Rare Orchid Oolong

This was a very strong floral tea. I was worred this tea might be too fruity tasting for me, but did not find this to be the case. This is one of my new favorites.

Not bad. I don’t think I like oolong too much in general because of the floral taste. This one is not too strong though, so it’s alright. Nice, mellow, warm… but not something I would need more of.

(1st steep: 4 min) There is a nice floral aroma to this tea that makes me glad I saved it for an end of the work day tea. There are some subtle fruit notes in this tea. I want to say it is close to melon due to the subtle flavor. It could be because it is summer, but I am thinking watermelon. Additionally, there is a honey flavor which pairs nicely with the fruit. All in all a great tea for a hot summer day.
(2nd steep: 4 min 30 sec) Almost no floral notes from before are present in the second steeping. The fruit and honey are actually stronger in the second steeping of this tea. There is a lovely watermelon flavor when you first taste the tea. This changes to a subtle honey flavor as the tea cools and remains for a short time after the tea has swallowed. I will be coming back to this tea in the future when I have more time to do additional steepings.

I got this in one of the Stepster select boxes and I thought it was supposed to be a wuyi oolong for some reason so I steeped it up in my xiying I have dedicated for wuyi oolongs. Whoops, I was wrong. So I don’t really think I can do a proper tasting note on this at the moment. It really does smell very flowery and has a nice sweetness about it. I do have another sample left, so I think brewing it in the proper pot or in a gaiwan will give me a better sense of this.

In other news, I can’t get myself motivated to do much since I found out I was losing my job due to my injury. It would be a good idea for me to get more exercise, but my gym is downtown near where my former office is. It takes me longer to get there and back than I would spend exercising. As Nike says — I just need to do it. I think perhaps I have a case of the blahs.

Damn, love me my ooooo-longs. Used a small pot and this tea just didn’t quit with the flavors. Each sip bringing the florals and the honey. There is also a faint hint of almond in there as well. Started to fade after 7 steeps but I’ll take what I can get from this excellent sample.

I received this tea in my March Steepster Select. Let me preface this by saying that I am partial to oolongs!

Opening the packet revealed dark brown, thin and almost wiry leaves that had a gorgeous floral, malty and almost muscat scent. Wow, I love dark oolongs. It is as if they hold special secrets. I used the guidelines written on the small brown packet to brew this tea. After steeping, the liquid was a nice golden honey brown. This one was a complex and absolutely delicious flavor. There is honey. Enough said. Well, there are also darker florals (as in not like gardenias or peonies), malt, butter, and slight vanilla and cocoa. Best of all, there is no astringency whatsoever. This tea withstands multiple steeps, which is another aspect of oolongs that I love. The taste evolves with each steeping.

An enjoyable, subtly flavored tea, with light honey notes over a gentle, malty body. Beautiful aroma rounded out the tasting experience. I was noticing a distinct lightness of flavor, but I made two faults: I did not notice the drastic change in the amount of water required versus other Select teas, and so when I first made it in my usual teapot the flavor was seriously washed out. I also brought this tea up to an altitude of 7600 ft to enjoy, and woke the mountain scenery enhanced the experience, I do believe the flavor was adversely affected. Would definitely try again at sea level.

It did not have a lot of flavor, and in comparison to other teas it was not my favorite.

Oh my. This is lovely. I needed something soothing tonight, as I research my sudden TRIP TO ENGLAND in 2 weeks!!! So I’m simultaneously excited and terrified. I’ll be there for 2 weeks (near London), with hopefully a weekend trip in the middle to PARIS! Advice/recommendations/tea shop directions appreciated :)

I opened the packet and a took a sniff, and it smelled so nice. The leaves are long and dark and smell amazing. Brewed it up in my small green pot and one of its cups. It’s floral with a touch of honey. No astringency.

I really like this. I want to try the next packet gongfu style but I need to find a gongfu tea tray first so I can make a controlled mess.

Ok, I have gone through the entire small pot and every cup is amazing.

Backlog:

I was really happy that teas from Tea Source were in the Steepster Select box. This is a company that I’ve not tried teas from and I’m always happy to try new to me teas!

There is a malty note to this Oolong and that’s not something that I generally experience with an Oolong, but I like it! A really lovely, different Oolong.

I never really caught a strong “asparagus” note as some of the others who tasted this tea did. The early infusions offered no real asparagus tones to me, and in later infusions if I really focused, I could taste hints of it, but, it was never a really assertive flavor.

What I did get was the aforementioned malt, notes of vanilla which offered sweetness and a lovely creamy texture and flavor, honey notes and floral notes. Fruit notes began to develop in later infusions.

A really nice Oolong. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/03/23/rare-orchid-oolong-tea-tea-source/