Vietnam Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea

This was another of my recent sipdowns. As a matter of fact, I finished this tea late last week. It was another that I had been looking forward to trying for some time, and with winter steadily winding to a close, it seemed like an appropriate time to break out a floral, fruity oolong. To be honest, it’s always oolong time for me. I drink them year round. Anyway, this was a very nice oolong. I was a little surprise to see it draw a mixed response based on the two previous reviews.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 13 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cinnamon, pine, cedar, straw, honey, and peach. After the rinse, I detected aromas of roasted almond, malt, blackberry, and roasted peanut. The first infusion introduced aromas of rose, violet, and baked bread as well as a subtle dark chocolate scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of baked bread, butter, malt, rose, peach, and honey that were balanced by hints of roasted almond, straw, cream, and cinnamon. The subsequent infusions coaxed out aromas of orange blossom, orange zest, plum, and minerals as well as subtle scents of cream and brown sugar. Stronger roasted almond notes came out in the mouth alongside impressions of orange blossom, orange zest, minerals, rose, roasted peanut, violet, pine, cedar, blackberry, brown sugar, mulberry, and plum. I also detected hints of lychee, pear, cream, dark chocolate, and black cherry. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, malt, baked bread, roasted almond, rose, mulberry, and orange zest alongside amplified pear notes and subtler impressions of blackberry, violet, peach, cream, honey, black cherry, and brown sugar.

This was a tremendously aromatic and flavorful oolong that did a more or less very good job of approximating the character of a quality Taiwanese Oriental Beauty. Compared to some of the Taiwanese Oriental Beauties I have tried, it was a bit rougher and maltier, though not to the extent that the drinking experience was negatively impacted. Overall, this was a very nice offering. I don’t really understand the lukewarm reception it has received to this point.

Not much to this particular oolong. It’s got a pretty stock-standard ‘tea’ flavor that gives way to something fruity at the very end— wild blackberry, maybe— tangy and not too sweet. Not the most nuanced drinking experience in the world. It may be better suited for gong fu brewing, as on the second steep there was a little more fruitiness to it, although unfortunately the body was flatter and blander that go around.
Note: temperature given is for my first steeping. I increased it a notch on the second.

Backlog, and to be continued log. I cannot thank Alistair enough for including this generous sample. The leaves are beautiful to look at, having an almost purple hue amidst is white tips, darker brown and black highlights. The dryleaf smell is also very interesting, giving off an especially earthy smell like clay. There was a bit of a plum hint, and it had the weird fruity smell that plato does.

In my appartus it went, and I alternated between longer and shorter steeps a bit more akin to western brewing. I went light the first time at 45 seconds, and the tea tasted like, well, tea. Surprisingly malty with a hint of tannin, but something else developed. The blackberry sneaked into the middle aroma and taste of the actual tea, and ended with a plum aftertaste-not too sweet, not too dry, not too bitter. The overall texture was smooth.

My consecutive brews were longer, going to a minute and 30 sec, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, then shorter at 2 minutes, 1 minute, and 4 minutes. I know, weird. The malt was prominent in the second steep with only fruity hints and a bit of tannin backbone that was almost woody, but not nearly as woodsy as its Taiwanese predecessor or its Darjeeling cousin. I almost was hoping for something like dry leaves, but fortunately, the texture was always smooth.

As I got into steep four and five, the black berry note become much more prevalent with a plum finish and a bit of mineral emerging texture. The minerals and blackberry was the strongest in the last steep, being the lightest drink overall with the lightest color, but having the sweetest finish out of all the session.

I am not going to rate it quite yet since I need to do it properly western, and gong fu. I played with it too much, and I want to get less malt. Otherwise, I do recommend people trying it. Oriental Beauties are strong hit or misses for me anyway because of their fruity notes and inherent dryness, but this one was not too dry and a little darker in fruit which is fairly impressive. It reminded me of the notes I got with the Shan Cha, which is one of my favorite blacks so far.

If you like blackberry flavors, this one is not a bad match, and I also HIGHLY recommend trying the Taiwanese Shan Cha Black Tea.