Organic Sparrow Tongue

Had a cup of this last night with my parents since my dad has a collection of tea now but never wants to make tea. He seems to think there’s some sort of rules for drinking tea that he hasn’t mastered. So this weekend was about trying to show him that tea is just meant to be enjoyed. Rules be damned! Make it and enjoy it however you want. I made this one, and I’m not sure if dad enjoyed this, but mom went sneaking back to the pot to make a second and third cup for herself after I told her the leaves could be resteeped :) so this was a success for at least one of my parents to the point where she’s written down the name on her list. Heh.

Western Style. I should stop drinking tea at 2AM. School habits die hard.

First sip: It tastes like solid ordinary green oolong to me. although, I shouldn’t say that, as technically I have only tasted ONE straight oolong up to this point.

Second sip: Whoa! Did my Dad take some of the butter that he had just melted for the popcorn and dump some into my teacup? It’s extremely buttery, and there’s something like honey but softer and more floral. After experiencing that I went and double-checked the online write up of this tea and it mentions honeysuckle notes? I don’t remember what honeysuckle tastes like but maybe that’s what it is.

I’m still unsure how to describe oolong but soft buttered spinach sort of covers this one. I’m also getting something “freshening” mid sip and in the aftertaste. Apparently there is also a cinnamon note but my dead tongue only gets a hint of it if I take a gigantic mouthful and imagine hard enough.. It’s dominantly sweet butter.

Second Steep: Consistently tastes like the first steep. Buttery body and a sweet finish. The brothy “texture” continues to be thick like melted butter too.

Wow! I honestly bought this for the inclusion of “sparrow” in the tea name. I wasn’t anticipating much- I definitely wasn’t expecting to love it on first steep. I guess I’m a sucker for butter, cream, or anything that so much as mentions birds. This is definitely as delicate and mellow as a “sparrow’s tongue” and the small, scrunched up dry leaves further painted that image too. I checked Butiki’s website and apparently this tea is on sale for 33% off until January 18th. I may have to take advantage of that next week.

Woah, another Butiki tea that I’m the first at reviewing?! Strange!

Anyhow, in the mood for an oolong tonight. Had some fun making rice krispie squares with the boy tonight (oh, what an adventure! He topped them with not only M&Ms, but butterscotch chips, and then chocolate “drizzle” (AKA blobs). And somewhere in there we thought it would a good idea to put the squares under the broiler to melt the butterscotch chips, and ended up toasting the whole thing… oh boy!) and now am trying to pack quickly for our weekend at “the cottage”! Hopefully fun! Either way, it all meant I wanted an oolong. Yep.

Sorry Stacy – I completely forgot about the updated brew parameters you sent me, so just went with what was on the bag (I tested it though and definitely didn’t screw up, so no worries)! Anyways, in the bag, this smells fairly nondescript. By aroma I probably would have thought it was a vegetal green, or green oolong.

Brewed up, there’s a bit of a sweetish smell, no, more than a bit, and it’s also a bit oolongy. A little green, a little toasty.

The flavour of this one though? AMAZING, GUYS! Rich and honey-sweet, with perhaps a hint of toastiness, yet a green oolong sort of quality to it too. It reminds me of the Gui Fei Oolong I had from Butiki a couple days back, at least in terms of the type of sweetness, but it’s lighter here, and the woody dark oolong flavour is notably absent. This is another one, though, where I’m nearly at the bottom of my cup before even finishing my review, which is a very good sign. At a four minute infusion, there’s just a hint of an astringent, drying characteristic at the end of the sip, enough to make me contemplate trying a slightly shorter infusion, although if it were to cost me in sweetness, it wouldn’t be worth it.

Anyways! I’m no oolong expert or anything, but this one’s another delicious, no-fuss oolong, in my opinion. While Verdant’s darker oolongs are definitely amazing, I find them to be a touch more finicky when brewing, which is not a problem here.

Also to note: I probably used more than the 1 tsp of tea recommended here. Probably closer to 1.5 tsp. So, fewer cups from the small bag, but that’s ok. Still far cheaper than a beverage from Starbucks, or Tim Hortons, even!

Thank you, Stacy for sending me this sample in my latest order!

I steeped this for around 1.5 minutes at 180f per Butiki’s instructions.

First steep: a lightly vegetal, very aromatic brew. I get the sweet, slighly floral scent of honeysuckle coming up in the flavor of this. Slightly spinachy, yes… but not in the same way as a sencha, for instance. The tea has a sweet lingering aftertaste with some vanilla on the palette.

