Black Bean Oolong

Thank you Roswell Strange for this weird, weird tea. It actually isn’t completely out there tastewise but I am finding two things weird: (1) the concept of a black bean tea is a bit strange and (2) someone said the leaves looked like strange coffee and for some reason I keep smelling coffee when I smell this. Is there coffee beans in this? Or is my brain somehow normalizing the idea of beans in tea by thinking coffee? And is that normal when I do not drink coffee?

Anyways, this tea is not bad, just different. Different but not totally unfamiliar. Like it tastes like parts of teas I have had before jumbled together in a new way. It is earthy. Leathery, almost. And a lot of bean. It is smooth. It is interesting. Do I like it? I genuinely don’t know. It is so unique and yet so easy to drink but do I want another mug full? Not anytime soon I don’t think. Yet I am also not throwing it into my swap box so make of that what you will. Thank you Roswell Strange for the experience.

Finished off a mug of this now and it’s just so dark, earthy and wonderful. Those really roasty toasty nutty and mineral flavours of the oolong and the strong beany flavour work so well together. I get notes of black coffee, mineral rich potting soil, and a great umami brothy vibe. It’s an incredibly unique tea and not something I always want because it is intense in those flavours, but when it’s right it’s soooo right!

I’m working my way through these odd and unusual teas. This one was verrrrrryy difficult to photograph. This is probably one of the least photogenic teas I’ve ever had, but i still was curios as what beans and oolong tasted like. The leaf is made up of small bundles of dark oolong balls along with lots of black beans. The aroma is some roast and black beans (duh). I warmed up my gaiwan and placed the snack inside. The scent opens into lots of roast along with prominent edamame notes. I washed the leaves once and prepped for brewing. The taste of the drink was full of starch and sweetness. This reminds me of Americanized mole sauce on an enchilada. Its an odd sweet tone with bean and pungent smoke . I was not a fan of this tea.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRUI-6eAF5n/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

Black bean oolong, wth?

This oolong is for all the people who love that roasty smoky taste, but the black bean improved it by removing that bitter element of smoke. What you get is a sweet, roasty oolong smoke and a bombproof tea that you can grandpa or gongfu. I gongfu’d mine and it was bright, roasty, and sweet with a unique savory brothy taste. You’ll love this one especially if you like houjicha, roast barley teas and high roast oolong. I can see this tea being awesome iced!

Full review on OolongOwl http://oolongowl.com/black-bean-oolong-oolong-inc-tea-review/

I was provided this sample by Oolong Inc. in exchange for a review. That being said, I would never be anything but honest.
The dry leaf smells nutty and warm. Brewing it has a predominantly roasted oolong scent, with a bit of a salty edge. The flavor is smooth with honey tones, and a really lovely roasted nut aftertaste. This is really quite excellent. It preserves both the qualities of gently roasted oolong while providing a nice darker nut roasted flavor. It reminds me of fresh-pressed soy milk flavor with some chestnut flavor thrown in. I could see myself craving this tea when it is cold outside (or 50 in the office, like it is at the moment!). It is so strange having these lightly honey-floral and nutty notes in one tea- it is clearly not a black tea nor is it identifiable as an oolong. The aftertaste reminds me a little of the taste in the air of a real coffee shop (not Starbucks) – not sweet, but not bitter either. Kinda like the smell of coffee breath. I know that doesn’t sound very tasty, but I assure you it is! And very comforting as well. The tea has a rather thin body but a good amount of sweetness to it.
I’m continually astounded at the price point of this tea for the quality. It is definitely something I will purchase in the future.

Danger Floof powers activated! Thanks to the assistance of my dear Tea Barbarian my deathhawk (the official term for my style of mohawk) has been trimmed and re-dyed, it took three bottles of dye which is ridiculous! But it was the first time in a while that I bleached the roots and redid all the hair, and even though I have a mohawk I still have a ton of hair. Which brings me to the big problem, no amount of hair spray and backcombing will keep the ‘hawk up! I just have too much and too thick of hair, it looks more like a turquoise horse mane than a mohawk….oh god, I’m a My Little Pony.

