Ali High Mountain Oolong

I couldn’t figure out where Blenz gets their loose leaf, all their website says is that they use only high quality loose leaf. Oh well, I’ll just create the tea under the coffee shop I guess.

This was one of the more interesting looking options available at Blendz. We don’t have one near my house, but I needed a drink on the road trip and happened across this shop. The rest of the teas were the usual sencha, chamomile, peppermint, English breakfast, etc. I don’t actually like charcoal roasted oolongs, but in the spirit of familiarizing myself with them, I figured why not?

I asked for this with some cold water added, but I think it was still steeped too hot or too long (still fairly hot water, about 3 minutes in a 650 or 700 mL cup, about 3 tsp looseleaf used). I would not recommend trying an oolong western style if you aren’t careful about the water temperature and leaf to water ratio. My tea ended up extremely bitter and almost undrinkable. However, I do think this was probably a decent oolong if it was steeped properly (less leaf and much shorter steep).

As far as the flavour of the oolong goes, I would describe it as being dark toasty, roasted, quite astringent and bitter in the aftertaste. The toasty flavour is nice, though, almost like grain and oats. Subtle floral (gardenia and nasturtium) and fruity notes, but no sweetness or tartness.