taste with notes of honey and baked cherry. With that in mind, I was pretty surprised when I started drinking this tea and it tasted more like a brisk black tea than an oolong. Maybe not brisk per se but definitely metallic. It is sweet but I am not picking up the cherry notes promised. Perhaps there is a roastiness that combines with a bit of honey. Also, to me, it has a bit of a wet leaf flavor. Not the oolong I was hoping for when I pulled this out of my stash.
Personally, I don’t love this one. I think part of the reason why is when I went on my oolong shopping spree, I was inspired by a tasty milk oolong I recently had. This lacks the flavor qualities that I loved in that and so it falls a bit short of what I hoped for. However, I know many others who have had this tea and loved it so though it is not for everyone, it is by no means a bad oolong and one worth trying.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: What Cha
Description
Another brilliant red oolong from south-east asia with a smooth sweet honey taste coupled with baked cherry notes.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Vietnam Gui Fei Oolong from What Cha. . . .
I may have gone a bit overboard this past Black Friday. I was splurging on tea orders right, left, and center. Normally those orders would be for flavored teas but a friend of mine was ordering from websites that have huge selections of straight teas and I decided to join in on her orders. One such site was What-Cha. I have had several of their straight teas thanks to others sharing samples with me and I’ve always been impressed.
More than just straight teas, I decided to go wild when it came to the oolong sections of these sites. In hindsight this was a weird choice for me since up until recently I wouldn’t even try a flavored oolong tea, let alone a straight one. I guess as time goes on, your tastes change and my tastes are moving towards oolongs. What Cha must have sensed that because this tea, Vietnam Gui Fei Oolong Tea, arrived as the sample in our order.
This tea has a really nice honey sweetness. That is what stands out sip after sip. As I continue to drink it does become a bit more nuanced with the honey giving way to a touch of signature oolong toastiness. The more I focus, the more I can taste. In addition to the honey, the sweetness has a slight taste of stonefruit and raisin and a little citrus zip intermingled with the toastiness. Also, floating about is a touch of rose/floral that could be present because I expect that in an oolong more than because its actually there.
What is nice about this tea is that the sweetness gives it some body and that body reads almost like a caramel / malt making this come off like a dessert tea despite it having no dessert flavorings. It is light and rich at the same time which makes it easy to drink again and again.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: What Cha
Description
A highly aromatic oolong with a wonderfully sweet honey aroma and taste accompanied by citrus fruit notes of orange blossoms and peach.
Gui Fei is notable as it requires the leaf to be nibbled by leafhoppers just like Oriental Beauty. The tea plant responds by releasing more polyphenols into the leaves, resulting in added sweetness and complexity in the tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Kenya Silver Needle White Tea from What-Cha. . . .
Time and time again I have shared my preference against white teas, specifically bai mu dan and shou mei teas. I don’t like the floral notes nor the soapy quality they can often have. If I am going to have a white tea, I tend to reach for either a White Rhino because it tends to be more robust like a black tea, or a Silver Needle.
I also have now tried a few What-Cha teas and been pleased with all of them.That is why when I came across this What-Cha Kenya Silver Needle White Tea, I had to give it a try.
Following the recommended steeping parameters, I brewed this for 2 minutes at 175 degrees. I was left with a pale and translucent liquid, typical of a white tea.
This tea boasts sweet notes of corn and it delivers, despite the packaging suggesting that this is best before June 2017. It’s so simple and yet so good. Flavorful without being in your face which means it is a tea that can be reached for again and again without becoming tired or boring.
I don’t reach for white teas often, especially straight white teas but when I come across Silver Needles like this, I am reminded that they can make a pleasant alternative to all the dessert and fruity teas I usually drink.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Description
A very sweet and smooth silver needle with notes of melon and sweetcorn without any traces of bitterness or astringency.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Thailand Sticky Rice ‘Khao Hom’ Oolong Tea from What-Cha. . . . .
I can’t recall a time that I personally have had sticky rice. I believe I have but can’t be sure and certainly don’t remember to say whether this accurately depicts that flavor.
What I do know is this smells like popcorn. Buttery popcorn. And it tastes like buttery coconut rice and floral oolong. It reminds me of the coconut rice I get when I go to a Japanese/Thai restaurant called Spoon & Fork. Sweet and ricey and delicious, plus floral.
It’s thick and has the mouthfeel of a rice pudding. Well, as much as a liquid tea could resemble a rice pudding. Nonetheless, the thickness helps to sell the whole notion of sticky rice.
I will say I think there is a disconnect between the buttery and almost toasty rice notes and the floral oolong base. This could be due to my own bias against oolong teas, which I am only starting to enjoy, but the two just seem disjointed. I hoped the coconut flavor might bridge that gap but no-go it seems.
Nonetheless, I am enjoying this tea. It is one of two teas by this company I have tried and both have been quite lovely. There may be a What-Cha order in my future yet.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong Tea
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Description
Has a creamy texture and sticky rice aroma, imparted unto the tea during processing by heating the sticky rice plant’s leaves along with the tea leaves.
Sticky rice scented tea is a specialty of northern Thailand, although traditionally green tea is used, Jin Xuan Oolong produces just as good if not better results.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Georgia Mr Ramirez’s Hand-Made Black Tea from What-Cha. . . . .
There was a time when I was young, and I was afraid of straight teas. So, it just tasted like, um, tea? Without anything in it? What was the appeal?
I’ve since realized that tea by itself can taste like anything, depending on what type of tea it is, and where it was grown. Like grapes and wine, tea leaves can be altered by circumstance.
So Georgia is a black tea. But it’s also more than a black tea, without anyone having to do anything. Which is kind of crazy.
This tea has heavy-hitting notes of fruit. I’m getting a very sweet raisin.
It reminds me a lot of Sun-Maid raisin boxes my mom used to throw in my lunch when fruit wasn’t on sale.
(Did you know that honeycrisp apples are around $3.99/pound right now? Even crappy apples like Red Delicious can get costly for a family of four. Raisins are a steal, friends.)
I loved those boxes of raisins. I loved how the beautiful Sun Maid lady was in a circle-halo like the Virgin Mary. I enjoyed pulling the stems out of the raisins. I liked their squishy pop. I was super-into digging into the bottom of the box to get the last raisins that were stuck down there. Raisin-scraping was just as satisfying as picking my nose, but socially acceptable. Every box was a project unto itself. No raisin was left behind.
I’d like to thank this tea for bringing back a very cherished childhood memory I’d completely forgotten.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Description
A smooth fruity black tea with a sweet gentle taste of apricots and prunes and completely free of astringent tones.
Completely hand-produced by Mr. Ramiz, who at over sixty years of age, is one of the most experienced and respected tea producers within Georgia. Mr. Ramiz produces small monthly batches of tea from his own private garden, which rarely exceed 20 kilograms in quantity.
Sourced direct from tea nomad Petr Sič who travels to Georgia multiple times each year in search of the very best teas and works very closely with the producers.
Tasting Notes:
– Brilliant smooth taste
– Sweet and light taste taste of apricots and prunes
