Ginger Lily Oolong

Today was a good tea-filled day, I got a big ol’ pile of tea in the mail, I went to International 888 and finally restocked on Oksusucha (my all time favorite before bed tea) and best of all, I got to blend my love of tea and gaming by taking my tea gear to Tabletop with me. Not only did I get to have a gongfu tea party with one of my friends, I also introduced several others to a puerh I really like, so it will be easier to justify buying a large amount, since I can share it with them. Now I need to see if there is a small amount of cabinet space for rent, because if there is I am getting a small kettle and storing it there, along with a gaiwan and cup!

Today we are finally getting around to the last of the Tea Ave Oolongs, last in review, but first in the ones I tried, Ginger Lily Oolong, an Alishan Jin Xuan scented in the traditional way with Ginger Lily, along with Ginger Lily bits blended in as well. If you are like me, you are probably wondering, what the heck is a Ginger Lily? Well, a bit of googling reveals that it is Hedychium coronarium, a fascinating flower with quite the history! The aroma of this tea is warm and beautiful, it combines the slightly nutty aroma of chestnut and a hint of sesame, with warm ginger and strong floral notes of honeysuckle, lilac, and a finish of hyacinth. It is not really heady and heavy, but gentle and warming, like sitting in a patch of sunlight.

Adding the leaves to the gaiwan for a nice ste seping, and hello flowers! Now it is heady, and gently spicy, with notes of hyacinth, honeysuckle, and lilac. The spicy notes of ginger play nicely with the floral notes and the underlying notes of creamy chestnut. There is also the faintest note of fresh, sweet, tomato, surprising but not unpleasant. The liquid, using my fancy aroma cup set, is mild and sweet, with notes of ginger and flowers, it reminds me of a more flowery version of a much loved Chinese ginger candy that I have eaten many times. I used to always carry it around to help with nausea, because ginger is amazing at that.

The first thing I noticed about the first sip is how warming and creamy the mouthfeel is, it starts out creamy and smooth and as it hits the back of the tongue takes on a warming sensation. So, funnily enough, at the end of the note for the first steeping I drew a little heart, yeah, I liked the way it tasted. The notes are subtle, with gentle notes of ginger and honeysuckle, next are notes of lilac and spicebush, and finish of creamy chestnut. Om, nom, nom!

Onward to the second steep, and still loving these aroma cups, I suggest getting one if you do not have one, it really makes appreciated the aroma of Oolongs just that extra bit special. I will be honest though, not sure if it is because the tool is awesome or just because I really think it is cool, clearly I need to test more. Anyway, the aroma is sweet ginger candy goodness mixed with creamy honeysuckle and chestnut. The taste starts off sweet and gingery and just builds to creamy floral and chestnut, I am loving that ginger note, it just lingers long after the other notes have faded off my tongue.

For the third steep, the aroma is still pretty sweet, the ginger aroma has diminished a bit, but the floral and chestnut notes are going strong. The taste starts out with ginger and creamy honeysuckle, but the ginger is not as strong, it is more the memory of ginger’s warmth and taste. At the finish there is a hint of fresh vegetation and chestnut, and a bit of lilac that lingers. In a nutshell this tea is sublime, a gentle and beautiful thing that does not ever outstay its welcome, also I need more of it, this tea and the Cape Jasmine Oolong really knocked my socks off, I look forward to trying more of their teas.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/04/tea-ave-ginger-lily-oolong-tea-review.html

This was one of three samples I received from Tea Ave, and when I first tried it, it was my least favorite of the three. But it has REALLY grown on me. I think I was expecting ginger to be the starring flavor, but in this tea it has a supporting role. It’s quite light and blends smoothly with the oolong. This is a very soothing and refreshing tea. Smells amazing too. Highly recommended. Great job, Tea Ave!

Thank you, Tea Ave, for the sample! Milk oolong makes me a little sick, so I was nervous to taste this tea…

I prepared this tea three ways: gongfu, Western, and cold-brewed.

First, brewed with a ceramic gaiwan, gongfu-style. Steeping times: 60, 90, 120, 150, 180.

The dry leaf aroma, as expected, smells milky and buttery. Maybe a little gingery? The wet leaf aroma has none of that: fresh flowers rise from newly steeped leaves, then roasted chestnuts and pecans.

The liquor is a clear, pale yellow. The texture is a little thick. Medium-bodied. Though flavorful, the notes don’t evolve much throughout the session. At the first infusion the liquor was buttery, but then the subsequent infusions were much sweeter and floral, with a perfumed aftertaste. Light like a cool spring afternoon. Calming feel, a breeze in the sunny garden.

