Oolong Châtaigne

I pulled this one out of … not retirement, uh, well, the bottom of the basket and I’m glad I did. Primed with a fistful of candy corn (this is the time to eat Brach’s candy corn, while it’s soft and fresh from the store, not in October after it’s gone chewy and waxy), it has a lovely, sweet, juicy, not-unlike-caramel personality. Kept steep time at around 3 minutes to prevent bitterness, based on past experience.

Fall is coming. Just hold on to that cool and lovely thought.

I had an exhuasting morning, and I am finally getting to the point where I am “catching up” with everything I usually do in the morning. Including drink tea! I finished up my sample of this one from MissB, thanks again!

This is just so lovely, and one I would consider restocking in the future. And this is a tea I thought I wouldn’t be into! Just the right amount of chestnut for me, I think, with a nice oolong base underneath. Glad I got to try this one.

My grandfather was never big on holidays, especially Christmas. The only two things he did every Christmas was buy Baccalà (salted cod) and chestnuts, so that he could have two things he enjoyed in Italy during the holidays here in America. I haaaaaaaated when the Baccalà came into the house – I thought it stunk to high heaven, especially since my grandmother had to soak it repeatedly before she could cook it, but I loved when we put the chestnuts into the oven. The shells became partially black and smelled so good. When you took away the shell (watch! still hot!) the chestnut was so tender and meaty and like nothing we ever had the rest of the year. I loved when we made the chestnuts.

This tea is so close to the warm roasted chestnuts. The woody oolong goes so naturally with a chestnut tea. I had only had one other chestnut tea which was a black tea, and it was all wrong. Too harsh, too cloying, too artificial, and trying to fix it by adding milk and sugar made it nothing like real chestnuts. This tea replicates that barely sweet nutty flavor so convincingly.

Steep 2: Mmmmmmm. Just as good. I almost want to bite down because there has to be chestnut meat there!

(do these French teas not quit or what!?!?! I am again going to save the leaves for some afternoon steeping)

I’m going to take the remaining sample of this tea home, put it safe ’n sound in a tin and mark it for Christmas Eve. Thank you Doulton for this trip to the past.

EDIT: 4 lovely steeps! and I found these articles about chestnuts & Italy fascinating:
http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0282.htm
http://italophiles.com/castagne.htm

An amazing surprise treat from JustJames! Our swap was loosely French themed, so now I have lots of beautiful Nina’s Paris, Mariage Freres, and Dammann Freres goodies to try (!!) and that wasn’t even all of it! I tip my hat to you, sir. (:

This is surprisingly subtle—if you’re expecting over-the-top-rich-roasty-nuttiness or sweetness a la Florence and its ilk, you may be disappointed. But this rewards those who like evocation more than straight up flavor replication, if that makes sense. There’s a woodiness here I quite like (you know me!), and a gentle warmth. Kinda like crawling up to your grandma’s attic and opening up her wooden chests full of pretty things. The roastiness comes out slowly and feels very genuine, not like an added-on flavor dimension so much as an inherent foundational component. This is very comforting, not the sugar dessert bomb I thought it might be but instead something a lot gentler but also subtly deeper. Deeply soothing. I enjoyed it with the chocolate from my Advent calendar late tonight, and it was perfect.

Resteeps like a dream too, and I’m usually pretty picky about that sort of thing.

I think this is the last sample I have from JustJames, and it is just PERFECT for winter. The oolong is dark (and possibly roasted), while the chestnut flavours swirl around. It makes me imagine sitting curled up next to a roaring fireplace, with a cat purring on my lap and a book nearby. It’s a cup of liquid comfort.

It’s just, really good. Can’t wait to re-steep this!
(sipdown 82)

This is a subtle tea with natural notes of wood, and warm roasted chestnuts.
It has none astringency and is absolutely sweet and mellow.

We know that oolongs have naturally a nutty taste and it’s just as if DF had just poured some roasted chesnut in for some time to add this specific natural taste, delicate and refined.

A very comforting tea.

A very well blended tea, thank you Ruby Woo Scarlett for sharing this sample with me.

Doulton – thank you so much for this sample… I’m so happy to be trying it… I love Oolong, and I love chestnuts… what a perfectly lovely tea this is!

I have tried a few chestnut teas. This one really captures the flavor of the warm, roasted chestnut. It has a very creamy, rich flavor which compliments the flavor of the dark oxidized Oolong tea. It has a very comforting flavor – it’s one that I would really love to have during a cold winter evening while curled up next to a fire in the fireplace.

Perhaps I steeped it wrong but this is such a letdown. This oolong has barely a hint of chestnuts – it’s more like a taste of something a bit sweet you can’t quite describe. The overall tea is very woody and would match an autumn weather (I’m drinking this in August like the rebel I am). I was expecting a lot more complexity and a lot more flavour so I’d ordered two bags of 100g which means the disappointment I feel is now closely tied to the frustration and slight guilt one feels at having been ripped off. Not a bad tea but perhaps it would be more enjoyed by those of us who can appreciate subtle flavours. As for me, my palate is only fond of those teas which feel like drinking perfume.

Many thanks to Doulton for this sample! I was looking for something a bit different this morning and the smell of this package just appealed to me. It was very much like chocolate but with an indefinable something else.

1st Steep: 5 minutes, Water temperature around 190F
I love the deep red of the liquor. The taste is malty and chestnut (I’ve never had chestnuts before but that has to be what it is). I could almost swear there’s a hint of white chocolate in there as well.

2nd Steep: 5 1/2 minutes, water temperature around 190F
The liquor is a bright amber this time. It’s still malty and tastes of chestnut but has a lighter body and is a tad sweeter.

Definitely a good morning tea. Very glad I picked this one out this morning.

I don’t think I’ve tried this before…despite purchasing it over a year ago. A touch boring, but fine. Would probably be better with milk. Mild chocolate, toffee, caramel.