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“Thank you Roughage for this Sample Tea Ah Saturday morning, and this morning looks more like Spring than Summer. Another one to throw open my oversized windows and let the sun dappled breeze push...” Read full tasting note
“Still loving this one. Possibly even more than before! I’ve increased its rating now that I have sampled more teas, with which to compare it and have fiddled with my rating system a bit. I may have...” Read full tasting note
“The dry leaf doesn’t smell of much, but when the hot water hits, it releases the citrusy aromas promised. The liquor is sweet, fruity, and smooth with a lovely, lightly floral aftertaste. There’s...” Read full tasting note
“This is a fantastic Oolong tea which I unfortunately only get an adorable sample given by Adagio Breeze. thank you very much for sharing. The Oriental Beauty teas come from Taiwan and are quite...” Read full tasting note
Available only in a 50g Gift Tin, this very special tea has a dedicated following among aficionados. The processing of this tea is a story of man and insect in symbiosis. The farmers nurture their tea bushes and then, just before the harvest, they rely on these little crickets- or tea jassids to emerge and start eating the young new season leaves. This kicks off a reaction in the plant and it releases an enzyme to defend itself from further attack. Also the nibbled edges of the leaves start to oxidise .
The resulting tea has a distinctive, highly desirable aromatic flavour that carries the bright citrus notes for which it is so well known. But it is still an oolong, so the light oxidation softens the freshness of the leaves and it has an untimately smooth, refreshing quality.
Just the top nibbled leaves of the tea bush are picked, so the tea comprises a beautiful mix of small dark green and golden brown leaves and some pale silvery tips.
Canton Tea Co is a London-based tea company trading in high grade, whole leaf Chinese tea. We have exclusive access to some of the best jasmine, white, green, oolong, black and authentic puerh teas available. In our first year, we scooped Six Golds at the 2009 Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards. Our Jasmine Pearls won the top three star gold award, endorsing it as the best available in the UK.
Thank you Roughage for this Sample Tea
Ah Saturday morning, and this morning looks more like Spring than Summer. Another one to throw open my oversized windows and let the sun dappled breeze push aside the white cotton drapery to freshen up my house.
A perfect tea to start the day would be…one that has been chewed on lovingly by crickets. Yes, nice little nibbled edges right before harvest that stress the tea tree into a defense mode which produces a uniquely smooth citrus flavor. The nibbled edges oxodize before picking and my packet showed a dry blend of dark green, golden brown and pale silvery leaves.
Oolong….
2tsp. tea, 200ml water, 195F, 3 infusions at 2 minutes each
The large wet leaves first smelled like carmalized sugar tomatoes then second steep like boston brown bread and last a light sweet tobacco. At each infusion the leaves changed color from olive and rust brown gradually fading to brown ocre.
All three infusions produced an amber brown liquor beginning with a medium dark color and getting lighter with each steeping. The scent was peach and raisin.
1. The first sensation was a bright mouthfeel, thick and peachy with a little roastiness. I was looking for the citrus flavor but couldn’t find it. I was surprised at the lack of any tannin or astringency even when the tea cooled, and at how smooth and rich this tea was to drink.
2. The flavor was much lighter in a wonderful way. Sparkling warmth filled my mouth and the taste of ripe loquat and apricot…fuzzy fruit with a bit of citrus and still without any acidity or bitterness. Very, very smooth. The best, sweetest cup.
I can see why this is prized. As an Oolong, I am reminded of some of the things I love about Black Tea’s. The peachy, yammy, smooth and bready tea’s or those with a bit of citrus that offer comfort and perk up my day. Oolongs usually have floral or an astringent character that identifies them as that category of tea for me. So, maybe I’ve been narrow minded. This Oolong is different and I like it!
3. The final steeping was crisper and dryer in the mouth but still had no astringency. This is a fancy tea. I added a little sugar and enjoyed the end of a beautiful tea sunrise. It was almost as though a huge golden orange sun had come up over the Plains blasting me with full flavor on the first steeping, then gradually mellowing to the second and best cup, and finally the fading last but still sweet third steep.
Roughage and I had a conversation about how an Elk is a Moose in the UK and the definitions in the America’s, we ended up with some nice youtube critters…here you go…(I used Elk and Moose from Colorado)
North American:
http://youtu.be/-6HkU-P81HI ELK in Estes Park an hour from home (common around town)
http://youtu.be/5r0gAWiahig MOOSE (During the fires one came into my complex but I haven’t seen one yet)
http://youtu.be/Av51kZhRHRk European ELK (from ROughage)
Still loving this one. Possibly even more than before! I’ve increased its rating now that I have sampled more teas, with which to compare it and have fiddled with my rating system a bit. I may have to go back and consider how I rate all the teas and reassess them on the basis of a more consistent rating system.
The dry leaf doesn’t smell of much, but when the hot water hits, it releases the citrusy aromas promised. The liquor is sweet, fruity, and smooth with a lovely, lightly floral aftertaste. There’s absolutely nothing bad I can say about this tea (except for a somewhat unpleasant tingle at the bottom of the throat, but it’s barely worth mentioning). Granted this is the first example of an Oriental Beauty I’ve tried, but I’m very impressed.
