Red Buffalo

Advent tea
This one is a bit more floral than I thought it would be, but not in a bad way. The sweet and the floral go together and there is a savory note at the end as well. A complex tea that unfurled a lot more than I expected. Second steep is sweeter and less floral. Tried a third steep, but its too weak.

Back to the good stuff. This is very much a dessert tea: the sweetest unadulterated one I’ve ever had, gui fei oolongs included. Smells a bit like hojicha after it’s brewed, which is off-putting if you’re like me and not typically a fan of savory teas in that vein, but the taste is almost a polar opposite. Saccharine, chocolatey, spiced goodness. It reminds me of a tea version of those Abuelita rounds of chocolate that you break apart and melt into milk on the stove. Aromatic baking spices mixed with creamy cocoa and the flavorful sweetness of raw sugar. Mmm, this is an excellent cup that you can’t go wrong with.

The first few steeps drive home the resemblance to the Oriental Beauty which was also made with the Qingxin cultivar, the strong and lasting muscatel tartness, although the Three Moons didn’t seem to be so muscatel. From reading about it, I got a slightly inflated impression of how oxidised this tea was going to taste, but it seems pretty oolong to me. In the main steeps, some malt and mellowness start to dominate. There’s a cooling effect on the mouth and deep in the throat. I really like the combination of tart with the darker and plummier notes, which hits that coca-cola / root beer craving for me. (Maybe the source of the craving, historically speaking, is from old-time herbal sherbets.) There’s a cool hint of…. I really can’t place it well, but a dark perfume like vetiver. Aftertaste is strong and lasting and recaps all the main tastes distinctly. It’s quite tannin heavy on the stomach, I felt. Smell in the cup is sticky and nectary. I was struck by the aroma of roasted semolina. It might be sweet to try an oolong in which the roast taste actually comes out — that’s presumably what the Dragon’s Breath is like.

Comparing this to golden turtle, which I thought was as cool: I can’t decide. These oolongs are really making me appreciate each flavor on its own right, so that even my preference for darker teas is being won over.

This is really an oddball oolong. It is more closely related to black (red) tea than oolong, if you ask me. A lot of typical black tea notes here. It is, however, very good—and an unbeatable value, if you buy it direct from Hatvala. I think I will keep it on hand as a pleasant, low stakes tea. It is immently enjoyable, but I won’t feel bad brewing big batches and throwing it in a travel cup or thermos, or forgoing the later steeps.

Drank the 2015 today at work…. still one of the best teas that gets reproduced each year. Solid stuff.

A sweet bakery type tea with signs of malt and chocolate. I can see why it’s popular with a lot of westerners with the sweet tooth palate. I enjoy drinking this tea but it’s unusal oolong flavour is reminiscent of sweeter black teas like golden monkey. Definitely something to try. An eccentric oolong.

The initial rinse produced a faint marshmallow/sugar flavor while the 1st 30 second steeping brought forth the roast of the tea which offered a generous mouth feel. The wet leaves smelled of sugar and very subtle fresh coconut. No bitterness or astringcy at all. The second steeping produced a roasted sweet potatoe/yam flavor with subtle nutmeg and vanilla spices., followed by honey and floral notes. I was left with a strong heavenly honey stick aftertaste. Sweet & Fragrent.