Taiwan Osmanthus Oolong Tea

I had no idea what Osmanthus would taste like. I’m still not 100% certain. Floral and pretty?

This tea is mellow and soft, easy to drink. Very nice, actually. It’s my day-after-valentines-day-carb-fest tea. lol

I drank this yesterday – about 7g brewed in 500ml of water at 95C in an unglazed terracotta clay teapot for 5 minutes per infusion for 3 infusions. The teapot has a little stand with a tealight to keep the tea hot so that I can sip it all day long; I was expecting, but didn’t find, that standing candle-warmed for an hour or two significantly altered the flavour – it deepened and softened it a little, but I found that quite enjoyable.

I usually use a gaiwan or glass jug to brew my teas, but a friend suggested using clay for oolongs because I get a very bitter taste with a lot of them (though looking at the other reviews here, bitterness doesn’t seem to be an issue with this tea, so I might try brewing it in a gaiwan the next time I drink it).

With so much water, even with fairly long steeping times, I was expecting this to be quite weak, but even on the third infusion it had a delicate but full flavour, floral with a vanilla-ish hint, and a rich, sweet and quite heavy scent.

A subtle but nicely flavoured tea that’s very pleasant.

Sipdown! (16 | 16)

Love this one!

I adore osmanthus, and I really should seek out more of it in tea form. Here it adds a wonderful honey-sweet, nectarous floral note. It’s juicy, almost fruity, and reminds me of a more floral apricot. The oolong makes a lovely base for it, its silky texture just adds to the feeling of drinking nectar. Otherwise it’s quite mild, with a gentle minerality and greenness that’s somewhere between grassy and vegetal.

So so yummy, I’ll definitely have to order a full-size pouch of this someday. ❤

Sample sipdown! Osmanthus is the overall flavor of this oolong. However, this flowery tea is not to my taste. I find it to be a pretty one dimensional. Thanks for the share delighful kiwi

Too bitter with a 4-minute infusion

I like Teavivre. All of their teas I have tried so far are good and reasonably priced. And now there is this Osmanthus Oolong, the first tea from Teavivre that is different and not in a good way.

I liked the name, Osmanthus, which sounded very exotic and promising. When I tried the first steep I was surprised by the taste: it’s like half of it a typical Ti Guan Yin and another half some fruity-flowery component. And these two halves did not blend well. In the subsequent steeps this initial composition disappeared, with Ti Guan Yin taking almost all of the available space. In the steep 4 the offputting sourness appeared: i.e., this tea does not resteep well.

Al in all, the first steep is not bad and kind a unique but overall for me it was a disappointment. Will not order again.

It’s sweet. It’s floral. It’s alright.

I’ve never met an osmanthus flower in person so I can’t vouch for them.

Had this both in western and gongfu style and it consistently tastes the same.

(2016 harvest)

Sipdown! I still don’t really know what an osmanthus smells like when it isn’t in my tea, but in my tea it’s floral and a touch citrus-y. Other people picked up on an apricot note and I can see where they got that, though I didn’t identify it independently so power of suggestion might be at play here. This was a nice alternative to more typical floral teas like jasmine.

Sipdown (202)!

Brewed up this sample, which was a freebie that Teavivre tossed into my last order, Western style! I wasn’t really sure what to think because I’m not super familiar with the taste of straight Osmanthus and when I’ve had it in blends I’ve struggled to differentiate it from the flavours of whatever else is in the blend. Due to my lack of familiarity I just brewed this one exactly like the sample package said to – for the time I split the difference of the three to eight minutes and I went with a solid five minutes.

So what were my overall thoughts? This was really nice and smooth; quite sweet and floral overall. The sweetness reminds me of cane sugar, and the floral notes are kind of magnolia-y? There’s also some mild fruity undertones; peaches/apricots. I enjoyed this best while it was still hot; the last little bit I drank pretty cold and at that point it tasted relatively bitter. Still interesting overall though.

Well I know this tea is good because I’ve had it before. See previous note. But it was very good at the beginning of the day and in the end just ended up tasting like ‘normal whatever warm tea yum’ throughout the morning and afternoon as my nose got stuffier and stuffier and more and more pressure built in my ears. It saddens me to know that I’m drinking good stuff and am unable to properly appreciate it because I can’t even smell it, let along taste it really.

On the alternative plus side, we went to Olive Garden for dinner and yay for endless soup.