Wolf Tea

TeaTiff TTB #30

This one smelled nice, but the flavor was too light for my preference. Super smooth, a bit sweet, a bit floral, but just not much depth of flavor.

TTB Review #41: If I didn’t know there was supposed to be pear in this, I wouldn’t have tasted it. Expecting it going in, I was able to pick out small tidbits of pear flavor, but even then they were few and far between. I tried this both hot and cold, both with lackluster results.

TTB Review #22: Oh no, I don’t like this one at all. Tastes like stale, burnt popcorn. I guess that unpleasant thick buttery taste is supposed to be the honey? In any case, I actually couldn’t finish this, such was my level of disgust with the taste. Definitely not my cup of tea.

TTB Review #17: Very floral, kind of like drinking a bouquet of flowers but in a good way! I continue to surprise myself by enjoying very floral teas. Definitely reminds me of walking through a park on a spring day and passing by a giant blooming orchid. I may have unlocked some pleasant memories from my youth with this one.

Sipdown Theme: January 2023: A tea you love

I found this taiwanese company on etsy at first(now they have their own english translated website) after becoming fascinated with Alishan Oolong at Verdant tea’s since closed cafe back in mid-early 2010s. They sell few different Taiwanese oolongs and black teas and some cute wolf teaware (My favorite animal is a wolf so this was a big sell for me). This tea caught me really off guard as I was testing more straight black teas and none really sparked me as something i would try again. This one was uniquely sweet, floral and had a medium body. In short I was hooked. I haved shopped from them in awhile as I am flooded with tea but I reccommend them, especially if you are interested in getting started gong fuing oolongs.

Prep: Western (could also gongfu but im lazy)
Tasting Note: Before I cross referenced the website, I get very silky notes and medium body to the liquid texture. Not super drying in mouthfeel. The wet scent is sweet and floral. The taste is naturally lightly sweet, has an alpine rose floral quality and has a white wine fruitness. The website’s thumbnail briefly describes the tea to have lychee notes and tropical qualities and I only agree with this in part. I do think there wine like qualities are similar in taste to lychee. I don’t think the tea is very tropical otherwise but that could be a region disconnect. For me tropical is pineapple, mango, coconut notes and this reminds me more of sweet alpine roses and lychee notes. My current stash is 2 years old or more at this point so it is 5elling to me that it still has good texture and flavor. Would restock once all my current wolf teas are sipped down and more manageable.

This tea was so good, as I continue my tea journey I found that I love straight black teas, especially honey-scented ones. It was rich, malty, and cozy.

It’s currently 41 on a cloudy day with the leaves popping full of color. Just out of one window I’m seeing an array of reds, oranges, yellows, and those silly greens that apparently didn’t get the memo. It’s okay. Currently, it’s tropics party in my mouth. The dry aroma is full of orchids and freshness though I can tell some of it has diminished a bit. That’s my fault. Gorgeous leaves. 3rd and 4th pickings a mix of darker and a few lighter greens. Twisted but not tightly. The first aromatics were fresh and floral. The second steep is revealing lightly mineral notes with slight bread pudding and notes that sometimes remind me of fake popcorn butter. The flavor is parallel with the aroma. The third steeping reveals even more minerality with a slight drying sensation on the tongue.

Agree with Skysamurai that using the word “wild” in the name of this tea is a little strange, but honestly I’m willing to forgive it because this tea is delightful. I took handwritten notes while I steeped it up gong fu style and ended up writing JOY across the top of my notes in big letters. It’s just so relaxing. Light, but not insubstantial. I had intended to take proper tasting notes but I was too busy just enjoying it, both for its own quality and for the memories of similar teas past that it evoked.

This was a sample packet in the TTB, so there was only enough for one gong fu session.

