My very first milk oolong! I’ve got another one from Tealish that I want to try, but I did want to take a look at this one since Teavivre’s got a sale going on now. I’m holding off on giving this a rating until I try the Tealish one for comparison. So here we go:
Dry leaf: I’ve heard others here describe tea as “buttery.” That always seemed to imply a sense of richness and sweetness to me. But no. I was wrong. Because goddamn, this dry leaf smells BUTTERY. As in, like real, honest-to-goodness salted butter that I put on toast. The leaves themselves are dark green little knots.
Steeping parameters: I made 4 steeps of this tea, all with 8 oz of liquid to 1.5 tsp of dry leaf in 80-82°C water. First steep was between 30 seconds and 1 minute, 2nd and 3rd steeps were each approximately 1 minute, and the 4th steep was about 2 minutes. Before the 1st steep, I did a hot water rinse of about 10-20 seconds to wake the leaves up.
Liquor: The taste and colour of the liquor were pretty consistent across all 4 steeps. The first was the strongest and most buttery. The subsequent steeps were all pretty similar in flavour profile: light and nutty. I don’t know whether the fact that the 4 steeps all tasted so similar speaks to the quality of the leaf or the lack of development of my palate. Anyways, I still enjoyed it, even if it hasn’t given me the paroxysms of rapture that it has other drinkers here.
Verdict: I liked it but I’m leaving it unrated for now. Once I try the other milk oolong from Tealish (which I’m sipping right now), I’ll be able to give it a fairer shake.
