Taiwan Oriental Beauty (Bai Hao) Oolong Tea

More backlogging! I woke up the other morning and just knew what I wanted to have after breakfast, this tea. It’s the last of my sample for now but I’ll definitely be putting in an order for more, it’s just that good. Dark warm sweet and yet a bit grassy/earthy, it was a wonderful tea to help me on my way to feeling better.

I particularly enjoyed how the natural honey tones progressed from a dark, almost malt like flavor to a lighter floral tone (I think I termed it clover honey in my initial tasting note.) And the slight bit of astringency is a nice touch to cut through the sweet and creaminess of this tea.

Just wonderful!

Too much cocoa. In that sense, this reminds me of the kinds of Chinese black teas I don’t really like—it’s lighter and less malty (although still quite malty for an oolong, I think) than those teas, but still. I’m not even sure I would’ve been able to identify this as an oolong if I hadn’t known; although it does have that light, refreshing oolong aftertaste it also has a lot of characteristics I tend to associate with black teas. In addition to the cocoa, there’s also some honey. There’s not much in the way of florals or roasted notes, which is a minus point for me as I love both those kinds of flavors in oolongs. For reference, I brewed this western style (as I brew most everything).

I got this sample from either Nicole_Martin or Fuzzy_Peachkin —thanks to whichever one of you it was, and thanks to both of you for letting me try some of Teavivre’s teas—although this wasn’t a huge hit, many of the teas I’ve sampled from them have been, and I’m looking forward to placing an order soon.

A pleasant Sunday spent drinking honey-sweet Oriental Beauty. Nice.

This was a very balanced Oolong – slightly floral, slightly sweet, slightly mineral, slightly green with medium-light oolong flavour. Due to trying another Bai Hao that I fell head over heels with, I naturally wanted to try Teavivre’s version. While it was good, it failed to meet admittedly high expectations sadly.

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Sniffing the tea liquor, I got the impression this would be too sweet. But with the first sip, it’s much more toned down. There are a lot of enjoyable flavours here; malty, honey, spices, marzipan, grains, raisin, chocolate. They’re all very mellow and underwhelming though.

The following second through seventh steeps didn’t really impress me either.

To try and get more flavour out of my cups, I did both a western steep and another short steep (with more leaves). Both attempts were unsuccessful. To be truthful, I just couldn’t get into this tea at all.
And overall I while enjoyed the sample, it couldn’t compare with some other Oriental Beauty teas I have tried.

Steep parameters:
100ml gaiwan, 4g, 7 steeps and rinse (30s, 45s, 1m, 1m10s, 1m20s, 1m30s, 1m40s)

This reminds me a bit of a Keemun. Mellow, sweet (whoops, just quoted the Description), faintly nutty. But definitely lighter, “greener” than a Keemun black. Very lovely.

First introduced to this tea by Nuvola, I became an instant fan. At a value price, this incarnation by Teavivre carries over a lot of the same characteristics I shared in my tasting note on Nuvola’s tea:

http://steepster.com/markballou/posts/152203

I brewed the entire sample about 1 min, per the instructions, in my Finum at approximately 185ºF. Blew threw multiple infusions, much like I’d expect.

Differences to note that have me favoring Nuvola:

• Overall uniformity, quality and balance of leaf color somewhat inferior (see photo reference on Steepster. I think it’s pretty accurate)
• Tendency towards a dryer mouthfeel than Nuvola. Where Nuvola complimented, here it’s more pronounced overshadowing the complexities of this tea.
• Sweet notes are present, in line with Nuvola
• Bitter undertone noticeable, not all pleasant but fades after a few steepings

I don’t think my observations of this tea would be corrected by less tea or a shorter steeping time, as I feel I was fairly conservative. However, I did NOT do a rinse this time. I drink mostly green and honestly just forgot. Had I tried this tea before Nuvola, I wonder what I would have thought.

Either way it’s a good value versus the pricing at Nuvola, and now that I think about and read Teavivre’s online gaiwan brewing instructions, I could have gone with an even shorter brew time than was on their packaging. Wish their brew guide on the sample was the same as is on their web site. I might have had a more positive experience.

I’d encourage a sample of this tea, but I’m not as knocked out by it as I was by Nuvola. This is just a bit baser of an experience, while Nuvola more refined.

Again, I have to point out how much this tea reminds me of Verdant’s Golden Fleece.

The dry leaves of this oolong are dark, but you can see white bits (which I presume are the tips). The leaves are also more clumped together.

The tea liquor is dark, brown with a light reddish tinge. It smells roasted, a bit nutty, and there is still a slight green tea vegetal scent.

The taste is sweet, roasted, nutty, delicious.

I only used 1 tsp.

A big thank you to Angel at Teavivre for this sample!

Oriental Beauty indeed: the liquor of this tea is a deep honey-blonde, and the mouthfeel is buttery and luxurious. I taste honey and something borderline fruity/floral: peach blossoms? Straight-up peach? I’m not sure. I will be steeping some more to see how this complex brew continues to morph.