Milk oolong - flavored or not?

I haven’t tried any of the flavored (or dessert as they’re known sometimes) milk oolongs.

In fact, I’ve only tried one Jin Xuan from Tea from Taiwan. I believe it was called Rui Feng. Pretty good.

What I’m finding though is most higher elevation Oolongs, especially AliShan and LiShan have those creamy, buttery, milk notes if you brew at a lower temp.

I’m drinking Four Seasons from Team from Taiwan right now, and my first steep was probably in the 180 range. I got distracted with something and the water got cold. It was like taking a sip of 2% milk.

Heritage Honey from Mountain tea also has a lot of sweet cream notes, although there is a strong floral background as well.

I do have a few Jin Xuan on my wish list, even a roasted one which sounds delicious, so I’ll keep you updated.

I suspect people’s preferences if flavored teas in general will steer which one they like better. I prefer the more pure tea flavor in general, but that’s not to say one is better than the other. All comes down to your own taste.

I will be interested to see folk’s responses.

Hands down, my favorite milk oolong is Mandala Tea’s
My review: http://oolongowl.com/milk-oolong-tea-from-mandala-tea-tea-review/

I’ve quite a number of milk oolongs in the last while (World Tea expo samples plus personal stash), and this one still stands out as the creamyness is very good and its like drinking a dessert. It’s not sour or bitter either. I’ve had some sour or no milk/buttery flavor milk oolongs in the past, and yeah, disappointing.

I still got a couple milk oolongs that I own but I haven’t tasted yet, but another one that I thought was also good was Eco-Cha’s http://oolongowl.com/jin-xuan-oolong-eco-cha-oolong-owl-tea-review/ but it is more of a buttery floral than liquid cream dessert.

I haven’t had a lot of milk oolongs but so far I liked the Jin Xuan Taiwanese from Tealux best. I’ve got a few from David’s Tea that are flavoured and they’re okay but they cannot beat the one from Tealux.

I have read in different places that it is not certain sometimes even to vendors if they have a flavored or unflavored milk oolong since many people don’t even know there is a difference. I’m not sure I can really tell the difference. More educated palates probably don’t have a problem telling the difference, I’m sure. :)

I have really enjoyed Whispering Pines Golden Lily and Gong Fu Tea’s Milk Oolong. I don’t see the Golden Lily on WP’s site any more though. I have had Teavivre’s Flavored and it was very good, but wouldn’t be my personal choice. Right now I think the Gong Fu version is the one I like the most. Their site doesn’t say it is flavored but I find it difficult to believe that given how amazingly creamy it was.