Strawberry Oolong

Day 7 of our Advent Tea Swap. From amandastory516.

Finally caught up! This tea truly does smell like juicy strawberries and the taste comes through in the steeped tea. I don’t drink much oolong, but whenever I do it’s always a nice surprise to remember how much I do enjoy the roasted qualities of it. I’m enjoying this one just as much even as it cools to room temperature.

Thanks to Mastress Alita for sharing! I love strawberry flavored things, and I love how huge rolled oolong becomes when it steeps. The flavor is lighter than I would have liked, but it is tasty. My family loves this one. The base tea is good and lacks bitterness. The strawberry comes out a little bit more when it’s cool. It isn’t flavorful enough for me to buy for myself, but I’m definitely enjoying it! Quite the pleasant oolong.

Interesting. I think it shines in bringing out the strawberry flavor and making a nice blend of sweet and bitter.

Fifth tea for March Mad(Hatter)ness! This is for the oolong tea round, going against Yunnan Sourcing’s Ya Shi Xiang “King of Duck Shit Aroma” Dan Cong Oolong. I previously reviewed it here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/372227

This is a tea I really enjoy, though I typically drink it cold brew. It’s been a long time since I’ve had it as a warm cuppa. The dry leaf doesn’t not smell as nice as it used to, so this may be a tea that is at a disadvantage from its 2018 age (all the teas I selected were purchased in 2018, but some at least had the luck of still being in sealed bags; this one, not so lucky). The dry vegetal scent just smells more musty/grass clipping like than I remember, and the strawberry, while still there, seems less potent. Brewed 3.5g to 350ml 205F water for 3 minutes.

The strawberry is coming out a bit more in the steeped tea aroma; it’s sweet but there is also a juicy quality present on the nose. It smells fruity, rather than candy-like, which I often get from strawberry flavorings in tea. Also a fresh grass/hay undertone to the aroma. It’s actually held up better than the dry scent as let on in flavor; it has a very silky smooth texture, with some mild and pleasant butteriness, a floral sweetness like wildflower honey, and a fresh vegetal/grassiness with a hint of minerals from the oolong base. Midway into the sip and lingering into the aftertaste is a strawberry note — light and delicate but distinctly present — which is mostly sweet, but has just a touch of more tangy component that veers to a juicy vibe. The green base and strawberry flavor go very well together, too, and the tea feels very appropriate for the nicer weather.

Mild and flavorful. The strawberry flavor is noticeable without overriding the flavor of oolong tea. An extremely drinkable tea, both warm and iced.

Brewed a pot specifically for iced tea. Used 12g of tea in about 650ml of boiling water for 30 minutes or so. Sampled the hot tea right after brewing and it was strong but very drinkable. Diluted the brew to make about 2400-2500ml of finished tea. I was worried about it being too watered down but it was not. It has a nice strawberry cream and floral flavor along with a natural sweetness and a very slight bitterness which I think creates a perfect balance. This tea is great if your looking for a nice, fruity, cold beverage. If you’re looking for a high quality tea, try something else.

HGTTB

I am not an oolong lover but I love strawberry so I was left conflicted over whether or not to try this. Clearly strawberry love won out as I am trying it now. I must say, hot, it was 100% oolong flavor which may be appealing to some but not to me. Consequently I let this cool and now it is a nice creamy cup of strawberry goodness. I read the description too late to see that they recommend this iced which I can certainly see why as the cool cup is a great balance between to two flavors.

The small nuggets seem like a regular Jade Oolong. I opened the bag and it smelled very artificial, almost like cough syrup. I brewed western in my tea press. The leaves had a very nice expansion and all were mostly intact. They didn’t smell all that pleasant though. I could only describe it as cherry lipgloss on soggy cigarettes. The brew was a thick bright gold. the aroma was of red Gushers, which was kinda amusing. The flavor was very faint. It was mostly like drinking a regular Jade with a slight hint of neapolitan ice cream. I really am not one for flavored teas, but I tried it and its nothing special. It isn’t horrible either.

Don’t smell the wet leaves unless you like the smell of cigarettes. Yuck. Luckily the dry leaves smell good. Maybe I’m imagining it but I thought it smelled like a strawberry rollup. Light amber color. Flavor of strawberry, some floral accents and not a whole lot of oolong flavor. This is a hard flavor to mix into tea. My first steep was hot at 3 mins. Second steep cold still not getting much oolong flavor.

Cooking TTB #12

This was so cool because the flavor of this tea changed like three times just within one sip. It smells distinctly of strawberry and tastes quite fruit as it hits your tongue…but, then it goes straight oolong while it hangs out on your tongue..and then, oh joy!, the strawberry sweetness is there in a different way as you breathe in after you swallow. Lovely. I enjoyed this for sure. I’ll be keeping some more cup’s worth of this!