Guangzhou Milk Oolong

Day 11 Davids Tea 2023 Advent Calendar

Down to my last 2 advent calendar samples to note. Milk Oolong is a new term for me, so I Googled to get a bit more educated while sipping. I enjoyed watching this one steep as the leaves really unfurled and filled the infuser. I find this to be very floral and dark with a creamy feel and taste. I did not expect the floral taste initially but based on what I just read on Mr Google, it sounds as if this tea is exactly as it’s supposed to be. I’m enjoying it more with each sip. Might try a second steeping to see how it stands up

I’d never heard of Guangzhou, though I correctly assumed it was the name of a place, so that didn’t offer a clue. And milk as a flavour? I really didn’t know what to expect.

In fact, I had to drink quite a few cups before I could write my review. I think I like it. Most of the oolongs I’ve tried were sweet and/or fruity, and this was neither. It is very nice, but since oolong tends to be more expensive than most black or green teas, it’s not one I’ll likely order unless there is an irresistible deal.

I’m not feeling so hot today. Pandemic blues? Feeling a surge of hormones and stress and energy for seemingly no reason and I needed something to ground me. This tea helped a little. Instead of not knowing what to do with myself, I’m now dancing to dabke music in my room, so let’s call that a success! Anyway, this tea is comfort food.

I was a bit nervous about purchasing this tea. From what I know, real milk oolong does not contain natural flavourings. The quality of the tea leaves gives it a milky quality. But everyone kept raving about this tea, so I took a chance and included it in my order.

The dry leaf of this smells vegetal, almost like a green tea, and like powdered milk. It was pleasant, but not the best oolong I have ever smelled.

I always overestimate how much oolong I need, but luckily, I can just re-steep the leaves to get the most value out of them. While I was steeping this, I kid you not – it smelled like a stick of butter. And this creamy, buttery smell stays in the cup after it steeps. It also has minimal astringency.

I would say the taste of this really reminds me of milk. It tastes like cream or milk. I am shocked because this has no calories or fat in it. But oh boy, does it taste rich. Like I cannot drink this right away, I have to take incremental sips.

Overall, this is a wonderful tea and I could see myself repurchasing this.

I’m struggling with writing up a note for this tea because it’s just – in my opinion – so unusual. It’s not very much like other milk oolongs I’ve tried, but I also don’t get the notes from this tea that other reviewers seem to have gotten. It has such a specific and unique scent and flavour to it which I don’t know quite how to pin down. There are definitely notes I do pick up on and can relate to other things I’ve tried, and other teas, but over it all there’s this note which is just an enigma to me. The same note which pervades both scent and liquor, and just strikes me as totally unique to this tea. Of what I can pick out though, the body of this tea is strongly creamy. It comes across to me as more of a ‘buttery’ than a ‘milky’ sort of creaminess, though, and it’s accompanied by strong notes of sweetcorn and orchid. In very light sips, and at the back end of each sip, there are raisin notes and something citrusy which is conjuring images in my head of small cubes of candied lemon and orange rind in syrup, the sort you might use in baking. That mystery note covers everything with a blanket of I have no idea what. I couldn’t even tell you a general ‘family’ it belongs to, except that it’s maybe a little umami, sweet and savoury at the same time. I wish I knew what it was, or at least had something to compare it to. Anyone have any ideas?

Edit: For now I’m going to use ‘paint’ as a descriptor of the note I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but a delicious paint, if that makes sense?! Thanks to ashmanra and CrowKettle for helping me out with that, and the late K S for coming up with the comparison.

I love this tea! Very milky notes with hint of orchid to add a floral twist. The aroma is one of my favorite parts, so to preserve that and the flavor, I recommend purchasing it in a tin (free with 4 oz) for optimal freshness. My only issue with this tea is that you have to steep it for just the right time so it isn’t overpowering, and I’ve found that it is around 4 minutes. The tin will say 3-5, but 5+ is when it starts to taste bitter.

This apparently is just what I need today.

On the other side, there’s a family of six plus several tenants who all seem to be running some sort of surveillance operation from their house throughout the night. All night long, their house is lit up from multiple screens inside. There are also people coming and going all the time, and their devices are in motion.

Between the two sides, I am woken repeatedly and kept awake for hours at a time. Not by noise but rather by electro-magnetic frequency of all these devices at close range.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

It would be awesome if I could block their signals or jam their devices in my proximity, but it is illegal in my country, so it is not possible to purchase items which do this.

Sorry about the rant. It’s been a long long haul and I am not in the best of health to begin with.

Anyway, this tea was good. Milky floral good.

Ehh… It was ok. I’m not sure why this milk oolong is so expensive but I guess that’s the DT markup. I got this one, sealed, through a buy/sell group.

The dried leaf smelled sort of rancid, honestly. I think like spoiled milk. The oolong curls opened up pretty quickly, within a few minute of 195F water, usually rolled oolongs take a long while to fully uncurl, but these leaves were relatively thin and petite.

The liquor color was a golden tan, without too much debris after decanting from the gravity steeper. The taste was unremarkable, a little milky, and drinkable but not amazing. I preferred teavivre for milk oolong, or may other tea vendors. Shrug. But it’s not horrible, I’ll finish the 2oz.

Sipdown #21:
Sipdown Challenge: National Compliment Day/Drink A Favorite Tea
I didn’t quite have enough of this one left for a large mug so I did mix a little bit of another milk oolong I have from The Coffee & Tea Exchange in with this one. (Does anyone know who they source their teas from by the way?) The other one is definitely more of a vegetal quality to it but hopefully, it won’t affect this cup too much. Milk Oolongs in general are a favorite of mine.
This one is somewhat creamy with strong floral notes specifically of orchid, it’s also slightly vegetal, and mineral-y. Wouldn’t recommend drinking this on an empty stomach but that goes for oolongs in general. I think I prefer this one as a latte even though I rarely make them. (drinking this one plain today)