Black Dragon

Backlog:

A really nice Oolong. I like the charcoal-y taste to it. A nice, roasted taste with notes of mineral and hints of wood. One of the more masculine Oolong teas that I’ve encountered. It’s earthy, sweet, with notes of peach and very, very faint notes of flower.

I enjoyed it.

The tea gives off a roasted aroma both in the canister and while it steeps. The recommended steeping time was longer than what I’d normally give a green(ish) oolong on the first round and it produced a fairly dark-coloured cup of tea. Despite the dark colour though the first steep was light-tasting to the point of being bland.

The second steeping @ 6 min was a bit better, and I could taste some lightly sweet flowery notes at the beginning of each sip, but even so it lacks the vivid flavours I’d expect from a Tie Guan Yin oolong. Perhaps I’m just spoiled by better teas. ;)

I have been told all Oolongs are “black dragon” because that’s what “oolong” means.
Tea is like a roasty golden brown color, tight bunched leaves that unfurl to be huge.

This roasty toasty oolong was an extra from my upcoming Advent from Lexie. How will I be able to wait until next Wednesday to open the rest? Currently it’s steeped three times and is going for a 4th long steep. A nice example of a Tie Guan Yin that I would certainly be tempted to purchase, and is a nice start to the holiday.

A friend gave me a sample of this tea, but after reading over other people reviews I’m not sure this is the right one. It was hard to read her writing for the company name.

I’m enjoying this, whatever it is. It’s very umami. It almost smells like the seaweed part of miso soup. Or a roasted furikake. It’s very smooth and well balanced and has a sweet sensation to it. It seems more oolong than puerh to me. Glad to have gotten to try this!

I think this is a great tea for the price, though definitely not the best oolong I’ve ever had. I did enjoy this and would buy it again if I’m tighter on money.

I brewed this twice, first according to the instructions and then unconventionally in my gaiwan. I much preferred the unconventional brew to the one by the instructions. The one where I followed the instructions turned out extremely bitter with very light notes of chocolate and mainly tasted like I’d just liked a log used for a campfire, so not something I’d describe as pleasant. I initially thought this tea was pretty terrible but decided to give it another shot in my gaiwan- I brewed it with steeps of 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 1min, 1:30, 2:00, etc. I managed to get nearly 20 steeps out of the leaves this way and I was able to taste the much subtler notes that were covered before. It tasted very sweet and had an aftertaste of a malty dark chocolate, with hints of caramel. It certainly wasn’t a traditional tieguanyin by any means but I would continue to brew this in my gaiwan rather than follow the instructions.

This is a nice toasted oolong; the kind i mean when I say “Chinese Restaurant Tea”. It is mellow and has some notes of plum when sipping. There is a bit of an aftertaste that is reminiscent of green apple tartness. I think i either need to steep it longer or add more tea. It was a little weaker than I like based on instructions on Tao of Tea site.

It’s a foggy day and I had to go to the balcony to take pictures of this tea for my blog to achieve sufficient light. So tasting it now is what I really desserve because it ’s chilly this morning.

This is an Oolong , result of a swap with Jillian. The Tao of Tea is another company I did not know before.

The smell is slightly roasted but nothing truly exceptional.

The tea is steeping for 5 minutes and the leaves unfold a little but not that much. The liquor is of a beautiful amber .

The taste is rather disappointing , slightly roasted , slightly woody but nothing transcendent. Correct.

This is so a sympathic Oolong but I do not really want to redo a second teapot now .

It’s a tea I ‘ll take to the office on Monday , it will be perfect there, I’ll drink it without too much attention.

Pics are available here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/black-dragon-oolong-the-tao-of-tea/

This tastes toasty and mineral-y. I think next time I will steep it longer to give it more flavor, but I am glad that it wasn’t astringent at all. The lack of astringency is why I tend to prefer oolongs to blacks. I think I will have to play with this one a little longer.

Its okay, nothing special.