Rose Oolong

“This tea tastes like going to an imperial palace and walking through a rose garden. The rose and the bright oolong have a spring evening feel. You’re walking through the well-tended garden, your feet on the warm yet cooling stones, discussing diplomacy in really awesome brocade silk dresses.”

Full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2016/12/26/rose-oolong-from-tea-ave/

Morning cup of tea.

I’m working through a lot of long online training videos for DAVIDsTEA right now because I was recently promoted to keyholder, so I have to go through a training top up. It’s been long, boring and exacting, so having a good solid cup of tea on hand has been a vital resource.

It’s delicate and refreshing with a really clean flavour and overall profile. While obviously rosey, it also has some other fresh flower/Springtime floral notes at the top of the sip transitioning into the mid sip. The undertones are smooth, sweet and grassy with hints of something peachy finding its way in there, as well as a bit of sugar snap pea sweetness. It finishes with a light honey sweetness.

So, so, so good. Better than last time, for sure.

Today was awesome! Ben and I went to the zoo and I had a blast taking pictures of all the creatures and spending far too much time in the bird enclosures. Seriously my favorite aspect of the KC Zoo (other than their conservation work) is the Australian and African bird enclosure, it is a giant bird cage where many birds just go about their business mostly ignoring people. Except the ibises in the Australia exhibit and the splendid starlings in Africa, conveniently they are two of my favorites. I just love the zoo and I am so glad I was able to go!

Since it is starting to feel like summer I wanted to cover a tea that is practically just summer incarnate, Tea Ave’s Rose Oolong. This tea is an Alishan Jin Xuan that has been scented with rose, and with a few rose petals tossed in, and let me say, I love roses in tea…the idea of blended roses with an already creamy sweet base sounds wonderful. The aroma smells exactly like I had hoped, it smells like Rose Milk (or Falooda, though not quite as starchy) Rose Milk was one of my favorite summer drinks for years. In fact it is one of my favorite aspects of both Indian and Persian desserts, the use of rose is wonderfully decadent. The aroma of rose is certainly strong and sweet, but it brings in milky sweet notes from the Jin Xuan, giving it a dessert quality and it smells delicious.

Steeping the tea was pretty awesome, the tea area was filled with blooming roses and it was heady, which I liked! Full on rose garden in bloom coming out of my gaiwan. After steeping the leaves had a blend of rose and milky sweet custard with a slight nutty undertone and hint of crushed vegetation. The liquid smelled like rose custard, super sweet and creamy with intense rose and even a pinch of sugar cane, it is pretty intense!

I was proud of myself, I shared some of this tea with Ben instead of quaffing it all myself, it took great self control. First thing you notice is the rose, it is at the foretaste and the mid, and of course the after, it is all rose all the time. The rest of the taste dances from creamy sweet custard to a bit of nuttiness to a slight crushed vegetation at the finish. It is fairly light at the first steep, but lightness cannot stop the rose.

Conveniently, the rose is still strong for the second steep, but it does not get stronger, it stays the same level of rose bush. The sweet creamy taste however, that does get stronger, really taking on a custard quality with undertone of sesame seeds. I almost want to munch on pistachios while drinking this tea to really bring out the Persian ice cream quality. The aftertaste is rose and it lingers for a while.

Onward to the next steep, this one has a slightly stronger rose in both taste and aroma, and a slightly diminished creamy sweetness. For this steep the notes of crushed vegetation and lily are stronger alongside the intense rose, there is no doubt this is a Jin Xuan, and it blends wonderfully with the rose, in fact other than the occasional blending with red teas, this might be the best rose combination I have found. I also tried it cold steeped, it was enjoyable, but I preferred it warm, which is odd considering how much the taste reminds me of ice cream!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/05/tea-ave-rose-oolong-tea-review.html

The dry leaf has a lovely floral scent. I didn’t get any rose in the brewed taste or aroma though, and actually found it a little bitter. I put the rest in a jar in the fridge to cool, and preferred it that way the next day. There was still a hint of bitterness but I liked it better cold as it was refreshing. Also noted some nuttiness which I didn’t notice when hot, and was quite good. I would have liked more rose though

The texture of this tea was a real pleasure, Jin Xuan Oolong has a buttery mouthfeel, which was silky smooth, much like a rose petal. It was the perfect base for a rose oolong, but I found that the flavor was mild for a scented oolong— it had only the briefest hint of rose. I was hoping the rose was going to be more of a dominant flavor. By the third and fourth steepings of this tea there was hardly any sign of it, just a faint floral note in the background.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/8/18/tuesday-tea-rose-oolong-tea-ave

I wasn’t the biggest fan of this one. I found it a little disappointing because I was hoping for more rose and what’s there is extremely subtle and light. Almost to the point of being non-existent for me! Other than that it is nice, sweet and a bit creamy but just not finding it as intoxicating as the Wenshan Baochung I had yesterday. Might have been better if I had gong fu’d it, but I am never at home to do that it seems.

