Indonesia Harendong Dark Oolong Tea

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Continuing with Dark Matter! This is another roasted oolong, and another which has made me reevaluate my thoughts on dark oolongs in general. This one brews up a delicious honey-gold, and tastes (quite literally) like liquid digestive biscuit. It’s a touch nutty, with a grain-like flavour, quite creamy, with a touch of honey, but mostly it’s biscuit. Now that I’ve got that comparison in my mind, it’s difficult to shift (and difficult to taste anything more precise, because digestive biscuit.) Love it!

Another late-night What-cha sample tea. Lately I’m loving nighttime grandpa teas. This tea is working beautifully brewed this way. It’s roasty and creamy, and hasn’t gotten bitter. It’s keeping me warm and reasonably content while I work on my interminable term papers. When I first tried it, it was a little too roasty for me, but it’s really grown on me. I’m finding the combo of roast and smooth to be very dessert-like and pleasant. This might be one I’ll buy again in a bigger size. Time will tell, because I want to see how much I like it compared to all of my other samples.

Update: it’s starting to remind me of a milk oolong, as I keep adding water and drinking it. Yum!

Found this old “Dark Matter” sample the other day and figured I’d brew it up. The leaves had a bit of a honey, roasty aroma. Pretty sweet smelling.

The tea was thick and a bit floral, with a pretty nice honey note throughout the session. As I progressed, the tea started to taste just a bit rough/sour, likely due to the roasting. It would probably be better with a year or two more rest. Also might have helped to brew with slightly cooler water.

This tea was alright, but I’d definitely go for a good roasted TW oolong over this. Or maybe Red Buffalo if you’re set on something a little different.

This tea has a delicious honey note, which I was surprised to find in such a dark oolong. It combines beautifully with the roasted flavor of the tea.

Earth and charcoal toastiness with a mildly bitter edge give way to fragrant spicy wood resin and subdued date-like sweetness in the aftertaste, which has staying power and continually emanates from the back of the throat. A complex and intriguing oolong that evolves as it cools.

From Dark Matter 2016:

I brewed this in a gaiwan with short steeps. I probably should have looked at recommendations first, but it came out fine. The tea itself smelled strongly just like granola to me. It even tasted like it on the first steep. The next few steeps brought out the roasting flavor and this was just on the edge of being unpleasant for me, but I’m very sensitive to it. Later steeps mellowed out to just toasty as well as having good unroasted oolong flavor. There was also a bit of mineral in there that seemed to fade in an out on what seemed to be based on steeping time.

I’ve been brewing this for a good part of the day now so add “decent staying power” to the list.

Backlog from Dark Matter 2016

Yesterday I drank this while studying for this week’s finals. I haven’t had time to sit and thoroughly write reviews, but I have been jotting down notes on the various teas that I’ve been drinking. Unfortunately, I have a short explanation of this tea….

Dark roasted oolong with a sesame, nutty, mineral, and slight floral notes. I enjoy the deep complexity of a roasted oolong tea. The Indonesia Harendong is as complex, unique, and satisfying as I expected it to be just by the way the dry leaf had smelled. I will be purchasing this one in the future.

Note: I was a little biased while trying this oolong. Oolongs have a special place in my heart, since they are what made me into the tea enthusiast that I am today. However, I did find this altogether enjoyable, and will love to have more eventually.

A Good Day so far :)
Got some teas in the mail and Sitting outside with my baby girl listening to Art Bell’s Dark Matter recorded from October 2013 having a good time and I’m getting a new Phone later this evening Yay!!,so yeah a pretty good day.
This one is delicious, roasty and earthy kinda with slight sweetness at the front and a lingering woodsy aftertaste.
It was reminding me slightly of another tea that I couldnt put my finger on(i was thinking da hong pao), not really sure. I didn’t get a mineral note until after I had read the description, then I tasted it and yeah, a mineral kinda rocky note like dhp or something to me.
I didn’t really get the “fruit” note but there still something else that I can’t put my finger on and its almost fruity but kinda nutty too.
This is a super good tea My first tea from What-Cha, I’ve been wanting to try What-Cha for a while now, very glad to have a chance to try this one, I can’t wait till I’m able to place an order from them, This one is on my wishlist now.
My Doggy (Lyra) likes it too, I went inside to get a little more hot water and she jumped up on my little table, drank the rest of my tea and made herself comfy lol https://www.instagram.com/p/BD6VyzGkwFA/

Fruity/nutty like maybe a Nutty Appley note, not sure.