__Morgana__ Send Message

1700th tasting note!

And for this nice round number, I wanted to taste something special. Since I have started down today’s path with an oolong, I’m going to continue in that vein and catch up to where I was supposed to be at the end of yesterday but got distracted by my Thanksgiving turkey cooking endeavor.

This tea has received very high marks on Steepster, so I’m looking forward to it. The last milky oolong I had, which was also my first, wasn’t a favorite. Maybe this will change my mind.

First tasting in the gaiwan at 190F (because Zo is stuck there for whatever reason) after rinse, 15 second increments.

Just sniffing the tea in the tin is enough to start getting me excited. Wow, what a great smell. It smells exactly like very buttery white rice, the world’s best hangover food.

The tea is a light yellow color with a hint of gold. After steeping, I smell more of the buttery rice smell. The tea is mild and slightly sweet with a slight vanilla note and a definitely milky note in the flavor. The flavor is much more interesting — maybe less heavy, maybe more suggestive of complexity — than the milk oolong I had a little while back. I keep wanting to say there is something floral here, but honestly, I’m not getting that.

I decided to have something sweet with the second steep because of Jillian’s note, so I heated up a lovely Nutrisystem cinnamon roll (it’s really pretty good, and after yesterday’s meal I really need to get back on program). The second steep is a deeper golden color and smells like sweet milk. I’m not sure that the sweet food pairing is doing much for my experience of this tea. It’s just incredibly pleasant, mild, sweet, with a milk note that doesn’t bother me and that I even love though I’m not a milk drinker.

The third steep yields a tea that is darker still. It’s taking on the color of clarified butter. The flavor hasn’t changed much, though it is keeping its smooth mouth feel — none of that hard water effect that I tend to notice on about the third steep of a greener oolong. The leaves have doubled in volume after unfurling,

Even though the flavor hasn’t really changed in steep four either, the tea is is still unique and lovely. If someone asked me to recommend a milk oolong that I’d enjoyed, I’d have no trouble recommending this.

Now, having had exactly two that I know of, can I say this is the best? Or even a typical, exceptionally strong representative of its type?

No, no I can’t. But I can say that even compared to other teas this is up there with my experience of as good as it gets.