Orchid Temple

This tea is a light fermented Wuyi Oolong which means the leaves were grown in a specific area in the Fujian Provence of China. Even though this is a light Oolong it is remarkably toasty in the first infusion. Not toasty like a dark roasted Oolong but a lighter flavor version that retains the complexity without the strength.

The second infusion loses a lot of the toastiness and really showcases the floral undertones and sweetness. Don’t get me wrong it still tastes fermented. This is absolutely no where near a pouchong but it does have that kind of lightness to it.

Anyways light but complex flavor.

Brewed 3 minutes. Taken Plain. Sampling first and second infusions.

Another oolong from Golden Moon. I loved the other orchid oolong that I’ve tried, so it was a no-brainer to get a sample of this one. The dry leaf has a strong scent but it seems lightly scented, if that makes sense: unlike most flavored/scented teas it seems, this one smells primarily like the vegetal green oolong with only a hint of sweet floral aroma to it. Looking back, that actually matches up with the other orchid oolong I tried (the Orchid Oolong from Tea Lux).

That one became very floral when brewed, but this one less so. The florals pick up in the taste a bit, and even provide a lingering sweetness at the tail end, but I wouldn’t consider this to be a highly floral tea. Just a breath of florals, really. It’s mostly the vegetal green oolong, slightly nutty, a bit roasted, and the florals fold in like they were always part of the tea, like it was natural and not scented at all. Overall a nice, tasty tea, but not quite right for my palate.

It smells like oolong and looks very bright clear yellow.
It tastes floral, bit oolongy but quite watery too. But I can’t say I dont like it. It’s OK for me. A really gentle one.
It could have fuller and smoother oolong taste tho. I like the aftertaste more than that taste while drinking it…

In the process of making tea eggs with the remainder of In Pursuit of Tea’s Golden Yunnan—that means two more sipdowns (uh, sort of). I decided on an oolong sample to brew up while I wait. I’m using the recipe Golden Moon sent out in their newsletter a while back, at least in theory, but I totally changed the spicing because of availability/preference. My kitchen smells amazing right now, so I must have done something right!

This smells gorgeous! It smells a lot like Adagio’s Dancong Aria to me, which is definitely a good thing. Fresh and fruity and lovely. The taste doesn’t quite hold up to the smell, oddly enough. It’s the exact same flavor profile as Dancong Aria—peaches, white flowers, cedar wood, and a little earthiness—but it’s weaker than I expected. It’s not bad, but there’s not enough fruit or floral to it for me and I’ve had better oolongs of this type.

ETA: Now that it’s cooled I’m getting way more fruit. I think this is one that’s great cold but not ideal hot.

Smells stronger than it tastes. The dry leaf made me think it was TGY. Not as strong as I would like it. The leaves are huge once unfurled. I resteeped it 3 times, stood up nicely too all steeps. Last steep was the best…mmm. A good tea, just wished it was stronger.

So I got the gold moon sampler for myself as an early YAY YOUR DONE WITH FINALS present. Actually getting around to trying it now. Very light in flavor almost like a green tea. Slightly buttery. Very enticing floral smells. Taste is lacking a little.

I’ve had this across two tiny teapots, with one resteep each. It’s a decent oolong, but not as good as I was hoping for. I think maybe the name was fun enough to up my expectations, whereas if it were just “oolong” I’d probably have liked it just fine. So far, my fav from Golden Moon is the caramel one… I know I’m ordering tin of that!

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/orchidtempleoolong/

I am working my way through my first box from Golden Moon Tea. I thought about the sampler but there were a lot of teas I thought I wouldn’t like, so I made my own. I couldn’t resist anything with temple and orchid in the title, so here I am.

The instructions say freshly boiled, so that’s what I did. And since I just used the higher end of GMT’s range on a jasmine and it turned out bitter, I set a time for 2 minutes (range 2-3) and steeped it exactly that long.

The scent is a pretty, light floral, rather jasminey, actually, more like a very, very soft lilac. A little soapy, like another reviewer mentioned, but not unpleasantly so. Just like really good soap is lightly fragrant, not fake. It’s good cold, too. Not so amazing that I have to buy a pound of it, but it’s nice. Really nice. Might sample it again.

The leafs smell like Japanese green tea. I don’t like Japanese green tea. As the tea cools a touch I can smell the buttery quality coming over the green.
Taste… It’s not that strong for sure. I get the usual oolong taste, there is a element of the green sitting over it. So far not bad but nothing special… As the tea cools though, the green comes out stronger.

Second steep is the same as the first for me.
Oolong always grows on me, it starts at the first cup as annoying me this the similarity to green but the other elements always win me over.

So I went and got the Golden Moon sampler, and this is the first tea I’m trying from it!

The flavor is very subtle, but the taste itself is sort of odd. It doesn’t scream oolong to me, but I don’t really know exactly what it does taste like. It’s very soothing to my stomach though, making it a great choice after dinner, but the aftertaste is a little odd. Like others have mentioned, it has sort of a buttery mouth watering taste, but I’m not really liking that too much

Well, as it slowly gets a more warm temperature I’m tasting more flavors. I think I really do have a cat’s tounge! Still, it just seems like it’s lacking something.

Edit. Second & third steeps were much better. Definitely increasing the score. It’s not something I’d purchase a whole lot of… but man my body feels so much better after drinking this tea. Yay for the power of oolong!