Dragon Eye Oolong

was looking for moderate body, low caffeine, and no overpowering sweetness in my tea this afternoon. Found it in this blend from a Revolution sampler pack (bagged). Not sure how or why it smelled like mint chocolate when dry, but it resolved into a safflower peachy oolong smell as it brewed. Tastes slightly sweet, slightly smoky, and with the faint peach/apricot hint in the background like other notes describe. Very natural and clean tasting. I would drink it again. Also, I think it would be good with asian food (some people mentioned having it at PF changs). Now I wish I’d waited to make this cup with my planned beef & edamame stir fry for dinner :( alas I only have one bag. Silly sampler!

ps – lost track of time and majorly oversteeped (should be 4-5 min) but it doesn’t seem to be a problem! Yay!

This was a much needed boost to start a very long day that is not yet over. It was also the first time I used my new mighty leaf to go mug. This tea was quite delicous! It smelled very inviting and fruity in the bag. I burned my tongue like three times trying to drink it too fast. It tasted very oolongy with a hint of fruity. A nice treat for the morning. The mug worked well too the outside stayed cool which was important in today’s ridiculous heat and it kept my tea hot all the way through my first class. Looking forward to another relaxing cup of tea to wind down tonight.

I’m generally skeptical when it comes to bagged tea, especially when it comes to bagged Oolong. Oolong usually expands more when it brews than other tea types, and it needs adequate room to fully express itself.

However, I was very happy after I steeped this tea and saw that there was still room to spare in the pyramid sachet. It gave me hope that the tea would be tasty.

And it is. It has a pleasant, smooth flavor, with a touch of smoke and a nice roasted fruit flavor … as if someone took peaches and apricots and roasted them to concentrate their sweetness … that’s what I taste here. Very enjoyable, a soft texture and a light flavor that is well-balanced and nicely round.

Call me crazy…but…I really like this bagged tea…

CRAZY!

Anyhow…It’s a nicely flavored Peachy/Apricoty Oolong in a bag! It’s tasty, slightly juicy, and fresh! I think it’s quite nifty!

This sat on my desk while the water was boiling, and I have to say the smell – of just the dry tea – completely filled my area. I kept wanting to look around to see who was enjoying some very fresh and juicy-smelling fruit!

I was a little hesitant about the idea of oolong in a teabag, but it seems to have room to expand nicely. While the smell is still very present, the fruitiness is toned down in the actual cup, allowing more of the oolong’s butteriness to come through.

This is a fantastic change to the Teavana sample I grabbed this morning – it’s washing away the melted cinnamon candy flavor of that earlier poor choice and replacing it with something much, much more enjoyable.

Still yummy.

We jokingly call Revolution varieties Truck Stop Teas because we first found them at the local Flying J/Denny’s and were surprised to see such a sophisticated selection rather than food service grade stuff.

Revolution has made this one deliberately fruity and peachy. I have often compared the flavor of good oolongs to Juicy Fruit chewing gum, but this one is so sweet, I’d call it Fruit Stripe Gum flavor — you know, the 30 seconds of flavor you get until it goes away. Very tasty and pleasant.

This, however, does not make the husband cut. Way too fruity. His oolongs must be toasty and oversteeped enough to bite your tongue. So far, his only consistent request is for inexpensive Bigelow bagged oolong. Eh, I tried.

Elsewhere, a friend of mine has been posting “daily joys” as a reminder that there is still joy to be found when you ponder it. Mine yesterday was a few hours of bona fide sunshine to walk in and watching neighbors try to pose their six-week-old husky pups for a photo session. I’ll be watching for yours.

I ordered this to go with my desserts PF Changs tonight. They serve it in a cast iron tea pot there which is pretty cool. BUT sadly it’s a pyramid bag, happily it’s loose leaf in said bag. Our server Tim brought out two cups with the tea and my husband gave it a shot! I was pretty surprised. I was more surprised when he asked for a second cup!

This was pretty good. I could really taste the apricot in this Oolong which I liked. But I wasn’t really tasting the Oolong in the tea. My husband liked that it was a mild tea, at least mild to him. I didn’t like that they left the bag in and b/c of this the tea got a little too strong and dark. It started as a light color and got closer to amber before I was able to get the bag out of the pot.

I enjoyed teaching my husband a little more about tea while we sipped. :)

I wanted a fruity tea this afternoon, and this one jumped out of my samples box at me. I picked this tea up with an assortment of other Revolution Tea sachets back at the beginning of May at a truck stop of all places. The dry leaf on this one smells really peachy. I can see through the sachet that the oolong is accompanied by a bunch of flower petals.

I went ahead and brewed this a full five minutes because if I recall correctly my experience with the other teas from this company was that they were a bit weak. The aroma is oolong-y; it says on the pouch that it’s a green oolong, but it smells more like a dark one to me, with a faint roasty aroma. The fruity peach notes are there in the background.

It may smell like a dark oolong (and look like one, from what I can see through the sachet), but it certainly has the leafy, vegetal taste of a green oolong. The peach/apricot flavor remains in the background of the flavor, subtley boosting the oolong itself. I peach flavors can taste medicinal to me sometimes, but this is a true, juicy fresh peach flavor (perhaps because it’s not over-flavored in the first place). I don’t get any ginger from this one, though it says it has some on the packet. I’m pleasantly surprised; I wasn’t expecting much out of this one, but it turned out pretty good after all.

I drank this last night at PF Chang’s. Normally I don’t bother to log the teas I drink in restaurants, but this oolong was so good that it deserved an honorable mention. I didn’t think to ask for the brand while at the restaurant, but thanks to the magic of Google I was able to track it down.

Revolution Tea uses pyramid-shaped bags for their teas, and the Dragon Eye Oolong is packed full of fruity goodness. I was really impressed with it; normally you can tell right away if a tea is bagged or loose just based on the strength of the flavor, but I had to open up the teapot and confirm visually because it tasted so good.

It was a balanced tea that was quite peachy, with a bit of tartness that I attribute to the apricot. Compared to many peach teas I’ve had, which tend to be super-sweet with an aftertaste of orange rind (several American brands) or cloying, Dragon Eye Oolong had a more adult flavor. More subdued. More smoky?

Anyway, quite good. I plan to buy this one soon.