Doke Rolling Thunder

eesh first tasting note lol I hate that haha. Brewed this one up alongside pumpkin milkshake. I am not generally a fan of oolongs, so i only ordered a small quantity of this one to try it out. I have a mini mission to try all of stacy’s teas and so far, i’m doing pretty well haha. I don’t love this as much as i ended up liking the sparrow oolong i picked up from her but this is pretty tasty. It’s on the lighter side of things, with a sweetness that comes through while you drink it. mmm quite liking this one! thanks stacy!

This is good! I nearly thought it was a white tea due to the light flavour and the low steep temp, but… oolong it is!

It’s a very nice one too. I’m on my second steep. I like it but not for all the time. I’m not very good at describing this – it’s so mild, but sweet and fruity. I smell apricot.

2022 Sipdown 51/365!

This was a good, but not great straight oolong. A bit raisiny; reminds me a bit of PTA bit with an oolong twist.

This reminded me a lot of Butiki’s Purple Sunset, but less sour. It also has some similarities to certain Chinese black teas, with cocoa notes and hints of dried apricot. It’ was very slightly astringent and medium dark. There were even some spice notes that made me think, oddly enough, of Constant Comment. It didn’t have so much of that distinct oolong taste—if I hadn’t known it was an oolong, I’d probably have guessed it was black. Since oolongs aren’t generally my favorites, this was no bad thing in my book.

So the description of this tea on Steepster has made me kinda confused-it’s a really broad range of flavors.xD But I wanted to try it, I believe it was The Cookie Lady that sent me it. If I’m wrong someone let me know! But whoever it was thank you!
So happy to try another one of Butiki’s teas again! Especially since they are gone. It’s like the last chance to try an extinct tea, ya know? Well probably gonna be extinct soon at least I mean. xD
Anyway, this was an interesting oolong. Didn’t know what I excepted going in. The dry leaf and even steeping aroma wasn’t very strong. And when I began to drink it, it wasn’t very bold in flavor either. At first I thought I tasted that roasted flavor I hate in oolongs, but then this nutty flavor took over that really changed by mind about this one. I was all ready to be done with it but it turned out to be a pleasant tea to drink. Not something I’d buy, but it was great to try! I’d definitely drink it again.

Wow! This is fantastic! Thank you Marzipan for supplying me with this treat.

I love oolongs. I I love the sheer variety of this type of tea. This one reminds me of Blue Mountain Twirl by Davids Tea but waaaayy better! I opened the small package and took a peek at my new present. The leaves were small black, gold, and purple tendrils of roots. They varied in length and size but were beautiful. They had a distinct apricot and honey scent. I knew that it was going to be amazing! I brewed these dark tentacles in my glass gaiwan. I rinsed them once to release their essence. The aroma was sheer joy! It has a rough smoky scent, like that of black maple syrup and burnt sugar. This dark mist is then under-toned with a sweet floral quality. The initial sip was heaven! It carries a smooth mouth-feel that fully engulfed my taste buds. I could taste maple wood, tobacco, buckwheat honey, and apricot. This was an amazing tea. It has a lot of depth and complex flavors. This had the consistent sweet dark honey falvor as Blue Mountain Twirl only more intensified and these flavors lasted multiple steeps. I was able to pull seven good heavy steeps from my gaiwan. The flavors moved in a curve. They began hearty and bold and smoothed out to a neutral base only to rise up with a sweet tone.

This is a wonderful brew, and I’m sorry to hear the company has closed down. I love that , through the connections with other tea enthusiasts, I am still able to enjoy a companies product even long after they have disappeared. It just goes to show a company can live on with the right products :)

P.S. This makes Tasting note 100! I have finally reached the triple digits. Next stop. Quad digits!

https://instagram.com/p/0lX9xfzGVM/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Stacy sent this to me as a sample, so it must be at least 6 months old. It’s still really good; it must have been fantastic fresh. The dry leaves are dark, long and tight, almost twig-looking. As they unfurl over multiple steeps, the leaves show themselves to be full, dark, and medium-sized. This tastes and smells almost like a black tea. The robust flavor is full of roasted, almost cocoa notes. There is a slightly drying but not unpleasant afterfeel.

After looking at the description, I think I can detect the almond, jasmine, and malt notes, but that might be imaginary. The fourth steep suddenly comes out blazing with glorious honey notes – now I know why the later steeps of the maple pecan oolong are the best! It’s the base tea shining through and complementing what’s left of the flavoring. The fifth steep is even sweeter. The sixth steep is light and sweet. A lot of that roasted, dry aspect is gone. I ultimately got eight solid steeps out of this tea Western-style. Steeps 1-6 were at about 180F, steeps 7 and 8 were about 190F. The first steep was 4 minutes long. I didn’t time subsequent steeps but they were generally between 4 and 8 minutes long. I suspect the leaf would have lasted even longer brewed gong fu style.

sipdown

I tried this for the first time today (the 2013 harvest, I believe) brewed western style according to the instructions on the bag. (The temperature might have been a little off – I was using a new variable temperature kettle and didn’t bother to check it against my trusty candy thermometer.) It was an interesting tea that seemed more similar to a second flush darjeeling than any oolong I can remember drinking. Nice enough, with a woody, spicy, slightly apricotty flavor, but I wasn’t completely taken by it.

Then I go to its Steepster page to write a review, and I see Red Fennekin’s tasting note from earlier today saying how much better it is when brewed gongfu. I shall reserve judgement until I try that myself :)

Though I’ve drank this tea a number of times, now, I’ve held off reviewing it as I’ve not been sure if I’ve really tried it at its best. I don’t have a huge amount of my bag left, though, so I feel it’s a fair time to weigh in.

I tried it Western a couple of times (especially as the first time I tried it I’d forgotten it was an oolong so went to Western by default) and a couple of times using my Gaiwan. I think, as ever with oolongs, I preferred it the latter one – the flavours were much more nuanced and it actually tasted like an oolong, rather than an unusual black tea.

The first infusion I allowed to infuse for quite a while – it looked so pale after 10 seconds that I didn’t think it was worth it. After around 30", it looked good so I poured off and gave it a try – it was definitely a good idea! This tea was lovely and smooth, with a really nice sweetness (the sweetness that I find characteristic of oolongs). It was kinda floral, but also had that “kick” and savouriness of a black tea. Subsequent steeps were really tasty, too – I deffo oversteeped the second one (much hotter water and far too long steeping time), but the third was great, with a more bread-or-pastry flavour than in the first infusion.

I’m gonna keep drinking this, through the afternoon, but I think I’ve finally “got it right” re: brewing this oolong. Good times :D

This is the last free sample from my last order! I’m slowly sipping down Butiki teas (NOOOO!!), but I’m planning an order soon. Still wondering what I’m going to do without my favorite tea company! With this tea, I’m wondering how Butiki finds so many unique teas. This is an Indian oolong with long wiry green leaves. The flavor seems most to me like a very smooth green tea, no astringency at all, even with such a long steep time. The flavor is mostly creamed corn with a hint of fruit, very sweet. It really doesn’t seem like an oolong to me, neither the green bundles or Formosa or the roasted oolongs. The second steep has even more flavor, it kind of loses any similarity to green tea and becomes completely its own flavor. Even smoother, even fruitier, though it’s tough to tell which – pineapple or peach and so so sweet. A fantastic tea, but I think I prefer either having a good green tea OR a traditional oolong when I want them, rather than both.
Steep #1 // 35 min after boiling // 4 min
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 4 min