Ruby Oolong

Today I was craving something comforting. University has been very stressful lately and I decided to take the day off from school, skip all my classes, and just breathe. I haven’t ventured into the interesting parts of my tea collection in so long, it’s just been a rotation of Cream of Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and Coco Chai Rooibos. I’ve decided to start up doing these tasting notes again, they’re a really good way to hold yourself accountable to sipping down an overgrown collection.

I absolutely love Ruby Oolong, so this was a great way to kick off this new informal sipdown challenge I’m giving myself. It’s fruity and so incredibly fresh tasting, I get a lightly floral finish and notes of dates and apple in the body. I forgot how smooth this tea is – I’m not a fan of “greener” oolongs but this is a nice rich oolong. It steeps such a gorgeous amber too.

Gongfu Sipdown (603)!

I actually thought that I’d finished this one off ages ago so I was a bit surprised when I was looking through my straight oolong drawer and I found a sample bag with about four grams stuffed into it. I thought that seemed like the perfect grammage for my 50ml gaiwan though, so I got everything set up and steeped it up last Sunday.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ByNvTSBAdzE/

It was raining and a little cooler, so I drank this one sprawled out on my bed – watching the rain inbetween steeps. I really, really like the rain so it was tempting to actually go and drink the tea outside but I’d left my thermal carafe at work over the weekend, so I wouldn’t have had a reliable hot water source.

This is a delicious oolong though – I wish DT would carry it year round. It brews out so well Gongfu; very smooth and flavourful even right off the rinse. It’s a medium roast, but has a lot of very sweet and fruit notes; more orchard fruit, however. So, we’re talking creamed honey and buckwheat honey, grilled nuts, caramelized red apples, quince, and date spread. More of the quince/honey and roasted nuts during the “peak” of the session. Usually I would over leaf a tea like this to get more of an intense roast, but I had limited amounts of tea to work with so that wasn’t an option…

Ten Steeps.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4sIiGLXvc&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=14&t=0s

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Picked up some of this yesterday. I’ll admit it’s a little on the pricey side, but I’m a sucker for a good oolong.

This is quite good, though I probably wouldn’t stock up on it considering the price (it’d definitely be a good pick if you had a frequent steeper reward lying around. The initial sip is far more like a black tea than I was expecting — with rich grain and honey notes — but the aftertaste is 100% juicy plum with the perfect amount of sourness to the skin (also could be likened to those small, tart grapes or a gooseberry). I enjoy things that give a bit of a pucker to the mouth, so I’m loving this. Will certainly enjoy what I have.

For the price this is a definite no. It was bland/meh/just OK.

This tea is actually really good with some sugar, it’s smooth and sweet. This is probably the best straight tea I’ve had in a while. It’s too bad that it is so darn expensive! It’s $20 per 50g… Which is why I used my last frequent steeper reward on it. At least it’s a good tea – obviously good quality. I can taste some of the fruity notes, but I’m not sure which ones. The reason I got this is because of its fruitier notes which is odd for a straight oolong. I think I’m tasting the ripe plum notes to it. I like it. I steeped the same leaves twice already and it’s still just as yummy.

Yet another tea I bought for my secret pumpkin. Of course, I had to buy myself some as well.

This tastes quite like a black tea to me, but more like a fine black tea one would drink out of a fancy teapot (as I did, so maybe I’ve biased myself). It tastes a bit of porcelain, medium strength tannins, and something that’s…fruity? No specific fruit, but there is this sweet note that tastes of cocoa powder and something sweet and fruity. I’m not sure what this is actually, but I like it.

It holds up well to being steeped a few times and has flavour while not being bitter, so overall a really interesting tea. The brews a strong yellow colour (as opposed to the expected amber colour), which I found very interesting. The little rolled leaves unfurl and my 2 tsp of dry leaf took over my entire strainer. This is quite a neat tea.