Taiwan Osmanthus Oolong Tea

Thank you so much for sending some of this tea, Angel! I’m always excited to try floral oolongs, and haven’t had an osmanthus tea in over five years (a green that Tea Desire used to offer). This is much lighter floral oolong than what I was anticipating. Maybe a touch of sweetness but at the moment, I’m not able to discern any unique differences in this one in comparison to other non-osmanthus floralesque oolongs I’ve experienced in the past. Perhaps my tastebuds are off today. I’m looking forward to trying it again. Maybe next time I’ll pick up on more/different nuances.

Thanks Angel and Teavivre for the samples!

So generally, I’m not a huge fan of floral teas. Or floral anything. Can’t stand jasmine-scented anything, lavender alarms rather than soothes me.

The one exception to that rule is osmanthus.

I remember when I was a kid, my mom would mix a bunch of little osmanthus flowers with sugar. She’d just use a tiny bit of the scented sugar in whatever thing she was making (usually some kind of congee or porridge) and the whole kitchen would explode with the fragrance. I’d come running to breakfast that morning. I loved the taste and smell of osmanthus so much.

It’s been years since I’ve lived with my parents, and even longer since I’ve had that congee. We moved and good osmanthus flowers pretty much became impossible to find. That jar of osmanthus sugar lasted for one glorious year and I still remember how sad I was when it ran out.

Anyway, this tea is fantastic. Not at all overly-scented or artificial-tasting. It might be my memory playing with me, but I think it’s slightly sweet, far from cloying. The natural floral flavour of the base tea works well with the osmanthus flavouring. Osmanthus still lingering in a resteep, but just barely. I really like this one.

Wow, I forgot how nice it was to have a simple cup of tea over here. Just the tea with nothing else added. I brewed this with my little gaiwan and made a mess over trying to strain out some tiny little tea leaf dust from my last three brews. Still haven’t mastered it quite yet, but I’m getting better at it.

Anyway, I have no idea what an osmanthus should taste like. I had to look up what one even looked like because I had never seen one before. But this tastes kinda like a mix between apricot and peach with a floral quality thrown in. It is really smooth and even. It smells really good as well.

The tea is a little drying, but that would make it fantastic to actually have with a meal. I’m drinking about two cups of this before lunch and it isn’t filling me up, but I feel I am preparing my mouth for food.

I’ve been away from my teas for so long that this review feels a little clunky, but I picked the right sample to just get back in the game. Thank you Teavivre for letting me try this one out! I am going to enjoy drinking the rest of the samples I have.

Another gamble at the wild and crazy Teavivre summer sale, this Osmanthus Oolong really does smell and taste like osmanthus! I wanted to try this tea especially because osmanthus is a mysterious note in perfumery. It’s like a flower with a built-in fruitiness, so it’s very hard to detect when mixed in with anything else (as it always is…). This osmanthus-scented oolong is a great way to become closer to osmanthus, since the oolong tea base does not overwhelm the flower scent and flavor.

Very happy that I decided to try this tea!

From my first actual Teavivre order. I like osmanthus, but I’ve not had it as an oolong yet. The scent is nicely floral, a bit of honeysuckle perhaps. As for flavour, creamy, and sweet. I do taste the osmanthus, as well as the grassy oolong.

I have been rather distracted lately, and not entirely well either. Too much going on in the medical department of my life and the knowledge that this crazy song and dance is just starting feels very overwhelming. To help with my woes I created something kinda neat, a nice spider terrarium for my desk, occupied by a tiny Jumping spider I found. Now if I can find some moss for my terrarium I will be especially happy, but it seems that the Midwest is sorely lacking in moss.

Today’s tea is Taiwan Osmanthus Oolong Tea by Teavivre, created with Osmanthus flowers from Yunnan Province and Qingxin Oolong from The Ali Mountain, Taiwan. This tea seems like the embodiment of summertime to me, flowers and oolong, perfect for this time of year. The aroma is extremely floral and sweet. If you have never sniffed an osmanthus flower, the aroma is like a mix of jasmine, honeysuckle, and orange blossoms, it is heady and heavenly, tiny flowers with a very strong aroma. Blend this flower’s aroma with a sweet, almost milky, aroma of the oolong. There are also faint notes of chestnut and honey, it is very rich and sweet.

Steeping the leaves is really a treat, little osmanthus flowers prettily float on the top of the water, it was hard to put the lid on. The brewed leaves have a deliciously milky sweet and chestnut aroma. The floral notes are very strong, though not as strong as the dry leaves. There is also a slight fresh vegetation aroma that reminds me of being in the mountains. The aroma of the liquid is gently floral and faintly creamy, with notes of chestnut and honeysuckle.