Second steep: ooh, I forgot about this one for a while and I can’t remember how long it was steeping. Now it has definitely gotten brothy, buttery and very floral. it isn’t as sweet as steep #1 but I also let it steep for too long, I think.

3rd Steep: floral notes seem to be retreating slightly and now I am getting a nice, nutty flavor reminiscent of almonds. Still a great light vegetal and brothy flavor too with a bit of sweetness. mmm. I have enjoyed this a lot, thank you Stacy!

I had my first cup of this yesterday, but didn’t get chance to log it. I’ve not tried all that many oolongs before, largely because I believed for a long time that they just weren’t my thing. I’ve since had some successes, though, and so I’m trying to be a bit more adventurous.

The dry leaf consists of tightly rolled dark green pearls. They scent is very “green” and mineral, but the tea itself is relatively subtle to taste. It’s also mpre floral than I expected. I can definitely pick out the honeysuckle note, and there’s also something reminiscent of spinach, and a slight butteriness. I can detect some of the “mineral” flavour that I’ve previous disliked in oolongs, but it’s not too dominant here. I don’t mind it so much when the overall flavour profile is one I can get behind.

I don’t have much of this left — maybe two cups worth. I’m not sure at this stage whether it’s something I’d repurchase, but it’s definitely one I’d keep on my list of oolong possibles. It’s not that I don’t like it, just that I don’t really feel I fully understand oolongs as yet, or my tastes in relation to them. I’m pleased to have tried this one, though. It’s an unusual combination of flavours, but palatable all the same. Butiki really do rule when it comes to tea!

Had this a couple nights ago while watching the Angel ep “I Will Remember You” (there may be hope for my robot heart after all; I was bored to tears with Buffy and Angel’s swoony brooding relationship angst in early seasons of Buffy but found this one pretty touching). It threw me ‘cause it’s so sweet! While mellow, it has more upfront honey-sweet floral flavor than I was expecting. Nice stuff. And oh my gosh am I LOVING having a variable temp water heater in the living room for evening tea. Truth be told I think it’s the biggest game-changer in tea making gear I’ve gotten aside from the gaiwan. Yeah that’s right, I think it’s changed my tea drinking universe for the better beyond the Breville. Really really.

I got a sample of this one with my last Butiki order and it is really good, It has a slightly sweet aroma and the taste is floral sweet and slightly vegetal very greenish at first and I did pick up hints of cinnamon on the first two steeps before I read the description on Butiki’s page, with later steeps it gets buttery and smooth and quite oolongish to me but looses the cinnamon notes while the floral sweet notes stayed. I rarely ever follow steeping instructions and I usually just give my teas several short steeps in the gaiwan, I steeped this one about 30 to 40 seconds starting off, they way I steeped it brewed up a delicate pale color kinda yellowish, when looking at the steep it looks as if there really not much to it then you taste it and it so full or flavor. Very nice tea :)

Sipdown, 196. This one is also thanks to Stephanie!

I think this tea may be too relaxing… I am nearly falling asleep this afternoon. This is a really lovely green oolong. I wanted to try it because I’ve never tried a sparrow tongue oolong (though it sounded like it would be up my alley), and also because it’s name is sparrow tongue. :) I am finding this fresh, floral (like lilacs), and lightly buttery. Lightly sweet as well. It’s definitely more similar to a tieguanyin than to an alishan, which is a plus in my book. Not too vegetal or leafy. Yes, this is very nice; the kind of oolong I could drink all day.

I’ve had bad luck with my last two cups not working out (dumped immediately), so time to try an Oolong instead of a third black.

This is just what I needed!

First steep was 90 seconds as the package directed. It’s very creamy, buttery and has lots of spinach notes. It smells like tasty oolong and the tea itself looks barely yellow.

Second steep: 110 seconds. It’s a deep golden yellow this time around, and the creamy butter has subsided. I’m getting spinach notes still and other oolongy flavours. Very rich.

Third steep: 120 seconds. It’s almost orange yellow, and very vegetal. Very enjoyable.

okay I lied, there’s an oolong sample I’m sipping down as well, not just greens!

I did the western style steeping.

Whoa, this is super buttery! There’s a bit of sweetness and some vegetal too! The spinachy vegetalness is very very yummy! I spent awhile just lightly sipping away, zoning out on youtube videos.

resteep – very good! The butteryness is still there, creamy texture with some floral peeking out. Floral? I love floral! Very addicting flavor that I wanna just keep sipping away at!
This resteep is refreshing too!

I do love my gui fei oolong, but this Sparrow Tongue one is pretty good! shopping liiiiiisst!

I think I’m waking up finally! yay! I might be ready to move onto teas that take more attention!