80
drank Formosa Oolong by ESP Emporium
4279 tasting notes

How am I the first to review this? I got this as a sample with my order a while back. The unsteeped leaves have a strange but nice scent. It’s hard to describe but it is different than any other tea I’ve tried.

First steep – 4 mins
The steep color is a lighter yellow but sadly the strange scent to the unsteeped leaves isn’t in the cup. The flavor is light and really good. It doesn’t have much of a floral to it. It’s more buttery. There is a slight tangy flavor too (not in a bad way — it makes it interesting), but there is also a sweetness to it to balance it. I recently read that some oolongs have caffiene. Now how am I supposed to know when they do? Sometimes oolong is my go-to late night tea, but now I’m not so sure.

Second cup – 7 minutes
This had more of that floral oolong flavor, but still buttery. On my oolong flavor meter where one is the lightest and most floral and five is strongest and could be confused with a black tea, this is a two! I love that all oolongs are so different. This one is simple yet very interesting!

Kittenna

Pretty sure all oolongs have caffeine… all true teas (Camellia sinensis) do. There’s debate on which tea has more (oolong, black, green, white), but they all should be caffeinated to some degree.

tea-sipper

Interesting! I had no idea.. it also could be why I never sleep after drinking ANY tea so late at night.

Kittenna

Yeah, I think there are a LOT of myths circulating out there, but that’s my understanding of it. Stick to herbals or rooibos/honeybush to sleep at night :) I think I can get away with a cup or two of caffeinated tea sometimes, if I’m particularly tired, but other times it wakes me up… not good!

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Kittenna

Pretty sure all oolongs have caffeine… all true teas (Camellia sinensis) do. There’s debate on which tea has more (oolong, black, green, white), but they all should be caffeinated to some degree.

tea-sipper

Interesting! I had no idea.. it also could be why I never sleep after drinking ANY tea so late at night.

Kittenna

Yeah, I think there are a LOT of myths circulating out there, but that’s my understanding of it. Stick to herbals or rooibos/honeybush to sleep at night :) I think I can get away with a cup or two of caffeinated tea sometimes, if I’m particularly tired, but other times it wakes me up… not good!

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Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
shop.Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea.com
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandalatea.com
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

Location

USA

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