Milk Oolong

I used it directly mixing with milk, It give really sweet flavor.

So happy to have this in the cupboard again! It smells sooooo buttery. Gotta be honest, I never can taste anything at the recommended 15-20 second steeps, but 2 minute steeps are working out great.

I like the autumn and winter harvests of this way more than the spring. Just sayin’.

Garret you are running a wonderful company. The and written note is a wonderful touch that you just don’t see much of anymore. I was excited to see the tea but seeing the note gave me warm fuzzies.

Does anyone else have trouble with their Gaiwan being too hot? The water isn’t overly hot but I will like the liquid that come from it is hotter then it should be…

Anyway… this tea is amazing. I smell compared David Tea to this one and wow… David’s Tea almost smells fake.. It’s not as pleasing to the nose as this one is. And the flavor. OH THE FLAVOR! So much in there! The resteepablitly is amazing. I did a 10 second rinse. Used a gaiwan for the first few steepings until my fingers got tired of holding on to a hot cup. Now I’m sipping every 30 seconds from a teapot (pouring it in a small tea cup first… I wouldn’t drink it straight from the spout =p]. It’s holding up very well at 3 minutes in and still going…

I purchased an ounce of this in my most recent order, and am coming to regret not getting more than I did. Having tried two other milk oolongs, and finding them dissatisfying due to the artificial flavor, there was some hesitance in ordering it. However, this tea was pleasantly smooth and comforting. The initial brew, or rinse if you do that to your oolong, presents a noticeable aroma similar to milk. After a few steeps the tea progressed from heavier cream, dairy, and viscous consistency to a lighter floral flavor I find in some Tieguanyin. It was an excellent tea and held up to several brews in my gaiwan. I will be ordering a larger quantity next time as this tea accompanies my night of Richard Dawkins literature well.

Gongfu cha method. Confession: I drank the rinse water. It smelled too good. I taste coconut, milk, burnt sugar. So good. 30 seconds@ 190. Second steep was about a minute. Grass notes coming in. Third steep longer (maybe two minutes? not sure. I should pay better attention). Noticing lively green color, but my cups are green so… Fourth four minutes (I am an oversteeper, I admit it). Tastes like green tea now, sweet flavors have faded a bit. Still quite pleasant. Fifth, five minutes. The aroma is still lovely and color still bright, but flavor too weak (and slightly bitter) to consider a sixth.

I’m not sure what happened with my first cup of this. Maybe my adjusted steeping parameters made all the difference. But this cup was significantly more tasty than my first one. Lots of sweetness, butteriness, and creaminess; it did remind me a fair amount of kettle corn. This was a delight to drink, and definitely impressive. I would place this one and ATR’s Milk Oolong in the same category, but I’d have to drink them back to back to really do a good comparison. Acutally I drank ATR’s yesterday so I almost did just that, but I’m afraid I didn’t pay good enough attention to either tea to suss out the specifics. But I’m glad to have gotten a great cup out of this one this time.

Sunday sample sipdown!

This was a swap either from VariaTEA or Dex – I think VariaTEA. I’ve heard various hymns about Mandala, and about the high quality of this oolong in particular, so I thought I’d see what the fuss was about.

Man, this tea was wasted on me. I waited too long to sip it, so it probably absorbed the flavours of the other teas sitting nearby. In addition, I know myself well enough by now to know that green floral oolongs are not my favourite, and this was very floral. Third, I didn’t get much of a taste of cream or milk at all in this.

I tried brewing this gong-fu style with my gaiwan, but I got only about 3 or 4 steeps in before I decided that this tea just wasn’t working for me. I did a quick 10 second rinse, and my steeps ranged from 15-25 seconds. The leaves had started to unfurl quite nicely inside the gaiwan and the liquor was generally a pale golden colour, but the flavour still wasn’t compelling for me.

At least I have another data point to add to my observations about (my general dislike of) green oolongs.

So after a few disappointments with my more recent tea hauls, I finally brewed this bad boy up. And wow, what a good little milk oolong this is. Creamy, buttery, with a confusing but lovely burnt caramel/fresh gardenia finish that shouldn’t work half so well together. It reminds me a little of creme brule. I’m a little baffled that it isn’t flavored, to be honest, given the sheer depth of flavor and how well it holds up under repeat steepings. It does seem to evolve into a more floral brew over time, but nothing overpowering.

Steep after steep. The old sweet ‘n’ creamy getting me through this Saturday of comps…