ETA: Second steep had an interesting lemony tartness, which was overtaken by woodiness in subsequent steepings.
Flavors: Apricot, Fruit Tree Flowers, Lemon Zest
This is a fantastic Oolong tea which I unfortunately only get an adorable sample given by Adagio Breeze. thank you very much for sharing.
The Oriental Beauty teas come from Taiwan and are quite oxidized. Such oxidation is due to the presence of an insect, kind of tea leaves eater … in reaction, and for their protection, the leaves begin an intensive oxidation process.
At first glance, you think more of a black tea as an Oolong because the leaves are dark and long and not rolled like most oolongs. But Oriental Beauty are like that. It is therefore classic. The leaves of this one do not have a very strong scent, hard to decide about this tea at this stage.
I like the Oriental Beauty teas in general, but this one is especially tasty. May be less smooth than those I have tasted so far but with different and very harmonious fruit notes: apricot, peach, plum .. they are definitely there. Delicious. And Honey would you ask? There is also there as in any good Taiwanese tea.
This tea, in my opinion, is more lively in the mouth than other Oriental Beauty teas with more roundness and mellowness. This is another aspect of this type of tea that does not displease me.
A cup of tea I highly recommend.
Fresh tea leaves with their distinctive speckled colors. Very delicious Oriental Beauty. This one is from Taiwan and I feel it is zippier and livelier than the couple of others I have tried. It is zingy and fresh. Besides the citrus zing, it has flavor notes of apricot, honey, a tad of maybe a woodiness? It is tea umami,,,Oriental Beauty is so hard to describe!
I keep using the word fresh with Canton teas because I feel I am getting the best representation of the teas from them,,,,, fresh teas that have just been packaged. I have been very impressed, I wish they were in my country :( :( :( :( :( but I am glad I tried them. Though I do wish I had ordered more tea because of that but I didn’t know how good it would all be to me!!
Also, I feel like their directions have a tad lower temperature for their teas which is good. At first I thought, am I not converting Celsius to Fahrenheit properly? But they are just very careful and have the perfect temperature and brew times to bring out the best of the teas.
Flavors: Apricot, Honey, Lemon Zest
Yay, mooooooooossssseee! :-) I’m really pleased you liked this one. Time to remortgage the house so I can buy some more because I finished off the last of mine yesterday. Maybe I should finish up some other teas first though since I have a few in stock still!
“Sun dappled breeze” lovely and that also sounds like my kind of Oriental Beauty any savory or buttery notes in the taste/mouth feel or just mostly in the smell?
One the first steep I mentioned a roasty (little savory but not much) and it was buttery but I didn’t want to say that because it was not thick. It was the smoothness that was so outstanding and the butter was subtle.
Excellent, thanks!
I love Oriental Beauty Oolongs! I agree with you that there are elements of black tea in OB. I think of the difference as the first steep of OB being like a third or fourth steep of a black tea. About a week ago I was drinking some of Tea Trekker’s Dancong black, and around the fourth steep I stopped and said to myself that this tastes like an oriental beauty!
I have also been trying to get over my fear of puer tea! I actually just finished my 3rd or 4th gong fu steeping of shu nuggets! While the smell is still a bit more musty than I like, the actual taste has none of those elements, and a nice sweet taste :) Thank you for helping to change my mind about puer tea Bonnie :)
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Ah HyBr1d that’s so nice! I’m glad that you had the nerve to go ahead and give Puer a try! There are so many different tasting Puer’s too. I hope you continue to explore along with me so that I can take tips from you!
Ha, why thank you very much Bonnie, but I think I will be getting the tips from you :) So far the yanxin reserve nuggets have been the only shu that I have been able to take through multiple steepings…it really is mind over matter since it doesn’t exactly smell like it tastes.
On a side note, I noticed that the Verdant Dan cong black ends up a bit green after steeping, I was wondering if you noticed that as well? I am guessing that maybe its 80% or so oxidized, as the tea trekker Dan cong black I also have doesn’t end up green even after 10+ steepings. It’s kind of funny as I prefer the early steepings of the Verdant tea, but the later steepings of the tea trekker tea:) I just find the differences between the two interesting.
HyBr1d- I don’t know about the difference in the two brands. I’m still experimenting myself with what Verdant lists for steep times and letting later steeping go even longer since I like a strong black. When I so let the steeping time go 3 minutes in my gaiwan (after doing the shorter steeps the first few times), the taste profile changes quite a bit. You might want to try this and see what you think. Most of the time I western brew because of time and do 5 steepings. Sometimes I take the time for more lengthy steeping though.
Thank you Bonnie, i will try doing what you said, it sounds like a good idea! I have been making the Verdant dan cong western style lately, with a little longer than 35 seconds for steeping. I have a stainless steel strainer so i have been doing more of a “modified” gong fu style short steeping time on most of the other teas i try. Anyways, i need to get some sleep :) Have a great night Bonnie!