I don’t have a huge amount of experience with oolong, and I recall having encountered some in the past which did not agree with me. Out of curiosity, I decided to gamble on the Touch Organic Oolong at TJMAXX because I was pleasantly surprised by their generic China green filter bags.
This light golden brown brew smells remarkably like genmaicha to me. There is a seriously cereal-esque flavor here—popped brown rice, to be more precise! The brew wafts vaguely also of barley tea, which I never really understood and have never been able to drink. But this taste is a lot closer to genmaicha than to barley. Does it taste like oolong? That is the question.
I finished the cup, so clearly this is potable. I’ll probably drink this now and then—whenever I am craving genmaicha but have none on hand. Perhaps I’ll use some of these highly economic bags (five cents each) to take an oolong bath…
update: okay, now I’m getting the weird headache-y feeling which I recall having experienced in the past with some oolong and jasmine teas. Having second thoughts. Not quite to the point of gag reflex, but something has gone wrong here… Probably won’t drink this tea after all.
Is it possible to be allergic to some treatments of oolong????
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How are you with black or green tea?
I did have a pomegranate oolong tea that did that to me, but very inconsistently — I drank all of it and was fine most of the time, but a handful of times it gave me a vague headache, very weird.
Starfevre: I love black tea and green tea, and I never, ever feel nauseous from either one of them! There is something in jasmine and oolong which appears to be incompatible with me, alas. It’s a strange sensation. I should say that I sometimes feel that way with very light-roasted coffees as well. I only like dark roast, preferably super-dark roasted. So maybe it has something to do with being neither fully cooked (black) nor quite raw (green)? I don’t know. It’s too bad, though…
Yeah, that is too bad. Only suggestion I have is to try a quality oolong, maybe an organic one and see if it still does the same. Honeybush gives me a headache so I understand your frustration in taking out an entire type of tea from your life.
How are you with black or green tea?
I did have a pomegranate oolong tea that did that to me, but very inconsistently — I drank all of it and was fine most of the time, but a handful of times it gave me a vague headache, very weird.
Starfevre: I love black tea and green tea, and I never, ever feel nauseous from either one of them! There is something in jasmine and oolong which appears to be incompatible with me, alas. It’s a strange sensation. I should say that I sometimes feel that way with very light-roasted coffees as well. I only like dark roast, preferably super-dark roasted. So maybe it has something to do with being neither fully cooked (black) nor quite raw (green)? I don’t know. It’s too bad, though…
Yeah, that is too bad. Only suggestion I have is to try a quality oolong, maybe an organic one and see if it still does the same. Honeybush gives me a headache so I understand your frustration in taking out an entire type of tea from your life.