Oolong Tea

When I opened a bag and smelled it, my first thought was that it smelled like a lightly roasted Taiwanese oolong. It’s very floral, much brighter than my medium to dark roasted Taiwanese oolongs, but it still smells a bit roasted to me. There’s a citrusy, almost creamy aspect to the aroma as well. I decided to use boiling water and brew it longer than I would brew an Anxi oolong because in my experience, Taiwanese oolongs taste better that way.

Tasting it, it’s slightly creamy, and the lemony note in the aroma is quite strong in the cup without tasting sour. There’s a bit of woodiness, that sort of roasted nut flavor that comes from roasting, even a light cinnamon note in the finish. It’s a little too astringent, but not unbearable, and that’s probably only because I brewed it so long anyway. While it’s obviously not going to beat a high quality oolong, it’s pretty good for being so cheap.

It’s a bagged Tie Guan Yin…but actually good and taste pretty close to some loose leaf versions of the tea. I was looking for bagged Oolongs that I could resort to for school (yay, I am poor college student!). And I might actually pick this one considering that it was only two bucks and organic. Now for the actual taste:

It is a lighter, greener Oolong that definitely has the floral taste of an oolong-it’s fairly close to Harney and Sons Pomegranate Ooloong, but more vegetal and again floral in taste. It’s even a little sweet and slightly creamy hints to it, though they are minimal and subtle. The leaf quality is slightly better than what you would expect from a bag, but it’s still full in taste, though not as good as a loose leaf. However, this would be a pretty good introduction to Tie Guan Yin because it indeed tastes like one, and is one. I might settle for this one for bagged tea, but a part of me wants to see if there are any better ones. I think I might stay put with this one.