Absolute Spearmint

So if you’re going to be alternating between a cup of black tea and a super light, fruity oolong you probably want a palate cleanser between sips. For me that’s where this one comes in; it’s absolutely my favourite palate cleansing tea and it also just tastes super good too!

It’s fresh and minty and breezy, like chewing on a piece of Spearmint Gum and then inhaling a large mouthful of crisp outdoor air. Your mouth gets all tingly but in a really good way. Mmm!

Managed to get half a cup of this before demon child, aka JiJi, knocked it over XD. Ah well, that’s what the second steep is for, right?

Another one from Roswell Strange. I didn’t look at this tea very closely, so I thought it was a spearmint gunpowder green tea. Imagine my surprise when I opened the bag to make some, and discovered it’s actually a rolled green oolong! In my opinion, that makes it about five times more interesting. Dry scent is mild and sweet spearmint.

The steeped tea has a mild spearmint smell, but I can also smell the oolong underneath. The spearmint is also fairly mild in the taste, which is very nice, as I find that strong spearmint teas remind me of chewing gum. The oolong base contributes and thick and silky mouthfeel and a little bit of “green” flavor. Happily for me, it’s not an overly flower oolong. Pretty tasty!

Marco Lewis TTB

I can’t really give this a real numerical rating because I’ve come to dislike flavored teas lately. This is Spearmint flavored oolong but I taste all spearmint and no oolong. I feel like I could have just drank actual spearmint instead, y’know? That being said it does have a nice minty flavor with a hint of ginger in there.

Another sample from aisling of tea‘s amazing bottomless cupboard! Also, this was oolong #2 on today’s oolong journey.

I followed the steeping instructions provided on my sample: 1 tsp for 8 oz of water, 70°C, for 3-4 minutes. The liquor was a nice pale yellow and it did smell of mint.

However, something about it tasted off. Perhaps I didn’t rinse my metal infuser thoroughly enough to remove all the traces of soap. But there was an undeniable, weird, almost acid-like taste on the edges of my tongue when I drank this. I’m not sure what caused it, but this blend didn’t do much for me. I finished off my cup, and even tried making a second infusion to see if that would change things, but that one tasted equally weird. I ended up pouring the second cup down the drain after a few sips.

There are still a few spoonfuls of the leaf left. Perhaps I will make a big pot of it all so I can finish off the remaining leaf.