Oolong Caramel au Beurre Salé

Looseleaf: Smells strongly of caramel, butter, vanilla, and cream, but in an artificial way.

Brew: Strong flavours of cream, it actually tastes like I put milk in my tea. Very buttery, strong flavours of buttersctoch and vanilla. Slightly nutty, but not toasted. A nice balance of buttery, umami oolong with plenty of tea flavour and tannins and a strong butterscotch flavour.

I saw my tin of this tea while I was digging out a different oolong yesterday and it just stuck in my mind over the coarse of the day to the point where I went back to make a cup. I wish it could have stayed in my mind the same way after I started steeping it because I got distracted and the tea was mostly cooled off when I came back to it. It was still nice though; a gentle caramel kind of taste combined with a more floral undertone from the oolong. Caramel and florals can be a little weird, but I liked the balance of the two and thought the caramel was a well managed sweetness and brightness even if it lacked some body.

I have a new mail person. Where I live, there’s a glass windowed enclosed veranda with a door and then there’s a front door with a mail slot. Not complicated, really. Confusing things is that my adjoining neighbours—yeah, those— have a mail slot on the outside, leading to their locked verandah.

In the past while, I’ve found mail outside on the front doorstep, wedged in the verandah door, on the floor of the verandah. Great.

A few days ago, I found a package delivery notice stuffed among some flyers. Instead of finding the package here, I need to go pick it up. All good. It forces me to take that 45-plus minute walk. I’ve been a lazy lump, so all good.

Bundled up and pulled my empty trolley to the designated post office. The woman manning the counter must’ve been new too. I gave her the delivery notice and then realized that I hadn’t brought official ID. I pulled out some utility bills with my name and address. I showed her my gym membership card with my photo on it. I presented my personalized chequebook with my name and address. And nope.

How do I know that this is not my supervisor testing to see whether I follow the rules? Yeah, I’m sure they go to such lengths to check up on their employees.

I left with my empty trolley and unredeemed delivery notice.

I thought that in picking up a parcel, it’d be sufficient to prove who you were and where you live. I guess I was wrong. Or she was new and had something to prove.

Anyway, I was livid.

Thank goodness for delicious tea.

I’ve drank this on three separate occasions and each time I steeped it just a little different.

I can totally appreciate the caramel flavor in this, but the oolong base is too green for me. It doesn’t go with the caramel. It’s too vegital – asparagus and caramel do not work for me.

Thanks Sil for sending me a sample of this. Sometimes I feel bad when I get samples of expensive/hard to get teas – especially ones that others really love – and I don’t like them. I feel like they were wasted on me and others would have enjoyed them more. However, even the ones I don’t love – I’m always appreciative of the opportunity to try new things…. :))

Sil gave me some of this to try when we met up at the Tea Festival last month. It smells great, all sugary and buttery, but I think that the base is really too vegetal for the additional flavours.

I’ve added the rest of the package to the GCTTB5, as a few other expressed interest in trying it.

Being alone in the middle of nowhere on my birthday is a little sad, but at the same time, it has given me the opportunity to finally enjoy this. Being home alone all day + oolong = a chance for multiple steeping.

And boy, did this not disappoint. First steep had the heaviest salted caramel flavouring, unsurprisingly, and the base wasn’t too loud or vegetal. Just right. The steeped tea smells like caramel sauce? I think? Or the centre of a Skor or Almond Roca? Whatever! All I know is it smells like caramel heaven.

Second steep was still very heavy on the caramel. It floated atop the base. It’s like what I’d imagine making caramel in a pot, then diluting it with water would taste like. Or rather, like a diluted version of Bananas Foster…err, without the banana.

Lastly, the third steep was light in flavour on all accounts, whether it be the caramel or the base, but blindfolded, you’d still know that you were drinking this tea.

So glad I waited until now to try it. I needed some excitement today.

This is a splendid tea :)
The leaves are big, the smell is sweet, and the taste is complex in the good way.
Nice notes of sweetness, but the green oolong is still in there. I enjoyed resteeping this tea to watch the leaf just sit there and communicate “That’s right, I’m a boss” to me.
As for overall taste, I’m not too big on caramel with a lighter tea of any sort. For me, caramel compliments strong brisk flavors.

The oolong is very present, very vegetal. It smells heavenier than heaven but the caramel is not present enough in the cup in my opinion. The liquid is pretty light-coloured; I’m surprised about this since the oolongs I drank were usually darker (almost like a black tea). This one looks somewhere between a white and a green tea.Like it, will finish it, but not buying again.

Um. WHAT IS THIS LIQUID HEAVEN MASQUERADING AS TEA?
Phew. Sorry, but this tea is great, for realz.
I thought this was a darker oolong looking at the leaves, but this is a jade green beauty. So gud. So caramel. Yes.

http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/05/21/caramel-au-beurre-sale-oolong-tea-dammann-freres/

I started to put together a wish list for the Damman Freres group order when Marzipan made her very generous offer and the further I got through the Damman Freres website the more I realized I needed to bite the bullet and just make an order of my own…. After all, it’s not fair to hijack someone else’s amazing generosity with your insane greediness!!

So my order arrived this week and I quickly rescued it from mail jail and was desperate to tear into it the moment I picked it up… The scent coming out of the box was simply intoxicating! Even the USPS guy commented that it was the best smelling box he’d ever come across!!

Getting it home, I immediately tore into this packet… Scent wise it’s mouthwatering! Lots of semi-sweet caramel notes!! Taste wise words fail me!! It’s darn delicious!! A little salty, a lot caramelly and a hint of creaminess…. It’s reminds me a little of buttered salted popcorn… Oh this tea will not last long in my household!