I disagree with most other reviewers: although I can smell the peach in the leaf, I’m not tasting ANY peach at all in the brew. That having been said…
This is an incredibly floral smelling and tasting tea once brewed. I brewed for 2 min. (while the package said 4 min.), but I’m used to gongfu brewing with the oolongs I’ve had, so I still thought 2 min. might be too long. Not at all , as it turns out. The golden liquor smells and tastes gardenia-like, and the floral taste lingers in your mouth for a couple of minutes. This is brightly flowery with a very slightly vegetal underpinning, and not a trace of bitterness, nor any peach that I can taste. This is my kind of tea! I’m going to have to force myself to stop at one cup tonight.
Now I’m wondering if there’s any peach flavoring added at all, or if it’s just so juicy and flowery that someone decided it tasted like peaches and decided to call it that without adding any flavoring at all…? Going back to the kitchen to smell the package…tawk amongst yourselves…
I’m back. Okay. I smelled something sweet in the leaf, but now I’m doubting that it was actual peach. I think my nose interpreted the sweetness as peach because I expected to smell an artificial peach flavor. I think I’m just smelling the strong floral sweetness of the tea. It’s a different flavor than the eventual smell of the brewed tea, but really, when is that NOT the case with tea?
Weird thing though: I looked at the post-brew leaves, and saw what I think are added flowers (or just the middle of the flowers). They’re wet and don’t hold together well, but they’re kind of cream-colored and as far as I can tell are not tea. However, I can’t find these in the pre-brew leaves. Are the flowers rolled up in the tea and released in the brewing? What kind of flowers are they? Are they maybe…PEACH flowers? (Is there such a thing?)
Well, I admit to still being confused, but whatever this is, added flavors/flowers or not, it is absolutely delicious. If you don’t like flowery oolongs, this is not the tea for you, but I’m really enjoying it. Score two for Butiki (I also liked the Gyokuro sample I got from them, though I didn’t like the fact that it was completely crushed, and that there was barely enough for one cup). I think tomorrow I’ll try the Purple Pu-erh I got from them and see if we can go three for three!
