Monk's Blend

Tried this for the first time today. Interesting and strange mix of jasmine and milk oolong. I liked it, but throughout the cup, every sip was what? what? just getting used to the oddness of the two tastes in tandem.

The first steep was far more milk oolong on top of jasmine. The second steep was jasmine up front with milk oolong far in the background. Unfortunately, followed by an aftertaste of bitterness of oversteeped restaurant jasmine tea even though my steeps had been cool and quick.

I had left a full carry mug of this overnight and it is delicious cold. Yum.

Had a sample packet of this from DAVIDs. It has a nice grassy aroma. Once brewed, the creamy flavour of the milk oolong and milk flavouring mixes with the white tea and jasmine accents. There’s a small amount of bitterness to it especially as it cools, but it’s not unpleasant.

Gong fu’d a teaspoon of this in a very small serving. 180 F. 15 Sec.

Very creamy full light body, with some jasmine coming in the background. Really good.

The second steep at 35 seconds was a little bit too astringent, or too grassy from the dominating milk oolong. The jasmine is still there with a decent mouthfeel, but the milk oolong is overpowering.

Those few notes sum up what I think of this tea. It’s a really interesting combo that works when the white tea is more dominant. The white and green tea lighten out the milk oolong in the first steep which makes it great. The creamy note from the milk oolong balances out with the jasmine. When the milk oolong dominates, the tea becomes overly salty and astringent and not quite as good.

I actually expected this to have a grenadine component to it. Isn’t that typical of Monk’s Blends?

To my surprise, I got a very nice milk Oolong, perfect for a super stressful week at work. I think I’ll pick up more of this next time I’m at DavidsTea. Or see if I can find the constituent parts elsewhere and make my own…

If you love the Quangzhou Milk Oolong this takes the flavor up a notch. With the addition of Jasmine it is very calming and soothing after a long day of exercising and managing all the little daily tasks life brings. I find also when I am in need of a bit of creative inspiration I need just to steep a pot of this and I get that good feeling needed. You really do almost feel like a Monk with this tea I find, haha.

First of all I think it’ll be easier on everyone if we don’t compare this to the tradition monk’s blend (black tea flavoured with grenadine).

I was a bit leery of the longer steeping time and temperature, but this tea seems reasonably resilient and forgiving. It has a smooth feel in the mouth with floral hints but at the same time the it doesn’t dominate the tea which is always a concern whenever jasmine is involved. This blend also has that characteristic I’ve noticed with milk oolongs in that eating something sweet brings out a nice sweet, creamy flavour. It’s a quite an enjoyable blend and if I didn’t have so many green/white teas already I’d considered buying a pouch.

This tea is rather delicate which is not something I’ve come to expect from David’s Tea, with their tendency to oversweeten and flavor pretty much everything. It’s a blend of white tea, jasmine and milk oolong. I did steep this Western style (i’m at work) but would like to try gong fu’ing it someday.

Although fairly subtle there is a lot going on here in terms of flavor. Definite milk/butter, though I understand this is artificial… also I’m getting a bit of nuttiness and some sweetness. It reminds me a bit of cookies, but not in a sickeningly sweet way. Definitely a good tea for the afternoon time, as it’s low in caffeine and pretty relaxing.

Better than I thought it would be!

My best friend brought this one over for us to drink a couple weeks ago, whereupon we brewed it gongfu in my Gaiwan for the night, and it was soo good that I just had to get myself some. I bought 60g about a week ago, it’s definitely the best thing I’ve ever had from davidstea.

If you’ve been brewing this western style, stop right now. Any of the couple times I’ve done so, it’s been really flat and not flavourful really at all. But in the Gaiwan, It’s lovely any floral and milky and peachy, It’s soo good, and the flavour lasts for so many steeps. it tastes somewhat like Jin Xuan by the end of the brewing, when all the jasmine and milk flavours are gone, which in itself is really lovely too, it’s such an unobvious combination of flavours but it works so well, David you did good with this one.

I’ll make this more detailed next time I brew it, but I’m going through all of my new pu’erhs right now (I’m not reviewing them because I don’t really know anything about pu’erh yet. I’m learning right now)

This is my favourite white tea by David’s tea! It’s perfectly creamy with a perfect level of bitterness from the jasmine. So good.

I love the smell as well as the taste of this tea. The milk and peach flavours are well-balanced. I find it a little strange that they added lactose to get the milk flavour, but it works well.