Watermelon Baozhong

162/365

I’ve been saving this for cold brewing pretty much since I bought it. Probably it should have seen the light of day last year, but since that was a write off…

I’m really glad I pulled this one out today, though. The dry leaf (and even the brewed tea) don’t have much in the way of scent about them, so it was impossible to judge before tasting. I was expecting mostly oolong, since I’ve left it so long, but fortunately that’s not the case.

This is so good. Now that I’ve tried it, I’m more than a little sad that it’s no longer available. It reminds me a lot of Butiki’s Watermelon Xylophone, which is something I never thought I’d say. No watermelon tea has ever struck that natural, fresh, pulpy watermelon flavour so accurately before, until now. This one captures it just as well – absolutely no artificiality here!

Cold brewing was the right way to go, I think. The cold water adds to the “fridge fresh watermelon” vibe, to the point where it almost could be mistaken for watermelon juice. The base is perfect – maybe even better than Butiki’s! I love the buttery creaminess the baozhong oolong contributes; it just works so well, and is totally delicious to boot!

I’m glad I’ve got some more of this one, but I’m going to save it for the really hot days we’ll get later in the summer. It’ll be a joy, pure and simple, to drink this when it’s 30 degrees outside.

I was so impressed with the flavoring of this tea because it’s so hard to find an authentically flavored ANYTHING watermelon. First of all, bao zhong is my absolute favorite oolong tea so I thought I’d snatch this right up and I’m so glad I did! The light creamy oolong is perfectly complimented by a nice juicy and very realistic watermelon flavor! It tastes like actual watermelon and it does also have pieces of watermelon in it. This is currently one of my favorite flavored teas and I’m trying to savor the last bit of it that I have.

Lovely tasting cold brew. Took me no time to drink it all. Juicy watermelon. Tastes true to eating watermelon, no artificial taste present. Oolong comes through as a creamy base. Rebrewing the leaves.

My first tasting note! And also my first cold brewed tea. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I’d never had baozhong or watermelon flavored tea before. I cold brewed it overnight (7 hours?). The liquid was a pretty light greenish-yellow color and the tea and dehydrated watermelon really expanded! It smelled like watermelon jolly ranchers, which, while nostalgic, was a little strong for me. However, it tastes very fresh and cucumber-y, with a hint of watermelon. It’s a very summery drink! On the second steeping, the watermelon really comes out. It tastes exactly like the meat of the watermelon that’s near the rind – not too sweet, super fresh, and yummy!

I’ve spent approximately 8 hours hunting down Pokemon thanks to the official release of Pokemon Go in the UK today. I’m pretty thrilled with my Meowth which I found lurking in my house…with 4 cats here already it makes sense another would find it’s way here. I will have to put more effort in tomorrow, today I have been too tired to walk around much.

I have had this tea before but didn’t get around to reviewing it. Frankly everything about this tea is amazing. It’s a good quality Baozhong with butter, cucumber and sweet floral notes before a juicy watermelon after taste that lingers freshly in the mouth. There is nothing about those flavours that is not to like, at least to me. Cucumber and watermelon are two of my favourite foods ever and having them in such a pure and delicious tea form makes it amazing. Not to mention the Baozhong base can be re-steeped successfully a lot of times so it’s a case of having as much watermelon deliciousness as you can handle.

Yay I just caught another Pokemon while writing this review. It’s a good night!

If there was ever a tea made for cold steeping, this Watermelon Baozhong from Liquid Proust is it. The cold steeped tea is a delicious medley of flowers, grass, cucumber, and of course watermelon – just a hint of it as it goes down. I tend to find most flavored teas overbearing but this one preserves the integrity of the base oolong while accenting it with a touch of fruity flavor.

When steeped hot, the watermelon flavoring dominates the delicate flavor of the bao zhong. The taste of the warm tea is reminiscent of watermelon bubblegum which is also what the dry leaf smells like. I hot steeped it once and decided I liked it better cold.

Kudos to Liquid Proust for a refreshing summer time tea!

It was recommended to me by Liquid Proust that I cold brew this as an iced tea. So I cold brewed it overnight in my 32oz Lupica Handy Cooler. It is quite good iced , especially with a little sugar syrup. The watermelon flavor is really nice, kinda pops out at you. The base tea, the oolong, at least I think it’s an oolong, comes out good too, comes out somewhat creamy in nature. You get a very nice blend of the watermelon and the tea base with a cold brew of this. There is no bitterness to speak of either.

