TeaCuppa

Yet another milk oolong. This was one of three teas I ordered from TeaCuppa (the company who listed the tea as incense on the customs form.) The first tea was disgusting and I was so worried this would be the same, especially after reading the reviews. The scent was buttery, but not a natural butter scent. I was a bit worried.

195/3min. It’s not so bad. Frankly, it’s not the best tea I’ve tasted, however, it’s certainly drinkable. The milkiness is not very profound, not what I’d expect in a typical milk oolong, but I do like the floral aspect to it. It’s not perfume-like in its flavor, but more natural. That I do like. So, not a total flop.

Second steep: No flavor at all is left. It’s wasteful to buy a tea that’s only good for one weak steep.

My first issue with this tea company was that instead of listing the contents as tea (as required for customs as this arrived from Malaysia), they listed that I had purchased several different types of incense.

This tea smells like perfume, and for good reason; it tastes like it, too. The details say that this oolong has yellow osmanthus buds in it as well, but there were none in the tea I received. 195/3 min. Ooh. I can smell the floral perfume from here. When I taste it, it is so perfumed that it actually pricks my tongue. I cannot taste the oolong tea at all. The scent of the tea has permeated all of my senses. At least I can no longer smell the pancakes I burned this morning.

Just over 2g of dry tea to 6 oz of water.

The dry tea smelled very strongly of pop corn butter. The artificial kind found in movie theatres.

After 30sec the wet leaves smelled slightly floral and mildly creamy; like that of a low quality Jin Xuan. The taste of the tea was very weak, more of a hot water taste than anything else. There was a slightly sweet aftertaste. Although it lingered on the tongue it felt artificial; in a word, bleh.

2nd steep: 45sec -1min
The wet leaves had a heavy vegetal smell, slightly sweet and floral.

The liquor still didn’t have much taste. There weren’t any specific tastes that jumped out at me. The mouth feel was slightly astringent and the aftertaste was slightly floral. The 2nd steep was much more like the 4th or 5th steep of a decent oolong.

I didn’t go for a third steep since the first two could be best summed up as, hot water + used oolong.

Overall, this tea is pretty weak: in all senses of the word. I should point out, the cost was something like $10.00 USD for 50g. For 10 bucks/50g you can’t expect a good nai xiang.
This is probably the lowest quality milk oolong I’ve had. On top of that I waited for over a month to receive the tea. I also thought their customer service was nominal. I wouldn’t buy this tea or shop from Teacuppa again.

A very tasty tea with a similar flavor profile to Dawn. There is the same cocoa note along with notes of caramel and musk. No bitterness or astringency. I’m hoping this is not some sort of delusion brought on by Dawn deprivation. I’ve saved a small amount of Dawn for comparison purposes and I’ll do a tea-off with these two in coming days. Even if it’s not exactly the same, it is very, very good and I can see having a happy morning ever-after with it.

I discovered this tea, while looking for a viable organic Wuyi tea to make a staple. It’s a rather unknown vendor, but the tea arrived a little scathed through its’ simple loose packaging, something that affected their score.

I brewed this shy of a boil, on one minute ascending brews, in a prewarmed gaiwan. The leaf quality is dark, and rather questionable leaf size (maybe due to the packaging), but overall, large leaves with no contrast of green. This tea yields a rather more complex cup of Wuyi tea. It’s colour is darker than a normal Wuyi. A continuos honeylike taste, mixed in with my favorite earthy harmonizing notes, with appropriate amounts of muskiness, and a pea size amount of subtle smokiness. It ends with a sweet aftertaste.

I consider this a well rounded organic Wuyi, but it loses a bit too much body for me on it’s second cup, but its’ taste sets it separate from other Wuyi oolongs. I would drink this again if I wanted a bit of change in Wuyi. I would score this even or slightly higher to Zhi Tea’s Wuyi oolong, if the packaging was more appropriately handled, and could draw more cups.

Artificial milk and butter aroma and flavor. Smells like kettle corn popcorn. Not natural at all. The leaves are very small, unlike the authentic Taiwanese version with large WHOLE leaves 2 and 3 connected with buds-simply a gorgeous sight. This is opposite, small and broke leaves. Had to spit it out as did my tea tasting friends. Advice, opt for an authentic Milk Oolong or Jin Xuan or Golden Lily oolong from the high mountains of Taiwan.

A decent oolong but I haven’t found it to be overly impressive. Light and slightly sweet but indistinct. Might help if I used more leaf – I used 4g/6oz

My tea must have come from the bottom of the container – it has so much dust! The dust makes it really bitter so I tried to sift most of it out before brewing. I think I got most of it because this is good. Sweet, a bit floral… Could be fresher but oh well.

Mmm, corn. It’s kinda weird but I do so love this tea. A nice and sweet grain flavor.

Very light Oolong. Good one as the first Oolong

It reminds me of Juicy Fruit gum, but in spite of that (because of that?) I so love this tea.

Video review to come at http://steaptv.com :)