Strawberry Oolong Tea

sipdown(183)! I needed a tea to cleanse my tastebuds but wanted to try and get another sipdown in. So i picked this one since the flavouring feels very natural. While not a huge fan of oolongs, this is one that i can get behind whenever i’m craving that strawberry flavour that isn’t artificial. This tastes like the strawberry aftertaste of freshly picked garden berries :) Always love this one from teavivre!

A sample from KittyLovesTea! I haven’t been the greatest oolong fan thus far, but I’m definitely getting there thanks to Steepster! I have to say straight off that this is one of the best flavoured oolongs I’ve ever tried. It smells just like strawberry while brewing, and it tastes just like strawberry juice while drinking. I’m not getting the slightest hint of oolong flavour at all, really, it’s just sweet, juicy, awesome strawberry wonderfulness.

I can appreciate that not being able to taste the base tea isn’t always a good thing, and part of me would like it to have poked through a little. I like strawberry, though, and it’s just so perfect-tasting here with not a hint of artificiality. I could drink this for the rest of my life and die happy, I think. I can see myself really enjoying this on a warm summer day, if my sample lasts that long!

Been a while since I had this Oolong but I thought I would start using it up by making some iced tea. Admittedly I made it a tad too strong as I found out this morning but after adding some calorie free sweetener it now tastes like strawberry syrup rain. Very hard to detect the Oolong with the sweetener in it, you would think it was just one of those strawberry flavoured syrup drinks that a lot of cafe’s sell as ‘iced tea’.

Story time –
First time I got a peach iced tea from Costa Coffee I saw them use two squirts of syrup over ice and add tap water, then you have sickly sugar water..oops sorry I mean ‘iced tea’. :/ I remember going into one before and asking what selection of teas they carried and they said “Summat foreign named, like a green tea but not one” and that had me intrigued, I asked to see this magical tea and she brought over a glass jar that said ‘Long Jing’ on the side. Then again she said “Yeah it’s green inside the bag but it aint a green tea, though it’s like one”, at that point I said “Well actually it is a green tea, Long Jing stands for Dragon Well and it’s a Chinese green”. Then straight away “Ooohh and how do you know that then hey? Know everything do ya?” and she starts calling the staff to tell them in a mocking sort of way. So I left after saying “I’m an amateur tea taster with my own blog and over 500 teas at home, if you bothered to look it up yourself you would see that I’m correct. Selling people a green tea and saying it’s not is just ridiculous”. Possibly one of the best storm off’s I have ever done. My parents were standing by my side think blank expressions on their face like ‘wtf just happened?’.

I cannot wait for A.C. Perch’s to open in Århus! I’m so excited! Every time I walk past where they’re preparing the store I try to peer in through the windows, although you can’t see plock all.

I’m on a mission to get through some of the older teas in the cupboard. There are a few which are from before we moved in here over two years ago! O.o Probably I’ll end up taking several of them with me to work. It’s easier to get through boring stuff there than it is at home. The trick is to only have boring stuff to choose from. :D I’ve already discovered that if you take a frankly disappointing caramel black and mix it 50/50, more or less, with a lacklustre vanilla, both become quite acceptable indeed.

Now, in order to further this mission I have made Husband make me a cup of something summerly which is a fairly recent acquisition. I asked for something fruity or oolong-y or both, you see.

I’ve actually had this a couple of times before but I haven’t posted about it because something always went wrong. Either I botched the brewing or I forgot to drink it and it turned cold or I simply just had it while being distracted by something else.

Now, this is one of those teas where I’m going to have to try really hard not to compare it too directly with another tea. Sometimes avoiding this is very difficult even though you know that you might as well be comparing apples and oranges. I’ve shared the ACP raspberry oolong with a number of you before, and that was the one I was thinking of when I bought this one. Any sort of red berry flavoured oolong is likely to get my attention, really.

But this really is quite different to the raspberry oolong, and not only because raspberries and strawberries only have being red in common. This is on a greenish oolong base whereas the raspberry oolong is more oxidised. Therefore I would put them in the same general category, but still consider them entirely different beasts.

Gosh, look at me blathering. Let’s just go straight to the tea, which has a strong aroma of strawberry. I mean really, Husband was having strainer related difficulties in the kitchen and I could smell strawberries all the way in here in my room. Granted there’s an open door between it and the kitchen, but it’s still a whole other room. It’s fruity and sweet, but also rather leaf-y. I’m sure the leaf-y note is actually the base oolong, but my brain wants to associate that to strawberries as well and it makes me think of strawberry leaf. I don’t even know if that would safe to drink at all, but my brain doesn’t seem to care about such trivialities. I know raspberry leaf can be used as herbal tea, although I’ve heard that it’s a bit… erm. Let’s just say ‘acquired taste’.

