Organic Oolong Tea

I added this tea to the Steepster database. My local Asian market has this Organic version and the Premium Version. The organic version was priced at one dollar more, and has the USDA Organic logo on the package. I bought this after reading the review of the Premium one here on Steepster.

5/15/2013 – Found out I’m not much of a fan of oolongs, so It’s sitting on my tea shelf for awhile longer.

Bagged
Aroma when Dry: Fruity, earthy
After water is first poured: slightly fruity, dusty
At end of steep: fruity, dusty, sweet
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: med red brown
Staple? No, would drink again
Time of day preferred: any
Taste:
first notes: dusty, dry, bland general floral/fruity.
As it cools? tea mellows, notes blend, darken slightly,getting a bit earthy.
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? With Slight fruity notes

I try not to drink caffeine after 3pm, or at least not much or often, but I’m really struggling to stay awake this afternoon. I oversweetened this one, added a bit too much honey to the mix, but I’m enjoying the roasted qualities of the cup. The notes on Steepster give this tea high praise for a bagged oolong. I don’t drink oolong often so I couldn’t say how it compares, but I’m enjoying it. I have a few more tea bags left, shared by a coworker some time ago, so I’ll be able to try it again with a lighter hand on the honey jar.

I’ve been drinking and logging tea the last couple of months but admittedly haven’t written down many notes since Steepster changed hands. There was too much uncertainty at first and I was afraid any notes I left here would be lost so I got out of the habit of writing them down. I know there are still some users having issues, but I’m seeing new tasting notes on my feed regularly now so I’m feeling more confident in leaving my notes here again. I hope the site continues to improve, especially for those who are having so many issues with errors and login/access. I’m sure that’s incredibly frustrating.

I think this is an excellent tea for brewing up a half gallon and keeping in the fridge to serve cold. It’s really a nice tasting mellow oolong with that classic Wuyi Mountain mineral note aftertaste that originally got me into higher end teas. I brew this with slightly cooled off-the-boil water western style. I steep 5 tea bags for 5 mins in about 1/2 quart of water and then pour the hot tea liquor into a stream of cold tap water (we have excellent cold well water) to fill a 2 qt serving pitcher. I usually have mine sweetened with a bit of lemon at the time of each serving. The tea pairs well with just about anything, and is probably as good as you’re going to get with a bagged tea for an every day general purpose beverage. I paid $7 for 100 tea bags. Hard to beat it. I’ve seen some highly negative reviews for this tea, so maybe I got lucky and got a good batch, but my box of tea tastes nothing like the negative reviews. In fact, it is so good, I would love to have some friends over to blind taste test it, and I would bet money that they would rate it higher than some loose leaf.

When it comes to tea bags teas, once again Prince of Peace has proven to provide unusually high quality brew. The key to getting it to come out good is to use a smaller 6 oz cup and to brew for 4 minutes with boiling water. The result is a rich dark roast oolong that I would consider good enough to be an everyday Oolong for when you do not have the ability to focus enough to use a gaiwan.