The Western method doesn’t yield the same power. Wasn’t so appealing, unfortunately (thought I’d use this method for an oolong because it’s been years since I’ve last done it). Floral, full-bodied, no ginger.

Lastly, I drank this cold-brewed, then added ice cubs. I liked this method the most. So light and refreshing! The liquor was softly floral. A buttery note also appears. It’s not so strong as it comes off when hot-brewed, but subdued, aligned well with the flowers, allowing me to to drink and appreciate it without feeling nauseated. Finished with a wonderful stone fruit aftertaste!

I’m so used to taking ginger in my tea so strongly that I couldn’t tell it was there. Weird!

I’ve never been a fan of ginger in teas. I like ginger in food but found in teas it’s way too potent. The only exception so far has been when I’m sick I will drink a ginger tea. Now if this tea hadn’t gotten some wonderful reviews I would have steered clear of it and what a shame that would have been. I knew I had to try it when I read the great reviews.

I could definitely smell the ginger from the dry leaf in the bag. It was very subtle and I could also smell the milkiness from the Jin Xuan. Pretty much how it smelled dry is what I was in store for when it was brewed.

From the aroma cup I caught a ginger scent that was quickly followed by the milky/butter aroma. When I took a sip, it was like WOW! First the ginger hits my tongue a sweet ginger, not overly strong but still prominent. Following that was the milky buttery taste and then a floral note. Every sip was like that: ginger, milky/creamy, floral.

So glad I got this tea. I just love it.

These samples are abundantly labeled with information including 4 different sets of brewing parameters. The C-3PO gold color of the bag appeals to the Jedi nerd in me.

The dry leaf smelled like roasted biscuits and oats to me. Whaaaat? I don’t know, maybe I should have eaten lunch.

The aroma and taste of this honey colored liquor is wonderful. It is a wave of floral typical of Alishan, but it is more. I’ve never heard of a ginger lily but it blends flawlessly with this tea. There isn’t a heat or spice note to suggest ginger to me. Just lush sweet floral notes. Then the taste and feel become milky. Well, that’s neat and how does that happen? Both thoughts go through my mind. But not for long as the light roasted note kicks in giving this a neat earthy nutty touch. The aftertaste lingers, and lingers, and lingers. It is a swirling transition of first floral then roasting then back.

Very nice.

Tea Ave thank you for the sample, and my apologies for taking so long to get to this one.

Tea Ave went above and beyond with their sample packages and labeling. I wish I was more gifted with words- I’d offer something besides a huge THANK YOU! I’m grateful there are people like Roswell Strange to make up for my lack.

‘Ginger’ made me decide to try this one first. It was a good choice. I re-steeped this about six time last evening (at a time I shouldn’t have been drinking tea), plus once more this afternoon, and it’s probably one of the best and most soothing tea sessions I’ve had since last spring.

The ginger is a vibrant, sweet finish to this silky Jin Xuan. I second the person who says they now want to try this base oolong unflavoured. It’s been so long since I’ve had a milk oolong.. my roommate doesn’t understand right now (she’s giving me a weird look as I go pacing about the apartment with my tea mug). It’s an exciting thing.

I was a little suspicious of Tea Ave at first. They sent an email asking about samples, but when I went to find them online the website didn’t exist, so I ignored the email. A few months later I started to see some chatter on here about folks receiving samples. I emailed them and they were kind enough to send me a few of the tea sachets. Thank you Tea Ave. for allowing me the opportunity to take part in tasting your line of oolongs!

This tea is amazing. It is a light creamy oolong with hints of ginger and floral. It is a flavored oolong. Usually when I see a flavored oolong I run the other way. The flavor is usually so strong and doesn’t blend with the tea that it ends up just tasting weird. This is not the case with this tea. The flavor blends so well that I hardly notice that I am drinking a flavored oolong. The feel of this tea in my mouth is one of the things that makes it stand out so much to me. It is like drinking silk. So smooth and creamy. It really makes me want to try the straight Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong that is the base of this tea to compare.

I really look forward to trying the rest of the teas. I think I see a Tea Ave purchase in my future.

Sipdown (117)!

Thank you again Tea Ave for the samples! I had initially planned to try the magnolia oolong today but myself craving this one when I went to make my tonight tonight while watching the voice I saw this one in my sample drawer, and it called to me!

Guys, a ginger tea called to me.

Mmm; the smell is wonderful! Sweet ginger, just a touch of lily and peony and a creamy sweet oolong base with maybe just a bit of nuttiness. I spent like five minutes just hugging the hot cup close to my chest, feeling the steam on my face and just smelling it. Wow.

