I’m still trying to figure out a better way to brew this, but I at least know that it’s good grandpa style and that I can give it a decent rating.
The dry leaf scent is creamy, and of course grassy with a little bit of a coconut scent. The taste is dominated by the thick, creamy mouth feel at all times and at all times. I get the same essential tasting notes as I did in the first review: Green, grassy, cream, with hints of tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and maybe lemon. The nai xiang or milk fragrance is the most distinguishable and likable aspect of this tea because it indeed does taste like milk, but grassier.
Since I left the tea ball with the slightly heaping teaspoon to soak, I got a spectrum of the tastes I just described, being consistently green and creamy, but changing in the flavors and the hints. At about 2-3 minutes, the fruity aspect was strongest. Five, was the creamiest. I finished that cup and proceeded to the second going five again, more creamy less grassy, and to 8 which was about the same but smoother and thicker. Currently on the third brew, and at about a minute to two, I sipped it and got more of the tropical fruit flavors with that lemon note that I was talking about. Continuing to soak, the more milky it gets with a more noticeable fruitiness which kinda surprises me.
For a tea from Amazon, I’m actually pretty impressed because I was expecting a flatter tea. Though this is from last years spring, there still some surprises to be had every now and then. I would recommend this to a newer drinker who wants to try the softer side of Milk Oolongs because this is one of the best representatives of it that you can get, being between the higher quality ones like from Whispering Pines and lower quality ones. Experienced drinkers would definitely appreciate how nuanced this tea is in terms of mouthfeel, but they might wish there was more flavor.
Immortalitea’s description of this oolong is pretty accurate, but give you a 3-8 minute recommendation for steeping and that’s it. No specifications on how to adjust the brewing for specific tastes. I personally found that this tea is very difficult to oversteep especially at the eight minute mark, but I also had a hard time finding the more subtle flavors and deciding the right leaf amount. Based on experience so far, I can only guess that incredibly small to medium sized servings with less water give you the fruitier angle, whereas more leaves made the tea thicker, creamier, and grassier.
Not quite my favorite, but definitely something that will keep me occupied and fairly satisfied for the next few days. If I got this closer to the harvest, I think I would have liked it more. Immortalitea also offers a fairly balanced selection of Chinese teas which is interesting. Their breakfast tea is a Yunnan Dian Hong, for example, and they offer Dragonballs and Lapsang Souchong as their other black tea options. As for Oolong, it includes an Anxi High Mountain Greener Oolong, a Jasmine Oolong with this as the base I think, and a Mi Lan Dan Cong as their only Yan Cha. Of course they have silver needle and white peony for their white teas, and their green tea selection is actually fairly specific. They have a Jasmine Pearl, a Jiangxi Mountain Wild Harvest, and a Ming Mei Imperial. This one and the images of their other teas have sold me enough to at least try them again, but I probably would only occasion. If you have an Amazon card for this, great, you can use it to get this tea. Even better, this might be a good recommendation if you have a relative trying to get you a tea present and they know nothing about the specifics of your obsession.
Flavors: Creamy, Grass, Milk, Smooth, Thick, Tropical
