With the dry leaves in a warm gaiwan, this purple leaf oolong from Tealux smells very heavily roasted with a hint of vinegar. My only experience with purple leaf tea has been with a Kenyan purple oolong that had a nice plum and berry kind of flavor but was easily over or underbrewed, getting a dirty or bland taste if you went much over or under 170F (I have no idea why this temperature is the sweet spot, but it is the one the vendor recommended and I tried many others to ensure this was the best). The tea was fussy. I also had a purple tips loose leaf raw puer from that same vendor and it had a very heavy woody tastes that was simply not for me.
Not really sure what to expect from this Taiwanese version of purple tea, the smell is priming me for sort of a Wuyi Oolong experience.
The brewed tea has about the same color as the Kenyan purple oolong I had. There’s a slight rosey tint to it. Where most oolongs would be yellowish, orange, or even greenish, this one has more of a peach/pink hint to it from the purple tint of the leaves (caused by high levels of the antioxidant anthocyanin).
The taste is just what I expected from the smell! It is really similar to Sea Dyke brand Shui Xian, a heavily roasted Wuyi oolong you can find for a really low price at Asian grocery stores. There is a great deal of roast flavor along with just a hint of dill. There’s a good deal of char taste like you’d taste on the edges of pan-fried blackened food. It has a bit of a salty finish. If there is any sweetness in this tea it is barely detectible.
Repeated infusions yeilded more of the same flavor, but stronger.
I didn’t find the flavor particularly enjoyable. If you like really roasted flavors you might.
Flavors: Char, Dill, Roasted, Vinegar
Preparation
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What a shame!! I would like to try it because the review is intriguing if not slightly disgusting… haha.
I wish I had more! I’d send you some. I haven’t had a purple leaf varietal yet that is impressive. The Kenyan Purple Sunset oolong (from Butiki Teas) was better than this one, but not particularly intriguing. Its flavor comes off really mild and kind of sweet and woody/nutty like rooibos or honeybush.
It is so interesting how we all taste things differently. I had this tea back in the spring and remember tasting deep chocolate. Dill and vinegar how interesting.
i really like purple teas of Dehong fr Yunnan Sourcing.
What Boychik said :)
I’ve really enjoyed all of the purple teas I’ve gotten from YS
Thanks to you Terri I’m hooked
Happy to contribute to your addiction!
I have a purple oolong from Art of Tea, it definitely does have a roasted flavor as well.
TeaTiff, I think the whole concept of tasting notes is really subjective, which is really the entire reason Steepster is here for reviews rather than just having one written description from the vendor. If there was one correct set of flavors present that we’d all detect we wouldn’t need the reviews.
It can be both fascinating and frustrating when people’s notes vary widely. What’s really the most odd to me is that I find if my friend Amanda and I write separate reviews of the same tea on our own sometimes there’s an overlap in descriptions and sometimes they are really different, but if we sit down to have a tea together, we seem to agree on the notes we’re getting.
I think somehow certain qualities of the flavor can slip your mind or you can find them impossible to describe, but if someone makes a suggestion you didn’t think of while you are able to still try the tea, you can make the association and say “Ah, that’s it!”
I totally agree with you on that! :)
Also, sometimes tastes & smells trigger associations in my head, to foods, colors, instruments, etc. Other times I guess Im not as ‘open’ (like when allergies are prevalent)
Yes! I get those other associations sometimes too, especially with colors, not always related to the color of the tea itself.
What a shame!! I would like to try it because the review is intriguing if not slightly disgusting… haha.
I wish I had more! I’d send you some. I haven’t had a purple leaf varietal yet that is impressive. The Kenyan Purple Sunset oolong (from Butiki Teas) was better than this one, but not particularly intriguing. Its flavor comes off really mild and kind of sweet and woody/nutty like rooibos or honeybush.
It is so interesting how we all taste things differently. I had this tea back in the spring and remember tasting deep chocolate. Dill and vinegar how interesting.
i really like purple teas of Dehong fr Yunnan Sourcing.
What Boychik said :)
I’ve really enjoyed all of the purple teas I’ve gotten from YS
Thanks to you Terri I’m hooked
Happy to contribute to your addiction!
I have a purple oolong from Art of Tea, it definitely does have a roasted flavor as well.
TeaTiff, I think the whole concept of tasting notes is really subjective, which is really the entire reason Steepster is here for reviews rather than just having one written description from the vendor. If there was one correct set of flavors present that we’d all detect we wouldn’t need the reviews.
It can be both fascinating and frustrating when people’s notes vary widely. What’s really the most odd to me is that I find if my friend Amanda and I write separate reviews of the same tea on our own sometimes there’s an overlap in descriptions and sometimes they are really different, but if we sit down to have a tea together, we seem to agree on the notes we’re getting.
I think somehow certain qualities of the flavor can slip your mind or you can find them impossible to describe, but if someone makes a suggestion you didn’t think of while you are able to still try the tea, you can make the association and say “Ah, that’s it!”
I totally agree with you on that! :)
Also, sometimes tastes & smells trigger associations in my head, to foods, colors, instruments, etc. Other times I guess Im not as ‘open’ (like when allergies are prevalent)
Yes! I get those other associations sometimes too, especially with colors, not always related to the color of the tea itself.