China Oolong Eastern Beauty

I’m drinking this one with my lunch. Rich buttery notes lead into a nutty flavor. I really like how smooth this is. Goes perfectly with my granola bar. I know not that complex of a lunch but I wasn’t really hungry and it was time to get some thing into the bod.

Eastern Beauty uses leaves picked in summer, when insect damage may consume a certain part of the tea crop. But this has unanticipated effects: the flavor becomes more subtle, and the leaves naturally oxidize prior to being processed into tea. The leaves themselves have jigsaw shapes, but the eventual tea is light copper in hue.

Subtlety is the keynote here. Don’t look for rich, overly tannic tea. What’s left of the insect-nibbled tea leaves is smooth and very easy to drink; this tea is delicately sweet. Eastern Beauty is best complemented by biscuits or some other light edible to contrast with the tea’s refined character. On the other hand, this tea is a little too subtle to drink just by itself.

Light, honey fragrance — going to drink through Upton’s Oolongs, but this was a good start.

Fruity and sweet. I may order more of this for work. It doesn’t have the heaven, nut and spice aroma I like so much in a TGY, but if this holds up thru multiple infusions, it’s a pretty good value for your oolong buck.

There’s even a hint of a malty-ness, like a black. But there’s so much honey and sweet… Edit: it loses something magical after the 2nd steep or so. Maybe this would be better for the morning when I don’t have time for more than 1 or 2 steeps.

This is one where my experience of the tea and the description don’t match at all, but I still really like it. Upton describes this with words like buttery, winey, and walnut. Nope, didn’t pick up on any of that. To me, it was classic smooth oolong with a lovely subtle sweetness. Not hit-you-over-the-head honey or shocking sugar, more like the sweetness you’d get from sucking on clover blossoms. I’ll be drinking this when curled up on my couch on weekend mornings.

Woo, it’s been a while since I’ve had Bai Hao! The lovely Blodeuyn was kind enough to sent me not one, but two different ones, and I am eternally grateful! I picked this one to try first for no particular reason. The leaves have the usual ramshackle appearance, a variety of shapes and sizes in different shades of brown with some silver highlights. Dry scent is sweet honey with autumn leaves and unlit tobacco. I steeped mine for 3.5 minutes at 185 degrees.

Mm, the brewed aroma has super strong honey notes along with the leaves and tobacco from the dry leaf. There are also sweet dried fruits, I would say fig and date. Yum yum, I forgot how good these teas are! It’s funny how I’m so indifferent about almost all types of oolong, yet this particular type is one of my favorite teas period. This tea is lovely and sweet honey paired with tobacco and autumn leaves, along with an amazing dried fig flavor that makes my mouth very happy. I would also say there’s molasses and maybe some raisin here. So good! :D