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First time I had a Oriental Beauty-kind of oolong, so I cannot really compare. But I love this tea. Most Oriental Beauty is produced in Taiwan, but this one is made in China apparently following the same style. This tea invokes so many comparisons to different kinds of other teas I know. When I smell it at first there is some of the sweet floweriness that makes me think of Chinese tieguanyin. Then after sipping there comes a spicyness in the nose that lingers long after the swallow, giving the association to a Darjeeling. I think you can call it muscatel-like. The mouthfeel is lush and velvety. There is an astringency that I personally like, every sip leaving a pleasant little ‘bite’ on the tongue. The body is malty and pretty bready. I taste some honey as well. A lot going on, still very balanced. Beautiful tea.

I steeped this one gongfu-style in my Yixing pot, but I bet it will do well western-style, because it feels more like a black tea than like a classical Chinese oolong.

Not so great in my opinion. I have drank far better shu pu-erh for a similar price. This one is strongly earthy with some sweetness. However for my taste it is too dry, too earthy and not sweet and soft/thick enough. The strong earthiness quite quickly becomes unpleasant when overbrewn, because the flavor profile offers too little softness and sweetness to balance it. For my taste at least.

But maybe this one just hasn’t aged enough, yet? I am considering to store it away, curious to see how it will be a couple of years from now.

A nice Chinese black, especially for its price. Suits me well as an everyday tea, in addition to the more expensive teas I usually order from webshops (which really aren’t always better than this one).

Also interesting for beginning tea drinkers, due to its distinctive, recognizable flavour profile. It is fruity, in a very distinctly raisin- or grape-like way. A tea that is hard to overbrew, no bitterness and hardly any astringency. In fact I would have liked a little more astringency, since for my taste the sweetness and softness could use some ‘harder’ counterpart to really balance this tea out.

Long leaves that look great dry as well as wet.

This is a complex tasting black tea that tastes mostly sweet and fruity. At first I steeped it in near-boiling water and didn’t like it. It had a nasty, pronounced bitter that for me spoiled the rest of the taste. It went better when steeped around 80 C. A bit strange for a black. Although the taste profile is interesting and complex, for me it lacks the balance to make it a perfect tea (but that may be highly subjective). I like it though.