The fruit flavouring is a little more controlled in the flavour. It’s definitely there, still sweet and fruity, and it shows up primarily when swallowing and on the aftertaste. The rest of it is pure oolong. (Thankfully, my brain isn’t enforcing the strawberry leaf clause here, that would just be weird) It’s difficult to tell anything about the oolong, because an added flavouring always comes in the way of analysing it and I can only get a few general notes, if anything at all. This one feels quite smooth and a not too vegetal. As I tend to prefer the more stronger oxidised sorts of oolong, this is a good thing.

I’m quite enjoying this. It’s no ACP raspberry oolong, but it’s quite enjoyable.

Oolong and strawberry…from Teavivre! When I first saw there were flavoured options (aside from the fruit only ones), I thought I’d only find floral additions…rose, jasmine, etc but no, there were two fruit options! So I immediately requested them for my next sample box, which just came today.

The dry leaf smells like a mix of a milk oolong and a bit of real strawberry, none of that fake stuff here. There’s a sweet and somewhat tart scent that mingles with the creamy oolong aroma. The leaves are pretty tightly rolled, as you’d expect from this sort of oolong base.

I used my bamboo tea spoon, which I think holds about 1tsp or so, on average. I let the boiling water cool a few minutes and steeped 3 minutes. First sips, unsweetened, I get an equal balance of oolong and strawberry, none overpowers the other (though I do wish the strawberry was slightly more prominent). Sweetened, with just a tad of sugar (less than I normally take) the strawberry becomes juicier and sweeter. I bet this one would be amazing with some local honey. Wondering about future steeps and iced. The leaves definitely have more unfurling to do, so I expect a few more good steeps at least.

I was really excited to try this tea, and I am not disappointed. I’ve thrown a packet into my best friend’s birthday tea box, but if it was anyone else, I’d pretend I didn’t have any and horde it all to myself. :P

Many many thanks, and much gratitude to Angel at Teavivre for making my strawberry oolong dreams become a reality. I do hope they continue to make more flavoured teas like this in the future.

I was immediately impressed with this tea the second I opened my package and got a good whiff of the sweet-tart scent of strawberries. This is one of those teas that I could stand there sniffing half the day with a goofy smile on my face. Thankfully I was home by myself and I could indulge in this without anyone questioning what I was doing and why I looked so goofy doing it. The first sip of the brewed tea left me with an equally goofy look as the taste of fresh strawberries exploded on my tongue backed up by the floral notes of the oolong. There is an absolutely perfect balance between the flavors in this steep.

Make sure to check out my full review on my blog
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2013/10/22/tuesday-tea-strawberry-oolong-tea-teavivre.html

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for this sample!

The strawberry aroma is very strong when this packet is opened.

I used 2 tsp of tea.
I found this tea very subtle. The buttery oolong is the prominent note with a subtle note of strawberry sweetness. I found that this oolong wasn’t vegetal and more on the sweet side which really suits my taste.

Resteep 3 minutes was much the same with a little less strawberry flavour.

I have the rest chilling in the fridge and will edit tomorrow!

UPDATE: cold, this tea is fairly refreshing and it seems like the strawberry notes are a little more prominent. However, I prefer oolongs hot, so I will probably stick with that

I think I’m in the minority here. This was just ok for me. I’m not a huge fan of green oolong, but I was expecting this to be more like fruit flavored green tea. Nope, not what I was expecting. There is real strawberry in here, but it’s subtle and overshadowed by the oolong. I can appreciate that this is a high quality oolong with real strawberry flavors.
I think I’m more of a fake, in your face flavor sort of girl. I either was straight tea, or I want flavored tea. This was too close to the middle for me.

Thank to Teavivre for the super generous sample! This is excellent! The flavor is so natural and it complements the oolong flavor so well. Simply yummy! Exactly what I needed after a crummy day!

The dry tea smells quite a bit like artificial strawberry. But a good smell, like bubble gum. The brewed tea tastes like a gently flavoured green oolong. The strawberry flavor is only slightly artificial tasting. It is sweet, ripe berry flavor. The oolong is light and floral, slightly sweet grass flavor. This is a very delicious oolong. The flavours blend well together. I hope this one stays in stock for a long time.