Purple Sunset Oolong

I got about an ounce of this in the mail recently, because I feel like I don’t have enough oolong, and I wanted to try purple tea, so this kills two birds with one stone. I’m sampling it now, so I can buy more if it turns out I like it. It smells like licorice at first, or at least that’s what I think when I first smell it – but today everything smells like licorice, so when I smell it again, I realize that it does not in fact smell like licorice. I can’t describe it. After brewing it for the amount of time stated on the bag, it has that sweet potato scent – more of a hint than full fledged baked potato. It’s a lovely color closer to a black tea. I tend to prefer black teas, so I enjoy oolongs that are closer in flavor to black tea. It does taste sweet, or perhaps it’s just that it isn’t particularly bitter. It has an earthy taste. I don’t taste plum or anything particularly fruity, though I do like this oolong. I don’t have enough experience to give this tea a rating but I think this is one of the better oolongs that I’ve drunk.

Although purple is my favorite color, I had never heard of purple tea until Stacy recommended it for my first-ever Butiki order. This is such a lovely tea! The leaves are long and twisty and a deep plum color; they steep up to a warm purplish-brown color. I can’t quite pin down the flavor I’m getting from this one…spinach, maybe? It’s definitely more of a savory flavor than other oolongs that I’ve tried. Not something that I would drink frequently, but I will definitely finish what I have and I’m glad to have tried such a unique tea!

I’m so glad Inkling was able to swap a sample of this! I had been wanting to try any of the purple teas from Butiki, but this one was particularly calling my name. Three good steeps later (and I even underleafed), I added it to my shopping list for my next Butiki order!

By the way, does anybody else have a minor panic attack when looking at the subtotal in your Butiki shopping cart knowing full well that you can’t possibly get away with spending that much on tea all at once but also knowing that you can’t possibly remove any of them from the cart because you’ll be sad (and you know you’ll inevitably end up ordering again to buy them anyway……)

People, I have a serious problem….

This one came from boychik (along with many other generous samples). The leaves are quite large and dark, and they remind me of Taiwanese black leaves. I had one huge leaf that was about two inches long and a quarter of an inch in width! Dry scent is vaguely sweet and reminds me of golden raisins.

This tea has a very interesting aroma… There’s a definite spiciness that reminds me of coriander or caraway combined with lavender. This tea smells very savory to me. Hm… The flavor definitely has a touch of that spice/lavender taste to it, but thankfully it’s quite mild (I do not enjoy lavender). The main flavor for me is toasted nuts along with a mild clear sweetness reminiscent of honeysuckle nectar. I actually like this one much more than I expected, which is a shame considering the situation. Fairly tasty and unique!

Usually when reviewing a tea from a company I would pull out my camera and notebook and log it for review on my blog, I am making an exception with this tea since Butiki is going away :( and all of my tea logging stuff is packed up for my trip tomorrow. Since I played packing tetris with my stuff unpacking it would be a giant pain. I hope you all forgive my more freeform rambling today. I was giving a sample of this tea by my tea-bro Lion after making noises about wanting to try it, so thank you for that! The aroma of the really dark curly leaves is really quite rich and sweet, lots of fruity notes going on here with an underlying mineral note as well. I am specifically picking out plum and a hint of peach.

I decided to go gongfu for this one (probably my last until I get to PA) and as the leaves rehydrate themselves I begin to see the purple tones shine through, like the purple of a plum skin. The wet leaves have a slight fruitiness to them, but they are also kinda odd, I am picking up notes of loam and green beans, it is reminding me of something from my childhood that I can feel tickling around at the back of my head, but I cannot put my finger on it. The liquid is sweet and warm, like cooked plums and freshly baked snickerdoodles.

The taste is somewhere between the smell of the leaves and the smell of the liquid. It has a creamy mouth feel with a distinct gently spiced cooked fruit, but there is also a loamy quality and green bean brothiness to it. The finish is a bit sharp, similar to the sharpness I get with a heavily mineral noted Wuyi.

Steep two! Only time for one more before I have to go run last minute errands, including getting new shoes since mine totally fell apart. Bleh. Yum! Second steep is still quite buttery, but it is all fruity plums and mineral with a touch of spice. It is pretty mild though, I fear that as soon as I put the cup down I kinda forget about it, which is tragic. I like it, though I wish there was more there.

Thank you Sarsonator for this sample. This is good stuff. I was just about to add sugar to it when something made me change my mind. It doesn’t need it. It had definite notes of honey, plums, and apricots. It was very tasty. I did not notice any discernible fall off of flavor even in the sixth steeping. It was mildly strong but not overpowering. I definitely noticed an unusual effect from the tea, I was slightly buzzed but not tea drunk. This was very nice. This is a tea that has some Qi to it, many don’t.

I brewed this six times in a 125ml Gaiwan with 175 degree water and 4g leaf. I brewed it for 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. There was no need for lengthy steepings. If I hadn’t been planning on more tea later I might have steeped it a couple more times. The spent leaves had a discernible aroma that I would describe as honey like.

More dark, twisty leaves! I have to say I do enjoy an oolong with rolled leaves just because it’s fun to watch them unfurl. It’s like watching a time lapse video of a plant growing :) The aroma was not very strong, but the leaves brewed up an orange-brown color of decent strength. The taste didn’t blow my mind. It was prune-ish, without being nearly as sweet as an actual prune, although it was somewhat sweet. I also thought I picked up an oak note in there. I feel like I might not be being quite fair with this oolong because I just recently tried Butiki’s oriental beauty, which was completely amazing! Now I compare all fruity oolongs to that one and the purple sunset just isn’t dynamic and flavorful.

Another one that I’ve been meaning to try but just never got around to it. I love it because it is very different: there’s some nice blueberry notes , with a big splash of cream and some oak notes as well. I love the fruitiness of this cup, because although it does taste like a lot of different fruit as the sip progresses, it’s not too intense, and the flavours develop within the sip as opposed to being like “BAM! I’M A SUPER OBVIOUS (place fruit flavour of your choice here) TEA, WHADDUP!”.

I just re read the description on Stacy’s website and nowhere does she mention blueberry notes. Lol. Maybe my taste buds are weird, but those blueberry notes are undeniable. As it cools down, they fade away, and are replaced with stonefruit flavours.

I think this one came from scheherazade but not sure, anyway thanks to whoever had the big idea to share this tea with me.
It’s a very buttery and fruity Oolong with detectable notes of plums, honey and apricot.
A note of roastiness is present as well, on aftertaste. Berries, maybe but not heavy to me.

Very lovely, very Oolong-y so very for me ! :)

I used the brewing method that Lion Repshire mentioned in his tasting notes for my last sample of this:

“2.5g per 100ml for 45 seconds at 170F. Add 15 seconds to repeated infusions.”

My “2.5g per 100ml” ended up a little more like “maybe a bit more than a teaspoon or 3g according to my scales that only work in full grams per teacup that is probably around 200ml I guess”, but the brewing was a lot of fun and definitely brought out some much fruitier notes. Fun!