Found this very old pack of oolong plum tea in the back of a cupboard this week. The label is half worn off so I can’t tell where this tea is from, just the name “oloong yello plum”… and a use-by date of 2014. So I guess random steepings is where I’m supposed to review this tea?
5 years past the use by date… can anyone beat that?
Smells amazing despite being so old (it was sealed up very well, although opened inside) with plum and apricot and warm black tea.
I brewed it. First few sips there’s a light fruity sweetness and earthyness that’s lovely. Then there’s what I can only describe as bin juice. To be precise, it’s the smell of the juice/liquid that’s lingering in the bottom of your bin after being too lazy to take the trash out for a few too many days. Rotting garbage and earthy and sweet, because the trash is full of sugary drink cans.
Once you’ve got that smell in your mind and what you imagine it would taste like, this tea becomes a mind battle. The more you think about the bin juice, the more you can taste it. I battled to the bottom of the cup by focusing on the taste of plums.
I’m now pretty sure the plum flavouring was added, not just a description of the natural oolong leaf flavour. I think that’s what has started to rot. Throwing this tea away now, sadly. I imagine it was delicious fresh.
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Mmmm, bin juice! Thanks for that description. I’m also sad when old teas are no longer drinkable.
“The more you think about the bin juice, the more you can taste it.” That just makes me think of when the weather is bad and I don’t want to haul my trash bag all the way out to the dumpster, so the next day when I do it, there is weird liquid on the kitchen floor under where the bag was sitting… I definitely would not want to imagine drinking that mystery liquid…
Mmmm, bin juice! Thanks for that description. I’m also sad when old teas are no longer drinkable.
“The more you think about the bin juice, the more you can taste it.” That just makes me think of when the weather is bad and I don’t want to haul my trash bag all the way out to the dumpster, so the next day when I do it, there is weird liquid on the kitchen floor under where the bag was sitting… I definitely would not want to imagine drinking that mystery liquid…