Soul Good

This was another freebie I won on Instagram. Yay!

The first thing I want to mention about this tea is that they actually used a nice oolong base. Some companies are bad about using low-grade, cheap oolongs since they plan on overpowering them with their flavorings anyway, but this is not the case! The dark green, semi-glossy leaves are rolled into cute little nuggets. They’re blended with a generous amount of minced dried ginger root and chunks of apple.

The aroma is heavenly. Bright, sweet, and apple-y with a heavy note of ginger ale. Now, the description calls this an apple cider oolong. I know when people think of apple cider, they often think of cinnamon. But no, it’s just apple, oolong, and ginger.

The flavor lives up the scent. It’s a well-rounded, slightly nutty, slightly floral oolong with a very natural and realistic red apple flavor. I can practically taste the peel! The ginger is present in the forefront but not overpowering by any means. I’m enjoying it over ice and it is so refreshing. I know I’ll be making an order with Tea Leaf Co eventually, and when I do, I’m definitely going to have to get this again.

The brewed smell was quite similar to the dried smell: sweet, soft, fruity, powdery. I added a spoonful of agave nectar (too much, I realized in retrospect) to the cup, which helped bring the flavour forward. The apple was gentle and appeared mostly on the back of my tongue. The ginger was there if I squinted, but it wasn’t that strong.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/07/tea-leaf-co-tea-reviews/

This blend really intrigued me because it says apple cider oolong…
Had to try it :)
The blended/flavoring of this is more complex than most oolong blends that I have tasted. It is as if it has been infused with cider itself. Personally, the aroma of this tea is off putting and I really dislike smelling it each time I go to drink from it; but as a drink, the taste is quite nice. Being as complex as it is on my taste buds, as in hard to decipher what all is going on, I find myself wanting to sip more of this unlike other blends that I don’t understand that tend to not invite me back to another sip.The leaf looks nice and the apple pieces are rather large compared to what I have seen. I am thankful that the amount of ginger isn’t to the point of drying my mouth out, though there is a semi dryness from it (I experience this with every ginger tea so far though).

It has just come to my attention that this is my 500th blog post, since I only just noticed this I did not come up with an epic plan or some celebration, oops. Ok, I lied, I did celebrate, the only way I know how! I celebrated by acquiring more Scourge because I HAVE AN ADDICTION!! Also I found out who my first match is in the league…it is the most experienced guy at Tabletop, whose PHR army I have admired for a while, and who is totally going to stomp me into oblivion. But I wanted to play against his PHR as a way to see if I wanted to take them up as a second army, so go me!

Onward to Oolong Week! Today we are having a looksie at Tea Leaf Co’s (or TeaLC if you prefer) Soul Good, a blend of Oolong (of the green variety) Apple Pieces, Ginger, and Natural Essence, all of these are certified organic. I found myself rather intrigued by the idea of mixing a green oolong and apples together, fruit and flowers just sound pleasant in my mind. And the aroma is quite floral, with notes of orchid and hyacinth, and then hello chestnut and of course apples. The blend of spices and apples give it a cider feel, which is fun mixed with flowers.

I decided to do a kinda psuedo gongfu thing, mixing western and eastern steeping styles, which seems like fun with this kind of blended tea. The aroma of the soggy leaves is a blend of flowers and fruit, though not a fruit I was expecting! There is the apple and spice, orchid and…cantaloupe? This is not the first time I have had an apple tea smell like melon, so my nose did not do as big of a double take as it maybe should have. The liquid is a blend of warm apple cider, ginger, orchids, and a bit of distant melon at the finish.

The taste of this tea is an interesting thing. It starts off with a blend of sweet and tart apples, it wavers more towards tart as it moves to the midtaste, the ginger pops up in the midtaste as well. Around the end the blend of flowers and melon show back up, specifically orchid and cantaloupe, ah cantaloupe, my least favorite melon (maybe? I used to hate watermelon and now I love it, tastes are weird) but I admit that I do not hate it, it blends really well with the orchid and lingering apples. I am a bit wishy washy on this tea, I am not a fan of tart apples, so I wish it would have been all sweet, all the time, but I did really like the balance of spice and flowers.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/tea-leaf-co-soul-good-tea-review.html