A lot of the smell kind of carries into the taste; there’s a lot more ginger in the hot brew than there was in the cold brew – still much more of a sweet ginger than a spicy one. And I really like it! What even is this!? I think I have to kind of have to reevaluate the whole ‘not a fan of ginger’ thing because I really think this is something I could have around a lot – because of the ginger.

But other than that, it’s just so much like a milk oolong too: buttery and silky and creamy. Traditionally I haven’t liked milk oolong but it works. It works really, really well. In fact I think I can get away with saying that this tea is workin’ it.

Thanks Tea Ave for sharing this with me. I’m lucky to have tried it, because had you not sent it to me I certainly wouldn’t have picked it for myself.

They are not kidding when they say this is a light oolong. It is very light indeed compared to Magnolia Oolong. I drank this tonight with hubby. He even put forth an unusual amount of effort…for him, you know! He jokes that he can only say TEA GOOD! or TEA BAD! Last night he said the magnolia oolong was TEA GOOD!

His extra effort tonight was…“is this a…vegetal and nutty…tea?” Yes, dear, but only a hint, a ghost!, a smidgen of walnut. And not leafy greens vegetal, but rather “early springtime view of a hillside” vegetal.

The dry leaf kept its aroma a much closer secret than the magnolia did. I had to really dig in to get an idea of what we were in for. The liquor is pale, the scent is light. There is no biting ginger here. If you want ginger’s heat, look elsewhere. Her sweetness alone will be found in this cup.

I found this to be immediately creamy, while Magnolia developed her creaminess on the third and subsequent steeps.

I pulled some of the wet leaves out and found beautiful examples of the classic two leaves and bud and on impulse I popped a big leaf in my mouth and ate it. Not the first time I have ever done that and usually there is a slight bitterness to a wet leaf. This time, however, the spent wet leaf was very sweet and quite delicious. I even ate another.

If you like a light, sweet oolong, here you go! And you can get a serving of greens out of it when you are done steeping. :)

Thank you, Tea Ave. I am having a grand time with the aroma cup and loving the tray set. I hope to buy some more for guests to use when you open next month!

This sample from Tea Ave came with a lovely little surprise that certainly altered the way I was going to try the sample: an aroma set! I had to youtube how to use it though. It’s certainly an interesting way to taste tea.

I brewed in a 24oz teapot. The packet recommends 15G to the 750ml (there are several sets of steeping parameters, depending on your vessel), but when I weighed it out, 1: there wasn’t enough tea in the sample (only 9g), and 2: that seemed like wayy too much leaf to me. I decreased the amount to what I would normally add of a rolled oolong to that teapot (because I expect a lot of unfurling), which ended up being about 4g or a rounded tablespoon of dry leaf. If I were using my big teapot (45oz), I would be out of luck. So I made a decision, as I brewed it as I would normally brew it. Excepting the temperature. Normally I brew oolongs at 185F, this called for boiling water. OK, I’ll make that change. I might try it at a normal temperature next time though. After the first steep the infuser was pretty full, although I can tell the leaves are not yet fully unfurled. They are a medium-ish leaf size, not as big as the Lupicia fruity oolongs.

Using the aroma set: So the aroma is where you get the Ginger. It’s a more matured ginger taste, not quite deep enough to be savory, but not so sweet to be called candy either. That only appeared in the first aroma cup though, when I did it again the sense of ginger lessened. The smell of the hot brew however was kind of vegetal, and dare I say it?: malty. The taste of the steep was quite the same as the smell, but soo smooth. The steep had not the slightest bit of astringency or drying. It was like velvet.
If you drink it hot hot! The overall sensation was like drinking really really good (although hot, and flat) beer. THIS is what I would imagine a perfect beer to taste like. Hmm. (My cousin is convinced that malty beers like stouts are horrible and really hoppy craftbeers, mostly IPAs, are the top of the line – I say the opposite. I dislike hops, but malt is the bomb.) When it cools down you get the sense of ginger, which gets more spicy and yet more sweet the more it cools.

With a normal teacup: After it cools down some more the malt taste goes away and you’re left with a green oolong with cream and ginger notes, with mild floral notes. Still good, but I think I’ll try to drink this one pretty hot. (How different is this from the experience above… man, that aroma set really changes things up, doesn’t it?) I probably would have gotten a more pronounced taste if I followed the recommended amount of leaf, but the intensity was just fine for me.

The oolong itself is pretty green, but well rounded. The scenting process that they claim is new to me. The results however they did it, is quite spectacular. I would buy this. (Probably lots, I hope my wallet can afford it). They are set to open shop this month. Maybe there will be a grand opening sale? (A girl can hope.)

Thank you Tea Ave! Good luck on your opening!