I cold brewed 32oz of this overnight in a 32oz Lupica Handy Cooler with approx 4 tsp leaves.

This tea is fantabulously delicious. I’ve only had a few ounces of it warm—I put the rest in two mason jars in the fridge for myself and a friend for drinking later today.

It tastes like brown sugar and watermelon. Not artificial watermelon either. Great tea. I will have to see if I prefer it cold.

I just woke up from an epic long nap, I say epic because it was five hours long and I am not really sure that counts as a nap or just a short sleep. Said nap was needed after helping Ben’s grandparents with getting ready to move, and the scorching almost 100 degree heat really wore me out, not that I have been sleeping well lately due to said heat, the heart monitor, and just general sleeping problems…so that nap was so welcome. Since I had been playing a bit of Ark (yay new update, boo leeches) my dreams were filled with amusingly mundane swamp adventures, like making sure the plants were fertilized. Fun times!

You know what, I hate the heat…in fact if you have been reading this blog for a while you probably are well aware of this. Luckily I live in a time of refrigeration and ease of cold-steeping, and that is what I did with today’s tea, Watermelon Baozhong from Liquid Proust Teas. First off, props to Andrew for actually using dried watermelon pieces rather than just flavoring, granted I love me some watermelon candy, but I like the real thing even more. Which can I point out that up to three years ago I loathed all melons with a burning passion? Now I love watermelon, this still weirds me out, but also makes me happy because I always felt so left out during the summer. The aroma of this tea with its big ol’ leaves and big ol’ watermelon chunks, is pretty darn sweet. Creamy notes of hyacinth and lilacs blend with crisp lettuce and surprisingly juicy watermelon. He used Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Baozhong as a base, and that tea smells wonderful, so it is no surprise that it blends really well with the watermelon since it is one of the sweetest Baozhongs I have sniffed.

After letting it sit in my fridge for a bit, not only was the watermelon slice massive after rehydrating, the aroma really ramped up the watermelon too, blending watermelon and flowers and a tiny hint of dried basil. Weird but it really worked, reminded me a bit of a salad I had once with watermelon and basil leaves, a fantastic combo!

I feel like I am drinking the very embodiment of a summer picnic! Juicy sweet watermelon, sun warmed grass, lettuce, basil, blooming flowers, and a touch of mineral at the finish to of course call in the inevitable rain that arrives at picnics. The only thing missing is ants…or chiggers…and I am ok with those not being around. It is so refreshing! I love how it tastes like an actual watermelon and not a Jolly Rancher, and I love the way it blends with the Baozhong. Another blend well done, Liquid Proust Teas continues to impress me, and wow is it nice to have a summery tea to enjoy in this heat! Also, I was able to get a resteep, something I pretty much never get from cold steeping (except on occasion Jin Xuan or heavily rolled oolongs of that nature) it was lighter the second time around, but still quite refreshing and tasty.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/06/liquid-proust-teas-watermelon-baozhong.html

Like all of the teas I’ve tried from Liquid Proust this one doesn’t include any steeping instructions, so I decided to consult the oracle known as google and see what other companies recommend when steeping the base tea, in this case a Baozhong Oolong. Sadly I found that I didn’t have much luck when steeping this tea at 195˚F, which is what was recommended by several sources, it left my tea tasting like a watermelon jolly rancher. That really isn’t my thing, so I starting playing around with different water temperatures and steeping times. It turns out this is one stubborn tea. I finally gave up and tossed everything into my cold steeping pitcher.

In hindsight I probably should have saved this tea until after I’d had a cup of something a little less finicky, perhaps my favorite earl grey, but once I get an idea in my head there is no letting go. Fortunately I had excellent results cold steeping this overnight. The long cold steeping time left me with a pitcher of tea that had a mild, but pleasant grassy flavor and only the faintest hint of tart watermelon. A little added sugar smoothed out the tartness, leaving me with a pleasantly flavored oolong that’s perfect for the hot days of summer.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2016/6/14/watermelon-baozhong-liquid-proust-teas