Plum Oolong

My first taste test did not do this justice—was fighting a sore mouth at the time so everything had an Orajel whang to it.

I’m realizing just how nice this one truly is. A really nice balance between plum blossom floral and “plumb” fruity! A nice, heavy velvety texture, too—has enough presence you know you’ve had it. Impresses instead of insinuates.

Belated and repeated thanks to The Tea Merchant for a lovely afternoon diversion. (Wonder how many more diversions I can find to delay what I’m really supposed to be working on!)

Thank you Tea Merchant for the hook up on the wave of samples you sent out. I obviously happen to be one of those people who got in on it before time ran out, and I’m glad I did. To be honest I have reservations and I ain’t talking about dinner. Generally I’m a straight up, unadulterated, give it to me as God intended( or mother earth if you prefer, or alah,or krishna,or whatever creator you believe in. I’m not here to discuss doctrine,another time and place maybe)kind of tea drinker. I haven’t strayed off of the oolong, pu’erh, black tea path too much so I have preconcieved notions about what to expect with blends/flavored tea. I missed the mark on this one.
For me added flavor equals bitter (there’s none) and cover up (the oolong is coming through just fine). In fact, I tried to screw this up by eating about a half dozen cookies worth of dough while it was steeping. In turn, I couldn’t taste it due to the tastebud overload with all of the sugar i just had so…I did what any clear thinking wise old tea drinker would do… I threw more fresh tea leaf in with what I had steeped already, microwaved the contents of the pot, and then resteeped it all together and assumed it would work splendidly, luckily for me it did.
Fruity is an understatement (not describing me, the tea you fools!). Not sure if it’s closest to plumbs or something else, but I can say that it’s very pleasant indeed. The oolong is light and smooth. There are floral notes in the flavor but not much in the way of aftertaste. The sweet is kinda here & gone. The friut part kinda reminds me of sugar cereal.
The second steep showed me just a little astringency and even more fruity (I told you already, not me the tea!). I would try to get a third batch goin but it’s getting to be that time. Thanks everyone for your comments yesterday about my wreck. There’s headaches o’ plenty and the great and terrible beaurocratic monster has reared it’s grotesquely ugly head so all prayers and encouragements are genuinely welcome. Thanks all for listening… speaking of listening…
tunes- thank you a bunch Charles Thomas Draper for exposing me to the amazing Townes van Zandt. I listened to Nothin’/Lungs/Mr Mudd & MR Gold/St.John The Gambler to name just a few. There’s a playlist on Youtube with 100 songs. Also, I’ve encouraged several people to list their tasting tune as well, after they complimented this idea. It aint my concept, I got no copyright. I’ld love it if others did likewise, just like Thomas’ suggestion. I want exposed to new stuff.

Thank you to The Tea Merchant for the generous samples!

Today this tea was my muse, along with my new gaiwan!

http://www.daisychubb.com/review-plum-oolong-by-the-tea-merchant/

Yay for mail! It was a very happy day when the mail man buzzed the door instead of just leaving a slip to go pick up the packages from the post office the next day. The thing is – my boyfriend works from home. We should never have to go to the post office! Anyways…

This tea smelled SO good, but sadly it didn’t taste the way it smelled (the other Tea Merchant teas did, so this was my only non-favourite tea). The oolong came out loud and proud – with a hint of tartness/sourness that reminded me of hibiscus, but only in taste. It was quite gentle and did remind me of a plum. You know when you get a plum that isn’t overly juicy and has a sourness to it? Just like that!

I’m very happy to be able to try this unique flavour – thanks again TTM!

I am going to have to re-try this one. I may have steeped it at too low of a temp. I admittedly had the water at 175 and was too in a rush to wait for it to get up to 195. Most of the time this works out but with this one I am not getting ANY of the oolong flavor and it is very tart like hibiscus tart. I refuse to hold this against The Tea Merchant until I steep it correctly.

Thank you to The Tea Merchant for sending out free samples!

So, I have to admit, the first steep of this did not at all impress me. The plum was a bit strong and overly sweet and I was fully prepared to be disappointed in this tea. However, this being an oolong blend, I decided to re-steep the leaves and see if the second time was any better…

It was! The “too sweet” edge of the plum was knocked out of it in the first steep, leaving a well rounded plum fruit flavor to the second round. The flavor of oolong was a good bit more pronounced in the second steep as well. The second go-around really made all the difference.

I think I am going to try cold brewing this and see what happens. If nothing else, I’ll pour out the first minutes tea and just drink the second batch.

Oolong teas are essentially uncharted territory for me. Since I’ve only tried two varieties of oolong, it was time to expand my palette. The Tea Merchant sells an oolong sampler that sounded too good to pass up – so I didn’t pass it up. :)

This tea was a hit with the first steeping and a miss with the second steeping.

The first steeping reminded me of Salada’s Asian Plum white tea. This tea is much better, however. It had a noticeable plum flavor that didn’t overpower the oolong tea. It was a sweet, slightly tart cup of tea that was pleasing in every way.

The second steeping came out very tart. I couldn’t taste the oolong, only the berries. It reminded me of hibiscus. I’m not a fan of hibiscus.

Both cups were smooth, light-bodied and brewed to a dark golden hue. I enjoyed the first steeping of this tea enough that I’ll probably purchase it in a larger quantity. I wish that the second steeping was to my taste. Maybe I can fob it off on my husband and then not feel like I’m being wasteful. Does that make me an awful person?