High Mountain Oolong (Organic)

I know why this is one of their most expensive teas. Of all the straight oolongs I’ve ever had, this is a solid second place, and definitely worth the money – I’m just too cheap to buy it except by the cup. I made a few cups of this tonight, and I love how the character of the tea changes with every steep. A nice light, smooth oolong, buttery on the tongue with a faint floral note that doesn’t get stronger or overwhelming with more steeps.

Started at three minutes, then thirty seconds longer for each steep, and tried to get the water around 90C, which is a little cooler than usual for oolongs but I know I can’t stand mine scorched.

I stopped by my local store yesterday to grab the spring collection as an end-of-week celebration. I’ve been wanting to try DT’s unflavoured oolongs, so got a cup of this to go. The dry leaf smelled quite pleasant, but when I was handed the cup with the little bag of steeping tea, I was surprised. I got this weird, seaweed-like smell! Perhaps I’m just not used to drinking oolongs with the leaves still kicking about.

Thankfully when I took a sip, it had nothing to do with what I was smelling. This was nice. Light, green, floral. I found it nicely refreshing after a long day of exam-writing on not enough sleep. I kept it steeping quite a while longer than I would normally as I got distracted browsing in other stores, but it didn’t seem to suffer for it or to get bitter. I’d consider picking some up to have on hand when I want a solid straight oolong.

Slowly I am going to start putting up reviews of the straight Oolongs I have picked up from DavidsTea, I really haven’t been a huge drinker of straight tea’s but I figured it doesn’t hurt or cost much to branch out and try some new things. So here I am starting with what they claim to be the cream of the crop for Oolong, High Mountain Oolong. I don’t know how the others will follow but I also have Tung Ting, Tie Kwan Yin and Quangzhou Milk. I think I might like the last one the most by the dry aroma.

Dry it has your typical straight tea smell, slightly vegetal, but very smooth and crisp. It kind of reminds me of a dew filled morning out camping or something. The steeped aroma brings out more of the vegetal aroma of the tea, easiest way for me to put it into words is bland and boring!

The initial taste is a little vegetal, quite pronounced but dies off really quickly leaving a soft after taste. I am not really sure how to describe the after taste, it kind of reminds me of the taste of Sencha Ashikubo but not as powerful. It’s not pleasing or displeasing really, but I did expect a bit more of a wow factor from a tea that costs $10/25grams.

Now that I am done beating the living crap out of this poor tea I should note that other than being a little over priced for what your getting it is a fairly decent tea. It’s certainly harder to swallow the cost of the tea then the tea itself, har har har. It could possibly come to life a bit more when steeped the Gung Fu way; however I can’t be bothered to waste that much time at work, I would probably get fired!

I will come back at a later date and add a Gung Fu tasting as well.

Got this one as a cup in store on my lunch hour today at work. Decided I’d try the more expensive ones that way since it is actually cheaper in the long run for me. Am glad I tried this, too, since it was a lovely mellow oolong.

Since I like my tea strong, I was a bad tea drinker and left the bag in until I’d finished the cup, which was long enough for me to eat lunch and cross the parking lot to get back to work. Even with this extended brew the tea wasn’t overwhelming or bitter. I seriously enjoyed every sip I had from the cup.

Now I have to decide if I can justify the cost for such a lovely tea!

Treated myself to three new teas from DAVIDsTEA yesterday. Starting the morning with the high mountain oolong, and am pleased. The instructions say to steep for 4-7 minutes, but I was sceptical, so I checked in at 2, 2.5 and 3 minutes, which is where I stopped and poured my cup. I can already feel more centred, calm and energized.

I really enjoyed this tea. In tasting it there are notes of floral, toasted, seaweed and a hint of smoky taste. All the flavours combine together nicely. I used 1.5 David’s Tea Perfect Spoonfuls for my ~472ml thermos. This tea is quite re-infusable and different notes in flavour are brought out with each infusion (such as the toasted flavour); although the overall taste gets progressively thinner. On the 3rd infusion I could really taste a buttery note coming out as the tea cooled.
The tea leaves expand a lot during infusion so it is important to make sure that there is enough room for them to release all of their flavour.
This tea pairs nicely with sushi.

My first cup of this was nice. Around 4 minutes (trip from DAVIDsTEA to my car, I know it was around 4-5 minutes), a mild but clear flavour. I definitely could drink a lot of this, if given the chance, though as far as straight oolongs go, I think I prefered the milk oolong.

Unfortunately, I messed up my resteep, so it was somewhat bitter and nowhere near as good. (Note to self: try increasing steep time by smaller amounts with this one — it doesn’t need a longer amount of time like the milk oolong!)

First Steep:
The smell is like an underwhelming version of the odor of the dry leaves. There
is a really deep, musky taste that dissolves into a subtle sweetness reminiscent
of large volumes of high-end jelly beans. It’s pleasant without being too sweet
(at all), but after a few moments, a bitterness joins the aftertaste that is st
raight from a cup of bagged, bitter green tea. Enjoyable in the afternoon, but n
ot by itself worth the high price.

Second Steep:
This had a less intense aroma that reminded me of clover after a rain. It’s sort
of muggy. The taste was less intense, but in a good way. The bitterness from th
e first steep was all but gone. The after-sweetness was also gone. This left the
taste standing by itself. It’s sort of a cloveriness, but it’s really hard to d
escribe. Not bland, but not powerful.

Later, the bitterness returned. This is my first Oolong, so I’m not sure if this
is normal. The jelly bean sweetness returned, too. It’s not bad, and leaves the
tounge sort of tingely afterwards.

Third Steep:
Definitely the best steep so far. The harsh bitterness is completely gone, repla
ced by a sort of coppery tinge that leaves the tonge tingling. It’s not nearly a
s watered-down as I expected, despite the light colouring of the water.

Fourth Steep:
A fine metalic taste to it now. It has little aroma to speak of, but is very clo
very and pleasant. Very light in colouring, but very tastey. Maybe not worth it
at first, but I could grow to appreciate it.

Had this in the same day as the Tie Kwan Yin. I find this Oolong has a much more earthy, mushroom taste. As well as a more full-body. The Tie Kwan was smoother and very mellow, where the High Mountain had that earthy wonderfulness that grabs my attention.