Nilgiri Oolong

There are a few companies called Tea Licious after a search, but I found the site again: http://www.tealiciousllc.com/

I wanted to make a few more notes since this is the last cup of my sample.

First cup: The black flavor is less strong than I remember it. It could be due to how old the tea is OR because it took me a while to decide what tea I wanted, so the water cooled! The color is a nice amber. The flavor is full but sweet. It’s kind of like an assam. I still couldn’t tell that it’s an oolong, if I didn’t know it already.

Second cup: I poured boiling water and let it steep a while and the second cup is the same as the first. Not much of an oolong flavor! It doesn’t really change flavor with the number of steeps like other oolongs would! It’s still good though.

My oolong flavor rating where one would be a light & floral flavor and five would be the strongest flavor, this one is a five.

I’m just happy to actually remove something from my cupboard for once! :D

I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a Nilgiri Oolong before today. This is a really good Oolong. Where most dark Oolongs are on the peach-y side, this one tends to be more on the woody/earthy side, but with light, peach-like undertones. A beautiful honey-like sweetness to this as well.

A unique Oolong. I really enjoyed this one.

This is much like a black tasting black tea than an oolong and I really like it! It’s sweet yet slightly woodsy and rich – near malty even! Very nice!

Very interesting. It’s like a black tea with a twist. I need another few cups to really get my head around this – but it’s really not like a lot of other oolongs I’ve had. I think I like it. :)

Drank Western style today. The dry leaves looked fully oxidized to me, actually, so I brewed this like I’d brew any Nilgiri black tea. Once they got wet and unfurled, though, I could see a little bit of green so it really is an oolong. But due to relatively high oxidation, the brew didn’t ruin it or anything. I used sugar crystals and milk like I would with any black breakfast tea from South Asia (as this was standing in for my usual morning chai), and it held up fine.

It does taste similar to a breakfast tea: A little malty, but less bitter than most black teas are. I didn’t really detect any subtle notes, but that could be because of the milk and sugar. All in all, it was pretty good. I don’ t really feel the need to acquire more, though. Not that it would be a possibility anyway, as Tealicious has closed.

Hmmm… Not that great. I just had a big cup of my Upton Rose Congu in the morning, then this in the afternoon, and it reminds me a lot of the not-so-great aspects of the congu, namely the heart-burn-y black tea-ness, minus all that is malty and good about the congu. Drinkable, but not a fan. It has a touch of minerality like many oolongs, but if I had drunk it blind I wouldn’t have classified it that way. The truth is that I just like green oolongs. If it isn’t tightly rolled, it isn’t for me?