Sugar Caramel Oolong

When I first tried this tea I thought I liked it and I ordered a canister of it. Since getting the canister I’ve found that I don’t like it as much as I thought. It may be that I am over-steeping it but it has a strange taste to me.

Typically I like green teas, white teas, yellow teas, and black teas but haven’t much cared for oolongs. On the other hand, I love Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong tea, which is also an Oolong. So I’m not certain what is up with me.

Fortunately, I have more of the Sugar Caramel Oolong and can experiment with steep times and temperatures.

The dry leaf smells just like you might expect — sugar, caramel, and oolong — and it’s lovely! Due to this it’s the first dessert tea that’s made me want to bake up something similar, rather than hoping that the tea will live up to a given dessert.

These are nice curled up oolong leaves, nothing exciting to look at at first but beautiful as they steep and unfold. The liquor itself is also nice to look at and sniff, a toasty warm yellow with a weaker but similar sent to the dry leaf.

Unfortunately, the flavor also doesn’t live up to the initial scent. While I can very much enjoy weaker teas, I feel like this one in particular would do better to have a strong taste; in my book, if you’re going to cover up the tea with not-so-tea-ish tastes, it’s generally best to go all the way. Fortunately, the flavoring that is present isn’t even vaguely artificial, and in fact tastes like a higher quality of ingredients was used than I’d normally find in my kitchen. The overall taste is also assisted a lot by the type of oolong that was used; while its hardly my area of expertise, I can tell that it’s on the rich, sweet side.

I tried adding sugar and milk as is suggested on Golden Moon Tea’s website, but it was hardly an improvement; instead of bringing out new elements of the flavor, they just took over the taste to the point that it was as though I’d just put them into hot water.

One last thing that I really like about this tea is the feeling it leaves. Some tea just feels like drinking water when all is said and done, but there’s something about this one that’s very comforting and even somewhat filling. It might be due to the small aftertaste.

I was expecting something different from the name and the smell, but I actually really like this even though it’s disappointing in some ways.

Good Golly Miss Molly! I have been laid up with an injury and HAVING tea, and some wonderful ones, but just not up to writing here, but I’ve really missed it here and then last night I had a sample of this tea I got with my last Golden Moon order. I am grieving today because I only had a sample and am going to order more tonight. WOWSA. I don’t know when I’ve fallen head over heels in love with a tea like this, I have a lot of good ones, but this just sent me over the moon. I actually steeped it for 7 minutes because the sample was really too small for the infuser but it came out perfect. And there was just enough left to have a small glass of iced tea today and it was superb. This is a tea you WON’T want to miss!

A sweet, sugary dessert tea. It lost a bit of flavor on the second infusion, but it still left my mouth watering for more. The carmel and brown sugar tastes are not overwhelming, but certainly hard to miss. I think I’m going to order a cannister of this as soon as I can.

Taken unsweetened.

My husband is a fan of all things caramel, so I gave this sample to him. I’m snagging sips now as he’s on the phone.

I taste a bit of the oolong, but mostly burnt sugar caramel taste. It’s interesting, but I’m not so much of a fan of it that I would buy it. We’ll see what he thinks of it.

I might like it better if it was sweetened, but it’s his cup, and he doesn’t sweeten. :-(

Here are his words (until I can get him to get his own account):
It’s a very mellow oolong. The sweetness of the caramel is present but there’s not a lot of burnt sugar. It’s subtle and pleasant.

I’d drink it again, but am not impressed enough with it to buy it. It’s probably a good afternoon home from work, relax tea. Due to the caffeine content it would have to be early, though.

I think I’m getting a little oolonged-out. Or getting oolong-fatigue. They’re all starting to blend together. This one had the distinctive flavor of the oolong enhanced by a sweet caramel flavor that was fairly bright.

So I actually was intending to drink a different golden moon tea, but grabbed this one cause they had the same package color.

The smell of the tea is so sweet, and so full of the wonderful smell of caramel. Hmm, the tea itself isn’t tasting so sweet though. I gave my mother the second steep, and she thought it tasted pretty “blah”. I’m thinking that I put in water that was too hot though. There’s this really weird bitter taste that I usually never get with oolongs. Aside from the bitterness, I taste the sugar faintly but I think overall this tea was just a fail. I’m a little upset that I don’t have more of this sample to try and get it right, since it sounded like a really tasty tea.

Yeah, this tea is almost unbearable to drink. I’m really ready to pour it down the drain. This is why dealing with samples of one serving suck. If you mess up and make an undrinkable tea, you don’t get a second shot at it.

No. 3 of my sampler! I was REALLY excited to try this, ’cuz it just sounded sooooo good.

The leaves smell sweet and caramely, but not overly so. There’s still definitely the scent of earthy tea under there. The combination smells really yummy.

The tea itself… has an odd, slightly bitter aftertaste. It’s possible I steeped for too long. The package said 2-3 mins, and I did 3, so this could have been my own fault. But aside from that, it has a nice, lightly sweet flavor that I really enjoy. The caramel/sugar flavor does not overpower the oolong, which I’m really happy about! I’m definitely a fan. Overall, I’d have to say it tastes earthy but sweet.

Perhaps I’ll have to add this to my collection (and not oversteep it next time)! :)

Not very strongly flavored, but I really liked it. It’s sort of scented rather than flavored with the carmel flavor. I kind of wish the tea had a more assertive flavor overall. I hadn’t tried this before (it’s a sample) and this wasn’t quite what I wanted for this afternoon. I’m probably going to try another infusion.

This tea reminds me of TeaG’s Bossa Nova, minus the hazelnut. I would of liked more caramel to this tea. Very easy to drink. Slightly roasted flavor. The oolong in this is quite nice!