Today’s tea comes from Oolong Inc and is their Taiwan Black Bean Oolong, a roasted Oolong blended with kuromame, or black soy beans that have been fried. It is a common health drink in various parts of Asia, and like other roasted grain/seed teas I love it . This is the first time I have had it blended with anything, and I have to admit, if I were to blend it with any type of tea a roasted oolong seems perfect. See these fried beans smell exactly like burnt beans, because they kinda are burnt beans, reminds me a bit of pot liquor from many iterations of pinto beans as a kid (one of my favorite parts of that meal) blending those notes with strong woody, toasted grain, and bamboo coal notes of the roasted oolong works rather well. That is if you like toasted grain and roasted teas, if not you might want to back away slowly.

I decided to gongfu this tea, because of course I did, and even though the leaves were fairly broken up and had a decent amount of stems it performed well in the gaiwan. The aroma of the wet leaves is very strong burnt beans and roasted grains, wet wood, and char, with a slight underlying sweetness of honey on toast. The liquid is sweet with notes of honey and grains with burnt beans, wet wood, char, and a bit of a bready undertone.

So, I will say this about this tea, its very tasty and has a decent amount of longevity lasting four steeps before giving up the ghost. It does not really change at all through the steeping, the taste stays the same, conveniently I like the taste so it is not all bad. It is thick and a bit sweet and a bit burnt, like someone took soy beans and fried them, which is pretty much what happened. Combining that taste with woodiness and char and a touch of lingering toast, this is definitely a good tea to drink on a chilly day.

The company asked me a few questions to address in my review, namely if the tea were found at Teavana or Republic of Tea how much would I pay for it…well, I wouldn’t. Not because of this tea, but because I have not bought anything from Republic of Tea in over five years and I have never shopped at Teavanna because I have never liked the teas of theirs I sampled. Next was how much would I pay for it if I found it in a supermarket and again I am not really sure, I never buy tea at a grocery store, I just don’t even look because they have not carried the kind of tea I liked…if I found it at a grocery store I would be dumbfounded I think. Their online price of $4.49 for 2oz is pretty fantastic so if I found it for those prices I would not hesitate. The next question is ‘Would a connoisseur like yourself steep a cup of our tea alone, after lunch in the office?’ I had to quote it because thanks for calling me a connoisseur! Yes I would drink this tea after lunch by myself, a lot of my tea-ing is solo, but if Ben were around I would give it to him to try because I like to share. The last question was how does it compare to teabags and K-cups, well for one no creating an astronomical amount of waste (I LOATHE K-cups) and teabags frequently are made from dust and fannings and taste not so good, and you rarely get more than one steep out of it.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/05/oolong-inc-taiwan-black-bean-oolong-tea.html

Many thanks to Oolong Inc. for letting me sample this! Wow, never expected to find beans in my tea! I was very surprised with how the bean flavor came through. It was hearty and earthy and savory, and lent a kind of gravitas to the oolong. Even though I’ve eaten black beans all my life, I don’t think I would have identified this as ‘bean’ flavor in a blind test. It didn’t taste smoky to me, though perhaps it’s because when I think of smoky tea, I’m recalling the knock-out smokiness of a lapsang souchong. The tea has a lot of staying power and was still going strong after 3 steepings. I probably wouldn’t have picked this out for myself, because I tend to go for green oolongs, but I really enjoyed it!

They also had these questions which I’m answering here:
1. If my tea were found on Teavana or Republic of Tea, how much would you pay for it?
This is a little tricky to answer, just because the pricing on Teavana and Republic of Tea has very little to do with the quality of the tea and everything to do with the brands. The base price for loose leaf oolong on their websites seems to be about $13, but may be higher if they feel they can make a case for it being a hard-to-come-by tea. So I guess $13, or maybe a bit more if you feel the tea is in limited supply. That said, I wouldn’t actually buy oolong from Teavana or Republic of Tea, their quality isn’t that great.

2. If my tea were sold in supermarkets, how much would you pay for it?
Hmmm, context is a big factor here. I think the most I’ve ever seen tea go for in the supermarket is $8, so I wouldn’t price it higher than that. But people who buy their tea in supermarkets seem to expect everything to come in a tea bag.

3. Would a connoiseur like yourself steep a cup of our tea alone, after lunch in the office?
Of course! I have no problem drinking tea alone (more for me!) and I always have some tea after lunch.

4. What are its advantages over tea bags and K cups?
A rolled oolong doesn’t have enough room to expand in a tea bag, much less a K cup, so it wouldn’t be very flavorful if the tea was stuffed in those.