This was another free sample in my last order. I would never have picked this out for myself as I am not big on floral teas. It’s really delicious though. Silky, like the texture of rose petals, as well as the fragrance, is in the tea. I think the rose also adds a sweetness to it. It’s definitely floral, but the other characteristics make it enjoyable for me. It’s also really pretty. ;)

Finally getting around to more of my Tea Ave samples. By now I’ve tried 2 of 3 (plus a bonus), and this one (#–2) is the last one to try. Funny, since by rights it should have been the first one I grabbed given that I love rose. I’m brewing this one western style using my typical green oolong method. I will take the rest home to gongfu, perhaps this weekend.

Some people may appreciate that this tea has light rose notes. They are definitely present, but playing around the edges. I myself prefer a much stronger rose flavor, since rose is one of my favorites. I could forgive that, however, if the base was anything to write home about. I find it a little meh. Vegetal, a little buttery, but lacking the creaminess I would expect from a Jin Xuan. I will say that I get a little bored by Taiwanese high mountain oolongs, although I have them as the base of a few other scented teas and enjoy them well enough. Even in Tea Ave’s own Ginger Lily, it worked better. I think this one is just so dominant in the flavor, and one-note (vegetal). Maybe it will be more nuanced in gongfu. That said, I drank it easily enough.

The thing that sets me off the most about this is the price. Right now, the sale price is more than double what I would pay for a rose green oolong from Dammann or Taiwan Tea Crafts. Now, I am not one to cast judgement at spending a lot on one tea, as I have done my damage with some reserve teas in the past, but their prices seem a tad excessive to me for the product. I am grateful that they sent me the samples to review (as well as the aroma cup set and such), but I will be perfectly honest in my review: I expect mind-blowing for that price, and this is decidedly not.

Finally trying the last of Tea Ave’s line up of scented teas, and only now do I stop to ponder… Does the name mean Tea Avenue? Or are we talking “welcome tea” and “goodbye tea”… the latin ave, as in Ave Maria?

I imagine it’s the prior but I have fun imagining it’s the latter, as it sums up my thoughts when drinking tea.

The scent of rose oolong is a bit more mild than the other tea ave teas I’ve tried. Of course there is rose, and a creamy scent from the Jin Xuan cultivar oolong. In a way, this sweet and mild combination reminds me of fruit loops breakfast cereal when smelling the leaves dry in the warm gaiwan.

The rose petals become a gorgeous magenta and float to the top while most of the tea leaves sink as I fill the gaiwan with water. The aroma of the wet leaves is really creamy with subtle rose notes. As with the other more subtle scented teas from Tea Ave, I’m not getting much fragrance from the Taiwanese aroma cup set I’m using to enjoy this tea.

The taste of this tea is very light, and has a nice subtle rose taste. I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would. Most times I’ve had roses in tea, they’ve been really strong, and while I love rose, too much can sort of taste cloying. I have a horrendous headache as I’m writing this, so luckily this isn’t too fragrant or I’d be tossing it out the window!

The second infusion has quite a bit more flavor, more rosey, but still not overpowering. I really enjoy it. By the third, I’m mostly tasting the creamy Jin Xuan and not the roses. On the fourth infusion, I’m getting mild notes of high mountain foliage, the kind of taste you’d expect from great Taiwanese oolong.

I would say this tea would be ideal for someone who likes a little bit of flowers but maybe not a lot of them, because you really only taste the rose in this for a couple of infusions, and after that it’s all creamy smooth high mountain oolong. It’s a nice transition and a very subtle, relaxing comfort tea. Has helped my headache a bit.

In fact I’d say that I liked this more than some of the scented teas from Tea Ave I thought I’d love.

Here are my rankings, now that I’ve tried them all. The first two are stellar. The rest are ones I enjoy, but they didn’t leave a strong impression, as they tend to be rather subtle and require a lot of leaf if you want more than subtle.

1. Magnolia
2. Osmanthus
3. Ginger Lily
4. Rose
5. Jasmine
6. Cape Jasmine

I looked forward to trying this oolong from TeaAve. It really is a wonderful oolong.

The rose in this tea becomes a part of the oolong. Each mouthful is rose & butter. I also love picked up the rose aroma from the cup. The rose is so subtle in this tea but definitely not shy either. I know this review is short but I am just not in the mood for long reviews today. This tea is still amazing!