99% Oxidized Purple Oolong

Another tea I picked up from Tealux, woo! Figured I’d get a start on this one since I’m splitting the sample package with Raritea.

Anyhow! The tea just looks like a dark oolong or black to me; I never would have guessed that it’s a “purple” tea at all. It brews up kind of brownish, but not all that dark. When I took a sniff of my mug downstairs, all I could smell was charcoal, which didn’t impress me.

I now have let the tea cool down as per usual, and took a sip…. this stuff is awesome!! It’s deliciously sweet, with a bakey dark oolong note but MUCH more sweetness than I’m used to. A honey sweetness, not rock sugar. And with definite oolong flavours. This is certainly a surprise – I had kind of written this one off once it smelled all burny. Sure, I like burny, but that hadn’t been what I’d been expecting. So I’m stoked that it tastes this good :D I’d definitely pick it up again… it’s very interesting! And yummy. Satisfies cravings for a good solid tea as well as cravings for sweets :)

ETA: I think I saw this in the note from Tea Sipper as well: the second infusion isn’t great. I did just eat, so to be fair, that could be influencing my tastebuds a bit, but I’m really not tasting too much anymore. Just a sweetish, very lightly flavoured dark oolong. Perhaps I should have gone with a longer infusion (I went with 2.5 min). Great first infusion, though!

sipdown! this was one from the great canadian travelling teabox that i saved so that i could try it later. today is later! I really like this one! It’s like a dark oolong that could almost be coffee like but isn’t’. No smoke to be found in my cup so that’s lovely. Instead it’s delicious…and suddenly all gone? oopsy haha

Sipdown no. 92, another one from Sil.
This is a sweet roasty charcoaly tasty cup of yum!

1 tablespoon for 375ml

Scent is plum-sweet, leathery and slightly mineral.

Mild, hint of mint flavour (hopefully not from cross contamination of other teas). Slight charcoal flavour. End of sip reminds me of milk. Plum sweetness. Dark chocolate hint.

Second infusion at 4 minutes. Hint of violet floral flavour.

It is really chilly here in TO, perfect for taking beastie down to the ravine for a nice long hike. It’s so peaceful and beautiful there. I guess it was too cold for other dog walkers, since we had the park and ravine to ourselves.

I made steep 4 of this tea when I got back. I’ve had this tea before, and from my notes it looks like I didn’t like it very much the last time. This time around I’m enjoying this a lot more. Roast and charcoal are predominant, goes well on a cool summer day that feels more like autumn. Steep two had very strong mineral notes. Steep 3 and 4 less intense charcoal, but very satisfying and warming roasted flavour.

I guess age mellowed the really intense charcoal that I recall from the last time I had this tea. Thanks to Dexter for the sample!

Well, these leaves aren’t purple and the steep color isn’t purple, so I have no idea where the purple comes from. The steep color is really a light brown. The leaves in the infuser look even blacker than they did dry… very glossy & delectable looking! This is kind of like the charcoal tasting oolong I had the other day, but the taste of this one is better and more complex. I can actually tell this is an oolong. It’s a very full flavor and apparently this has a lot of caffeine. Tealux has a caffeine meter on their packaging and this one is higher than most of the teas I’ve tried from them. The second steep isn’t as tasty as the first one… it tastes more like charcoal. It reminded me of a less-nice campfire with something burning in it that isn’t very good to sit around. Yikes! I’ve tried a few dark oolongs the past few weeks and I don’t think I’m liking them very much. The first cup would get a higher rating though.

Reserving judgment on this one. The first infusion (which I may have over steeped) was CRAZY smoky, almost offensive in how smoky it was. The second infusion is MUCH better. Dark rich, nutty, woody oolong. I really like this second steep. Next time will start with a shorter first infusion and work up more slowly. All in all I think I will be friends with this tea once I work out my preferred steep parameters.

So this tea, right from reading the name, I was stoked to try it out. And it didn’t disappoint. Thus far I could say that this tea is one of the number 1’s from the Great Canadian Travelling Tea box. Such a wonderful idea, it has opened me up to new teas. I really want to get my hands on more of this wondrous creation. I consumed this tea on Oct 2 & 3 2013. It was a marvelous 2-day event :)

Dry leaf: Dark, like super dark oolong leaves, with kind of a purple-y tinge to it, which I would then deduce, hence the name purple oolong.

Steeped: from a first glance, the water appears to be brownish with a purple tinge. The taste was just PHENOMENAL. Just saying, I was soothed and entranced by this mystical tea. I guess I could describe it as a kind of woodsy taste, maybe just ever slightly bitter and sort of smoky.

Re-Steep 1: This time around it was slightly more subtle, yet still soothing. The only difference? It was slightly sweeter the second time around :)

Re-Steep 2: Lighter than the steep and re-steep. The scent is just so yummy and the taste is yet again subtle. The aroma of the tea is spicy and becomes even more sweet.

Interesting tea. It seems more fitting to drink this tea on a ship in the 1800’s. Something about the smoky undertones takes me back in time to when spices and teas were not readily accessible without trade.

Discovery TTB #16

I don’t think I’ve ever tried a “purple” oolong before and since purple is my favorite color, I just had to give this one a go! It’s definitely a deeper flavor than most oolongs I’ve tried in the past: rich and nutty with hints of chocolate and smoke. There’s a lingering buttery aftertaste that I’m enjoying as well. Quite lovely, actually!