All Day Oolong

First infusion – The tea is amber in colour with a toasted rice and sweet floral scent combined into one delicious union. Flavour is strong with rich but sweet floral tones with a dry, perfume like quality and smoky, toasted wooden notes. It’s perhaps a little astringent, my preference would be a steeping time of 3 minutes.

The smaller the tea is inside the bags the quicker it will steep, for full sized Oolong balls I would say 5 minutes would be fine but this is very small and fine so personally it’s too long. I have one bag left and shall update this post accordingly in the next day or two with my findings on that.

Either way my thoughts on the first cup are pleasant, for a bagged tea it’s surprisingly fresh and has a lot of flavour. Would be perfect to carry in a handbag for a visit to a friends house or even a meal out where they don’t have your type of teas available. Much easier than bagging them yourself since not all empty bags/sacs are 100% sealed.

Second Infusion – Once steeped this tea is now yellow in colour (toned down from amber). Much lighter and more mellow which brings out the sweetness and last touch of toasted flowers. It compliments the first steep very well to leave you with a delicate sensation in the after taste as you finish this tea. I would say that two steeps was the correct amount, three would be suitable if you like your tea very light.

For pictures and more information please view my blog.
http://www.kittylovestea.co.uk/2013/08/04/lazy-sunday-with-pre-bagged-all-day-ali-shan/

I’ll admit that I was a little wary of bagged oolong, but was pleasantly surprised. There was enough room for the oolong to fully expand in the tea bag and the leaves both looked and tasted very fresh. The tea was light and smooth with a lingering sweet floral fragrance. I would definitely pick this up to have at work (where bringing steeping equipment would be a nightmare) or to gift to a friend who only drinks bagged tea.

Thank you Teascent for the sample.

I have to preface this review by stating that I have never had a bagged oolong and that I next to never use western style brewing for oolongs so this is a new experience for me.

Teascent kindly sent me two bags to try of their All Day Oolong. When I opened the envelop I was met with a very fragrant floral/fruity scent. The tea is packaged in a large standard tea bag and as other’s have said arrived to me in fairly large broken chunks which may be do to the shipping process. I brewed the tea according to recommendations with two steeps of 3 and 5 minutes respectively.

The tea brewed to a rich pale gold with a hint of green with a scent of gardenia soft peach and a hint of hay. The dominant flavour is a green slightly vegetal note followed by a light spicy gardenia and a hint of peach it is not as sweet or as floral or creamy as some oolongs I have had but the flavour is pleasant. The second steep had a similar flavour profile but the vegetal notes and spicy gardenia were a little bit stronger. Thanks Teascent for the opportunity to try your tea!

Many thanks to Teascent for sending me a sample of their tea! I’m always so excited to try new companies and as this tea is an oolong tea, it seems like this could be a real winner!

I have to admit that the idea of a bagged oolong tea sounds a little… well, I just wonder how the cup will turn out. Will the leaves have room to expand? The leaves appear a little crushed, but that could be from the long journey they took! Once water has been poured over the bag, it seems to immediately give up its color & has me wondering if this will be too strong or astringent with a three-minute steep time. Giving the tea a sniff, it smells floral and sweet – really quite nice! I’m also getting a buttery scent in the background. Yum!

Sipping… this is a very floral oolong! It’s not too complex, but really just tastes like flowers to me. There is some astringency, but I think that could be due to the leaves being crushed and steeped at three minutes. Next time, I think I’ll try a shorter steep time.

Overall, I like the floral flavor from a teabag! As I’ve said before, I tend to like my floral oolongs to be paired with other elements as well. This is still very tasty and I’m very happy to have tried it! It might be nice to have some bagged oolong teas for those times when you can’t be bothered to deal with loose leaf.

Pretty good tea. Brews up a deep amber color surprisingly quickly. Slightly floral sticky rice aroma. Standard Taiwan gaoshan flavors; rice, magnolia, nutmeg, and fresh greenness. Not a head turner, but certainly an enjoyable tea. Would be a nice tea to drink with a meal.

This was a sample I got from Teascent (meant to review sooner, but I have been having trouble with my computer).

I don’t usually drink oolong (and it’s mostly flavoured). This has a floral/ grassy scent. It had a light floral taste as well. Not really something I’d pick out, but glad I got to try it.

Thanks to Teascent for the oolong sample! I got 2 teabags in a foil bag to try out. What I love about oolongs is that the leaves are so small when dry but really plump up when brewed. The teabag became like a little floating pillow :) I started sipping at about 5 minutes, and the tea was light and floral. It seems like a nice tea for snacking with since the taste is not too strong. The bag floated on the top because of the air bubble but was too hot to grab so I just drank the tea and left it floating but after about 7 minutes the flowery taste got stronger and I preferred the lighter taste so i grabbed a spoon to fish it out. The aftertaste was pretty light as well. It does hold up to resteeping well and did not lose taste. I think I’ll give the second bag to my dad to try, he’s been having light green teas lately and I think he’ll like this one.

I found All Day Oolong a very light, silky buttery textured oolong with slight floral and grassy notes. Not too complex of an oolong and easy to drink. The lightness is nice, but personally I wanted more complexity.

Out of the bag, the leaves were pretty smashed compared to pictures on the website – not sure because its supposed to be a bagged tea or shipping from the UK to me in a paper envelope did some damage.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/all-day-oolong-from-teascent-tea-review/