I love a good red oolong and this is one of the best I’ve had. Highly oxidized, no roast and tastes very close to a black tea.
Fall 2017 harvest. Gone gaiwan: 3g, 60mL, 212F, flash rinse (these nuggets open up quickly), followed by 11 steeps.
This is a smooth, sweet tea that left me grasping too much to pick out distinct flavors so I’ll leave you with an impression. It’s like a dish of highly fragrant baked fruits, perhaps enclosed in a light layer of buttery pastry which becomes evident in later steeps. Seems like a mix of quince, apricot, peach, plum, faint dark cherry, studded with raisins and baked with a good sprinkling of brown sugar and golden syrup. Tones of baking spices and vanillin are also present. Later it turns a little tart, like a mix of orange and apricot, with some light mineral and mouth-watering qualities. There is a roasty note present throughout but it’s not a roasted tea and the flavor integrates well.
On top of all that, the tea is fragrant with perhaps fruit tree flower and rose notes. The liquor has a syrupy thickness that makes for a satisfying, loud swallow. It’s quite sweet and can get a little astringent in the throat but that transforms into a nice returning sweetness.
This red oolong’s fruitiness, floral quality and sweetness remind me of Yunnan Sourcing’s Big Snow Mountain Black Tea with Rose Flowers but this red oolong is calmer and more refined in the mouth like a smooth Taiwanese black and has a greater range in its fruity flavors. This tea also performs well western style. That, combined with its flavor profile, sweetness and not having to fiddle around with temperatures, inclines me to recommend this as a dessert tea for people wanting to branch out from flavored teas or those with added ingredients.
This sounds absolutely lovely; thank you for the great write up. I am a dessert tea person wanting to branch out from flavored teas or those with added ingredients, and I’ve added this to my “definitely will order” list! <3