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This Darjeeling tea is strong with the Darjeeling force. It’s scent warns you as you approach that this is not a tea for the feint at heart. It is perfumey, acidic, astringent, and slightly dry, and some sugar does go well to taming it. The diametrical opposite of bass-y teas like Assam, or trombones like Yunnans, or domicile cellos, err.. Ceylons, this is a brash young trumpet that is lively, fierce, unforgettable – but not suitable for all occasions. Drink with care.

Having this now, and it has a fantastic lemony flavour to it. Tried to brew it nice and strong, but no luck. I don’t see this teas as a breakfast tea, or as a tea that would take milk well, but it is a good, interesting black tea nonetheless. Happy new year to all those who celebrate it! Ours was way back in September.
Back to the end of semester study grind for me.

Having this now with crystallised brown sugar and milk. Almost as traditionally taken (I used milk and not cream, and I stirred the tea). Very, very good. This tea somehow makes the milk more creamy. Symbioses indeed.

This tea was expensive. Super, super expensive. Which made me hope that it was a real milky oolong, and not one that has had additives thrown in it. I specifically enquired at the Covent Garden branch of Whittard’s if this was the real deal, no flavourings etc, and was told it was. So, I’m going to treat it as such. I’m writing this down because I have been tricked in the past. But I do think that this is the genuine thing this time, not only because of Whittard’s reputation and the knowledgeability of the attendant at the shop, but also because of the way that this tea brewed and re-brewed.
This tea should be called “buttery oolong”. It brews a light orange-yellow, and is silky smooth on the tongue. The yellow green balls of large whole leaves unfurled fully at the third steeping, though they kept growing until the 5th or 6th one. I got 10 steepings of full 200ml cups, each one full of flavour out of a teaspoon of leaves. So an expensive tea, but economical if you re-brew it (and you should!). This tea smells and tastes like good, creamy butter. It smells like butter when dry, the tea “soup” smells like butter, the wet leaves smell like butter, and all ten steepings tasted like butter. The difference between them are with the added flavours that rise in later brewings. If you are a butter person, take the first few cups. Otherwise, take later ones. This tea will not take milk well (very light), is naturally sweet (no sugar needed), not at all astringent, and I have a feeling that it will be hard to ruin it by over brewing.
The only question is: do you like butter?

Yellow teas are a rarity in my cupboard, and in the shops that I normally buy tea in, so when I saw this in The Tea House, Covent Garden, London on my latest visit there, of course I had to snag a 50g packet. The leaves are whole, and huge, and need weighing, to know just how much to use. I brewed it at 70C, as I would a white tea, and the black, light green, yellow, brown leaves opened with a flourish. This tea tastes like a sweet, slightly smokey sheng, with fruit tinges (apricot, a little grape) that round off each sip. The yellow liquid of the tea matches the tea’s name, and makes for a nice evening cup. An interesting experience, which I will likely repeat.

I overleafed this one to death accidentally at work on Thursday. Putting this out there to remind myself to re-review it during one of the times that I properly make it.

Made some of this as a treat for myself and my brother last night. He loved it so much that he decided to try some with soy milk this morning.

This is a very nice Oolong that I got a few years back from Whittards, but still tastes and smells as it did when I bought it. Whittards no longer has it, from what I saw.
This tea does smell and taste a little like peaches, but with an added toasty taste to it. It is silky, not astringent, and without the mineral or grassy taste that some oolongs have. The leaves are huge, so this tea needs a lot of space to unravel. As you re-brew it the fruity tastes become more dominant than the toasted ones.

Sipdown!
Thank you Terri! This is a fairly good assam, and I’m trying it plain now. You can feel the caffeine kick, and there is a bit of astringency to this tea. I am drinking it plain, slightly weaker than I would normally drink assam with milk. There’s nothing outstanding about this tea, but does seem like a solid choice for an everyday assam.