The first steeping starts out delicate with a very creamy mouthfeel. It begins with a delicate creamy sweetness that blooms into a strong floral presence that is a mix of honeysuckle and and osmanthus. There is a slightly nutty aftertaste. I had a great moment when I first sipped this tea, I felt like I was standing in a garden in full summer, warm and content surrounded by beauty. I found myself getting lost, and it is only the first steeping!

For the second steep I needed to turn my notebook sideways, I had one of those ‘my hand writing is listing off the page’ moments again. It happens sometimes when I drink an oolong, I go into a tea trance. The aroma is much more floral and very sweet, it is heady and intense. The taste, oh man, the taste is fantastic. First we have a nice buttery mouthfeel that stays smooth throughout the entire sipping experience. The start is vegetal and fresh like vegetation growing in the mountains (I have seen this referred to as alpine and I love it) and that blooms into an explosion of flowers and nectar. It is a sweet floral blend of jasmine, honeysuckle, and grapefruit blossoms. I have to say this steep was quite heavenly.

After a few moments of introspection as I appreciate the previous steep, I move onto steep three. The aroma is very sweet, a blend of flowers and sweet cream. There is a tiny hint of vegetation in the aroma as well, at the finish. The mouthfeel is very smooth, less buttery than previously, but still quite smooth. The taste is less sweet and floral and more alpine and green, very evocative of summer vegetation is fully unfurled glory. This fades to a mild chestnut taste and finishes with floral sweetness which lingers as a very pleasant aftertaste.

It is absolutely no surprise that I go for a fourth steep. The aroma is mellow and sweet with a hint of floral and a hint of alpine. It is not as intense as the previous steeps, but such is the way of many steeps, like pieces of music it builds, comes to a glorious crescendo, and then delicately fades to a finish. The taste is mildly sweet with a heady yet delicate floral taste. The floral sweetness lingers as an aftertaste for what seems like forever.

For the fifth and final of the steepings the aroma is delicate and floral, a ghost of its previous self, but not a haunting, more of a pleasant memory. The taste is also a pleasant memory, bits of floral sweetness and refreshing alpine with a finish of chestnut. Ah, this tea, the sample came at the perfect time for me. I have been a bit blue (too much medical stuff) and my usually pick-me-up of floral oolong was not in the cards (I have run out, tragic) so sipping this sample was the best thing for my sad self.

For blog and photo (Including a ridiculous cat selfie) http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-have-been-rather-distracted-lately.html

A nice mellow floral oolong with a touch of vegetal flavor. It reminded me a bit of the formosa jade oolong I had from Upton, though this one wasn’t quite as sweet. Leaves are a dark olivey green. This is the last of the four teas that came in Teavivre’s Flavored Oolong sampler, and while It’s good, for me it pales a bit beside Teavivre’s Milk Oolong and Strawberry Oolong, both of which knock it out of the park.

This is one of many samples I received from Angel at Teavivre.

I love pretty much anything oolong…green, aged, roasted, you name it, so it will come as no surprise that I liked this tea.

It produces a bright yellow liquor.

Yum. A nice floral green oolong, with notes of peachy goodness. The aftertaste is buttery and slightly peppery, like a good quality olive oil.

The leaves are fully opened at second steep and that’s when this tea is the most flavourful to me.

It’s a beautiful day today, summer is in the air…this tea tastes like nature’s awakening…

I am so grateful I got to sample this wonderful tea, thank you Angel!

Sipdown!

I’m bumping the rating downward on this (from 78 to 71) because while it was enjoyable, I’ve had a chance to drink more oolongs and get a better sense of what works for me. That said, this was a nice stepping stone along my journey. Light, floral, and with lots of resteep potential.

This time I used a higher water temperature (90-100°C) because I wasn’t feeling too fussy, and this still turned out well. Low astringency, sunny yellow liquor. Happy trails, little oolong buddy.

I have to admit that I have been bad reviewing teas lately. I’ve been drinking tea daily but since I do about half of my work at home now…normally I’m scheduling music or producing John Tesh. When I say producing I mean listening to make sure he’s not talking about something like what happens to your brain when you smoke pot or when you take your first sip of a margarita. Those topics don’t work on a Christian radio station. So this was another sample that I received from Teavivre. I have really enjoyed the oolongs that I have been able to try from Teavivre. I have to say that sometime I’m going to have to have to try osmanthus flowers straight up. I have had a few teas with it but never by themselves. I may have to take a field trip to one of the asian market that carry them on the east side of Cleveland. I opened up the package and the aroma reminds me of a ginseng oolong. There is a sweetness in the aroma that transfers to the cup. It’s another great offering from Teavivre. One of my personal oolong quality tests is how many steeps I can get out of the leaves. So far four good steeps out of this tea. Really enjoy this one.