Little Dog - Vietnam Red Oolong

Past sipdown – and another one I just don’t remember at all. Too bad.

This tea is really soft, gentle, not as bold as most oolongs I drink. It’s sweet – I find that a little weird – some honey, some stone fruit and of course some woody oolong. It’s good. People who aren’t a huge fan of dark oolong might like this one, it’s milder than other’s I’ve tried. I prefer bold, aged oolongs that are a lot like leather and old books – so this isn’t quite my cup of tea.

(Really tight hockey game happening – hard to focus on the tea when I’m sitting on the edge of my seat…… go jets…)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfcPdpUBWCZ/?taken-by=dex3657
That picture looks good on my phone but really washed out on my laptop…. weird….

It is definitely a rare occasion drinking a tea (in this case a fine dark hand rolled Oolong) from Vietnam. Its profile really reminded me a lot of its origin Taiwanese version. My wife loved this buddy to its bits!
Aroma: It resembled a lot of an Oriental Beauty but still different with a nice sugary sweet roasted note. The sweetness somehow reminded me of cotton candy. Later steaming up the full honey structure was conquering every inch of my scenting buds. Such a deliciously mouth watering sweet structure plus a nice typical Taiwanese floral note to it.

Taste: Like the aroma the taste was very sweet. It was hard resisting this fellow. While I was shooting those photos the scent really messed with my concentration because the steaming bouquet was so lovely. The liquor unfolded so deliciously sweet like cotton candy with honey plus a hint of multivitamin juice (mango, passion fruit and a hint of pineapple) with an extra of dark sweet gums like blueberry and cherry. Beside those aspects a small hint of gingerbread and sweet roasted almonds showed up too. This was a great example of a well composed and naturally sweet Vietnamese Oolong

Thanks to tea bento for the samples! I’ve made this red oolong twice now, both times according to package directions: gong fu style, 95c, rinse/2min/1min/3min. The dominant notes that I taste overall are wood, leather, and tobacco. If you like those flavors, you’ll probably like this. I personally don’t like those flavors so was not a huge fan. I did not get a lot of the sweeter notes that others seem to have picked up on.

The dry leaf smells like sandalwood with a hint of leather. The first steep brews up dark and tastes like dry wood and leather with maybe a hint of malt. It’s like drinking the Morgan Library. The second steep is much less dry. It tastes of sandalwood and leather with a touch of honey. With the third steep, the wet leaf smells like tobacco and the brew tastes like what I imagine tobacco tastes like (having never smoked, I’m taking a WAG based on olfactory experience). I didn’t try to push it further than the recommended number of steeps but you probably could.

First tea of 2018!

Every year I try to pick something meaningful for my first tea of the year – in the past I’ve done champagne flavoured blends or teas that were a new area of exploration for me that I hoped to further learn about in the coming year. This year, I selected this one in honour of it being the year of the dog!

I decided to do this one as a tea tasting like what I did when I was taking my Sommelier courses, so I pulled out my cupping set and got everything set up to brew this up under cupping parameters. It was really delicious, and the aroma coming from the set as everything steeped was pretty drool inducing: sweet, sticky honey notes and autumn leaves, malt, and fruit! Yum!

This was really interesting flavour wise; very, very sweet and smooth overall with the strongest note in the cup definitely being honey. I also got a mix of other sweet notes like baked bread, malt, red fruit undertones, and cane sugar. The body was a little more vegetal though with main flavours like autumn leaves and zucchini. There was also just a touch of cinnamon in the undertones and finish. It was a wide range of flavours all in all but for me, at least, it worked really well and created a very smooth and pleasant cup to sip on. I’m happy this was my choice for first tea of the new year; it was delicious!

Thank you to Tea Bento for the free samples! I will be reviewing a few today, and the rest in coming designated caffeine days (once or twice per week). I have received this tea for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

This tastes more like a black tea to me, but it is still very nice. The most prominent notes are honey, floral, wood, tulip, saffron. I can see how people might taste chocolate/malt in this, although I didn’t taste any. This oolong is very distinctly Taiwanese with its characteristic floral/honey flavour. The sweet notes really make for an aromatic and beautiful morning cup. Oddly enough, I can see this oolong getting even better if milk is added. I might try that with the remaining leaf.

Interesting flavor profile. It’s not a great tea IMO, but it is still enjoyable and something I picked out for the day.

Thank you, Teabento!