Samdayeon Jeju Tangerine

Flavored oolong tea bags. Oddly this reminds me of Harney and Sons’ milky oolong the most but with additional orange flavor. The two both have this smooth butter flavor and I don’t think OSULLOC created this flavor intentionally. I wish the tea offered more tartness/sourness, it would make it more interesting in my opinion.

Bought this at H Mart for $10.49/20 tea bags.

Sold for $14.99//20 tea bags.

https://us.osulloc.com/products/blended-tea

A friend brought back some tea samples from her trip to South Korea and the teas are delightful.

The dry tea satchet smells strongly of coniferous tree with a touch of tangerine. Surprisingly, the prominence of the tree note swaps place with the citrus once it steeps up. It’s such a juicy and smooth tangerine. It’s delicious, clean tasting, and refined. I wish I could spend more time with this blend.

Steep Count: 3

The first sachet to try from my random Amazon impulse tea purchase! OSULLOC is a Korean company located in Jeju province, which is an island off of the south coast. A lot of their teas seem to have native ingredients blended in with locally produced tea. And the packaging is so pretty! So naturally, I couldn’t resist buying a sampler… https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_h3TYAqph/

The directions recommended 5 ounces of water per sachet? Which I promptly disregarded since the sachets looked normal size and used about 8 ounces of water as I usually do (although to be honest, I’ve never measured it and could be completely wrong in my estimate…). The packaging calls the tea “post-fermented”, which immediately made me think of puerh. However, the listing here calls it oolong and the leaves also resembled an oxidized oolong or black tea. The liquor is also quite light amber in color, so… Your guess is as good as mine.

I will say, this is a lovely tea. To be fair, I don’t get a lot from the base tea, perhaps a hint of autumn leaf? The tangerine flavor is lovely and relatively accurate in my opinion, with a nice bright zingy flavor that make me think of clementines. There’s also a very sweet floral note that reminds me strongly of osmanthus. It melds so well with the tangerine here, which is the most prominent at the beginning of the sip. The osmanthus note is mellow at first sip, but then grows and shines near the end. The aftertaste is a pleasant mix of acidic tangerine peel and sweet floral nectar.

Overall, I’m very happy with this one. It’s a lovely light and very aromatic tea that feels fancy and special. The tangerine flavor is great and reminds me of my beloved Kumquat from Lupicia. A great start to my OSULLOC experience! :)

I had it at an O’Sulloc cafe, not knowing it was an oolong blend (I was expecting it to be green). It has zero sweeteners, yet has sweet fragrance from the tangerine peel and blossom. It leans more on the sweet and fragrant side than the pungent side like some citrus teas.

Second time trying this and it feels like the tangerine notes are less. I suspect its because this is a sample thats been stored in a ziploc bag. I really wish there was an easier way to store samples without losing their flavour. Might have to search for some small airtight tins or something, don’t want to start buying more airtight glass jars as they take up quite a bit of room and the smallest sizes at the dollar store are too large for a few grams of tea anyway.