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I was super psyched about Naivetea’s black friday sale because I’ve really wanted to try their oolongs. I ended up with an infused (flavored) oolong sample set and a high-altitude oolong sample set, and they sent a free sample of Wen Shan Bao Zhong all of which I’m very excited about. It was hard to choose the first one, but this was it because I love lychees and I really want to see them paired with a green oolong.

The scent on the dry leaf of this is amazing. So very lychee-ful. It really has that floral, fruity, fresh aroma of a bag full of lychees. I could just smell the dry leaf all day, which is a good sign. I chose to steep it like I steep most green oolongs and not quite according to their directions because I don’t really have that kind of setup (basically gong-fu) right now. Smelling the brewed tea, it’s amazing how much the oolong has come forward. It has that kind of buttery, floral, slightly greenish aroma that I love, and the juicy lychee aroma hanging out underneath the higher floral notes.

In the flavor the lychee comes back to the forefront, it seems. The first thing I get is a burst of fruity and floral lychee, and then the green oolong base comes up with a vegetal, rich base. I think I might drop my steep time for this to 2 minutes just because I think I think the vegetal tones of the oolong are just a touch overdone at this time. I originally wrote that I was missing the buttery flavor, but as it’s cooled that has definitely made itself known. It’s lacking that natural sweetness that I feel like would just make this tea mindblowing (though I am getting a hint of it in the aftertaste as the tea continues to cool down to just warm), but it’s still a fantastic tea. Lychee is really the perfect pairing for an oolong with its floral notes to begin with, and in this tea it is just so juicy and awesome. This is a really good example of a flavored tea with a nice balance between flavoring and high quality tea base.