Balade en Bretagne

Compagnie & Co Advent Calendar 2023 – Day 14

This is a sort of salted caramel oolong, though technically I assume it’s inspired by the sablé Breton (since it’s named for Bretagne). But it’s similar to other salted caramel oolongs I’ve had, like the one from Dammann.

It’s very smooth, and the oolong is somewhat oxidized which gives it a nice toasty vibe. The flavoring is somewhat subtle, though I do taste the butteriness and brown sugar notes. Very pleasant as an evening tea, but these caramel oolongs never seem to taste as good as I expect them to, given the name. :P

I am having this Tea grandpa style and I must admit that today’s cup is my most successful cup in terms of being true to it’s flavouring. I am not sure if this improvement is because the tea is over a year old hence some of the floral notes in the oolong have become muted allowing the caramel notes to shine, or if the tea generally benefits from a longer steep , or if using boiling water to steep it helped to bring out the flavouring. Today’s cup really brought out the creamy butter caramel notes in the tea mixed with a little bit of spice and butter, and a depth produced from the roasting of the oolong. This finishes with a cooling and slughtly drying sensation from the oolong. The caramel is buttery and sweet with a mix of browned butter, sugar and vanilla notes that remind me a bit of skillet toffee. There are also cinnamon and a slightly woody Roasted autumn leaf note which is slightly bitter but which offsets and balances the sweetness. This is quite an enjoyable nightcap tonight.

Now this finally a sample whose donor I can identify – thank you Ysaurella.

I liked the oolong-quality of this a lot, the base was lovely and smooth. I think I must have kept it too long, the caramel notes were there but somewhat subdued, and that was not necessarily a problem, I enjoyed it very much just as it was.

I bought this tea in a beautiful tin this afternoon at La Grande Épicerie in Paris.
Compagnie Coloniale is one of the oldest tea company in France. They are using a special method to flavour teas : a vapour method (or steam method, no idea which word is most adapted for tea flavouring in English !)

Of course I bought it because it is an Oolong…and because caramel beurre salé is really an appealing ingredient…isn’t it ?

The dry leaf smells incredibly good, caramelly and salted caramel…so noticeable.
Unfortunately the taste of the liquor is less noticeable. This is a light caramel, not an in your face one and this is really ok, a subtle caramel.

But I was expecting more Oolong notes and this Oolong base is a little too much discrete for my taste. This is a buttery Oolong, mellow but too much subtle for my pleasure to be complete.

I’ll play around temperature to see if it changes something for me.