Floral and minimally mineral. Really you don’t need much beyond that as far as a description goes. It is a light oolong. Both in flavor and in processing. It doesn’t really pack much of a punch and becomes astringent too quickly; not terribly astringent but just… I don’t want my oolongs to have astringency. Gardenia mainly, with bits of other florals mixed in.

There are some tea descriptors, like round, that I can’t help but roll my eyes at. Though after a bit of research I’ve found that round as a flavor descriptor means: “Round: A wine that has a good sense of body that is not overly tannic.” If we apply this to tea it can mean the same. And when steeped properly is a subjective descriptor of this tea. With my first steep it made subjective sense without the meaning. The mouthfeel was soft and round made sense. However, with the second steep some tannins punched my face because I wasn’t paying attention; not rounded. The flavors are vegetal and grassy. First steep is very smooth but as you progress each session becomes a bit more tannic.

Here’s where I found the descriptors. I know Wiki isn’t the best to source things from but I thought this was helpful regardless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_tasting_descriptors

Lastly, thank you to Vallhallow for this sample!

Wonder why they decided to call this faintly roasted instead of lightly roasted… My guess is that there is a percentage of roastedness. A percentage of roast that made this below lightly. Then again their website does say lightly roasted so…. marketing. The roast is indeed light. You can barely perceive the charcoal. At least at first; it comes more in the aftertaste. STOP! If you are drinking oolong and you have yet to pull apart your leaves do it now. How many leaves are on the stem? Is it twisted, curled, rolled? What colors? Okay. Continue your steep. The aroma is slightly buttered biscuit. The flavor is delicate. It has a small amount of minerality, a bit of grassiness when it oversteeps, floral notes.

Had less then tepid cup of tea this morning at the hotels breakfast. I need to revive my palate with some tea cpr. This hits the spot. Especially cold since it’s so hot out here in Olympia. Not Washington. Actual Olympia in Greece. I jogged on the ancient track where the first games were held. It was fascinating. Like this tea. The aroma is divine. Pear, mineralistic notes, floral. I steeped it while I was showering. No one likes to drink tea while sweaty and stinky right? And I feel that this one has become a bit too vegetal. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but the floral, and mineral notes are subdued. Can’t wait to try this hot. Edit. Back in the US. To be honest I can’t say I like this one hot. The aroma reminds me of buttered popcorn from the theatre with very faint floral undertones. It also slightly reminds me of the pastry shop we stopped at while driving along the Gulf of Corinth to get to the bridge to Patras. I’ve never seen so many baklavas in my life. And they were so tasty. I wish American food wasn’t so… ugh. I feel the itch to go exploring… This oolong just isn’t doing it for me hot though.

Wild scented? An interesting descriptor to use in the title of a tea. Can’t say I really agree with using wild in the name unless it is plucked from truly wild tea trees. Okay. Okay. Enough about the name. This tea lives up to the Alishan name. Great floral aroma and flavor. Gorgeous twisted green balls. Mixes of dark and light greens. The liquor is clear, amber. It is wild in the flavor as they say on the website. It has the floral qualities, the gardenia is dominant in the beginning but then it changes to that green and raw flavor as the steepings progress. No astringency. Floral qualities, slight buttered popcorn, and a hint of melon in the aroma. This tea pairs well with the classical song L’Éloignement. I heard it for the first time on stage a few weeks ago and the whole orchestra brought it to life in a way that was absolutely amazing.

There is so much going on with this tea. In the aroma, in the liquid, a bit of buttered popcorn from the movie theatre along with some interesting woody notes. Very slight mahogany notes. But the wet leaf is very different, somewhat mineral at first. Then it changes to an almost sugary-sweet with a refreshing feeling in your nostrils after. Kind of reminds me of lychee. My first steep was probably a better amount of time. More fruity, stone fruit and lychee notes shined through. But steeped longer you find rich wood notes with the fruit tones subdued in the background. Very minimal astringency. It is a good tea but I think it bounces aroudn in flavor too much. My brain can’t handle it. ^^;