Purple Sunset Oolong

This tea is a surprise gift from TeaTiff – thank you.
I prepared it according to Butiki parameters
170F 1 1/2tsp 8oz 3min
the tea was pale yellow purple tinted color.. Smells like caramel and fresh plum, berries.
This tea is very nice and smooth. Kinda unusual for oolong cause i didnt noticed any vegetal or floral notes. i dont really like oolong with strong floral notes. Some sweetness lingering. Overall its a delicate tea. As it cooled I’ve noticed some slight spice and even cool mint. this tea is very interesting. I’m so happy that i had an opportunity to try this tea. Thank you so much TeaTiff .

This tea is an enigma. The leaves are purple from anthocyanins, Butiki calls it an oolong, and while the leaves are shaped like oolong, the brewing recommendation is 170F. That’s considerably lower than usual for an oolong, almost as low temperature as some delicate green teas. I can say from experience that brewing it any warmer than this does make some bitterness emerge. The liquor color reminds me of plum wine, mostly peach or a subtle orange from the meat of the fruit, but with a slight rosy purple tinge from the dark purple flesh. This tea does not brew purple, but it is ever so slightly more pink or violet tinged than a usual oolong tea. The leaves are certainly a deep eggplant color.

The flavor seems plum as well, with subtle lingering notes of tangy red berries like raspberry and floral overtones. There’s an undertone of wood and green bean like you might expect from some Chinese green teas, but it is subtle and secondary to the sweet flavors. There’s a very subtle hint of cinnamon if you let the tea cool a bit.

Unfortunately, the taste overall is not quite as clean as it could be. It leaves a bit of a dry feeling in the mouth, though if you brew it lightly it isn’t overpowering.

EDIT: I have taken some more time getting to know this tea and developing a proper gongfu brewing method for it. It took a bit of experimenting, but I’ve found a good formula to be 2.5g per 100ml for 45 seconds at 170F. Add 15 seconds to repeated infusions. Going by this method, I was able to get MUCH fruitier and more floral notes out of this tea, barely any of the vegetal flavor. The sweet and mild woodiness was still there, reminding me of rooibos or honeybush. I’ve raised my rating of this tea quite a bit since the initial review because a lot of really unique and nice qualities have emerged since I figured out a good gongfu method. I would definitely recommend this tea to any tea enthusiast, as it is unique to try this purple-leafed tea. It really helps you explore the world of tea. My only qualm is that the ending notes of flavor just aren’t all that clean. They’re a bit dark, earthy and dry. It’s not a bad thing, per se, but not terribly common in high quality teas. To me a quality tea has a clean finish. Still, the front end flavors of this one are so lush that I find myself coming back for more.

Sometimes you don’t love a tea; and that’s ok…

Thanks 221tea for sharing this one; even though I’m not really feeling it I’m glad you did because I’d likely have added it to my order otherwise and then been disappointed. So if nothing else you’ve saved me money!

Gah! It’s such a shame; Stacy makes this sound so good but it left this really weird dry feeling in my mouth that I couldn’t get rid of and I didn’t get any of the yummy fruit notes that Stacy describes. I could taste the oak though and that’s a flavour I don’t really think is too common among teas (or at least not the ones I usually drink) so it was an interesting switch up, I guess.

I have one more cup, so maybe my mind’ll be changed…

At the very least, this is really pretty to look at!

This is a different oolong! I chose this as a sample with my latest Butiki order, as I was intrigued by the description. Oolong and fruit are not generally two things I associate, but they do sound good together. I still don’t really feel like I understand oolongs, so trying more of them is probably the only way to sort that out. I think on the whole I’m coming to prefer green oolongs, but I’m always willing to try something new.

This one smells delicious. It’s sweet, and does have a detectable hint of berry. It’s faintly purple tinged in the cup, which is a novel point. To taste, I can definitely detect plum, a little berry, a small hint of cherry. There’s a touch of cinnamon in the aftertaste, and a lingering sweetness that is reminiscent of apricot. There’s also a nuttiness underneath it all that I’ve come to associate with darker oolongs.

I really wasn’t expecting such a complex and intriguing tea — it makes for a really interesting cup. It’s a tiny bit astringent, although that might be my fault, but that’s my only quibble here. A real adventure for the tastebuds!

I wish this tea had brewed up purple, because that would’ve been awesome. But alas, it only brews up a fairly paleish golden color. The smell at first reminded me of one of the aged Butiki oolongs I had (might’ve been the 2003 aged oolong, but I’m not sure.), which was something I dislked quite a bit about that. But after letting it sit a few minutes, that smell changed into more of an almost wine-y sort of scent.
Sipping at it I get a plum-y taste that’s surprisingly full for a tea. It’s vaguely woody and I get that wine-y sort of taste at the back of the sip. I don’t get any sort of sweetness from the tea itself or at least nothing that I would deem as ‘sweet’. But there’s no bitterness, only a very slight sourness that doesn’t ruin the tea but adds to it, and the astringency is very faint if there’s really any at all.
Adding a bit of truvia made the fruityness pop out a bit more. (Because I can’t resist trying any tea withoug sugar. Lol.)
All in all it’s not a bad tea. I’m not sure it would go on my reorder list, but I’m not going to get rid of it outright.

Omnomnom! Smells like blueberries and tastes so sweet.

I keep sniffing it like a crazy person. I think my cold is withdrawing!

The sweetness is almost on the edge of turning into toastiness, there is a very distant promise of bitter that never arrives. This oolong is creamy too. Every sip reveals something new – I think that’s what I like most about great teas. That they can be like a good volume of poetry by one of your favorite poets – you get a different poem on every page but all of them consistently wonderful.

I would love to try some other “Purple” teas by Butiki.