Vietnam 'Red Buffalo' Oolong Tea

Sip down from yesterday morning. I really didn’t want to finish it, but I did. And it was good.

A dark fruity oolong with a creamy texture and honeyed taste throughout. Now that I finished it, I actually have a different opinion of it. Or a different opinion about my need for it. I like the taste just as much as when I rated it a hundred, but now, I’m not sure if I’d want this tea around all the time. For specific times, hell yes. For now, not quite sure. In short, it’s not an everyday tea for me. I’d probably be happy with a sample or 50 grams of it at most.

Please trust me when I much such a claim: This oolong is really rolled/balled version of Sunmoon Lake Red Tea.

100% accurate description.
I’ll be buying some of this :)

This one left me scratching my head. I don’t drink a lot of oolongs because I don’t like the heavy roasted ones everyone else seems to prefer. This one is heavily oxidized but isn’t heavy on the roasting. It is a little sweet with the taste of honey but only lightly. The main flavor is a woodsy sort of leafiness accompanied by mineral notes like you would expect in a mountain stream where the water rushes across big rocks. This one seems so familiar but looking through my notes on Oriental Beauty and Bao Zhong, the two I thought it might most resemble, proved not even a close match. As I ended my blog post, I am going to have to leave the taste of this one as The Mystery of the Red Buffalo.

My mom is kinda awesome, ok she is really awesome, but today she decided to give me a present. She texted me several pictures of mushrooms she could not properly ID while visiting my grandparents in South Carolina, turns out all that flooding and rain inevitably brought in the mushrooms. For all that we have had a wet summer and somewhat wet early autumn in Missouri, I have only found a few mushrooms…though while out and about I have seen some growing on trees and in people’s yards, but I have learned that yelling to stop so I can leap out of the car to examine them is not very appreciated by whomever is driving, alas. Sadly IDing from a photo is hard, I was able to probably ID the Russula (either as emetica or paludosa, can’t be 100% sure) but there is one that looks like an Amanita but I just can’t place it, it is maddening and I am having a blast trying to figure out the puzzle with the few clues I have.

I believe it is Wednesday today, I admit, Monday being a holiday made me confused, tossed my schedule right out the door, it is a little embarrassing how much I rely on mail running to let me know what day it is. Since it is Wednesday, it is time to carry on with the tradition of What-Cha Wednsday, a tradition I have been carrying on with for over a year now, and I am still nowhere close to reviewing all of the What-Cha teas! I still want their logo as a t-shirt, just sayin’ it is so cool! Today we are taking a look at Vietnam ‘Red Buffalo’ Oolong Tea an Oolong tea from the Son La Province of Vietnam. Sourced by Hatvala, whose mission it is to raise awareness of Vietnamese tea, something I can get behind because I have not had a tea from Vietnam I disliked, even the super cheap Lotus Green I bought at a Vietnamese grocer. This is a heavily oxidized Oolong, almost to the point of a black tea, but still having a floral oolong quality. It is made using the Qingxin cultivar on a small farm at 1000m above sea level.

The tightly curled leaves are definitely dark, with shades of amber and red peaking through the mostly very dark brown. The aroma is pretty true to the description, blending a darker Oolong with a greener one, It starts out with notes of nutty toasted sesame seeds and chestnuts, sweet marzipan, and honey. Then it moves to floral notes, one note in particular stands out, and to me it smells like the honey sweet nectar of the tulip tree (Poplar) which brings back very fond memories. As a kid I would race the squirrels and ants for the fallen blossoms, when I got my hands on them I would lick the sugary sweet nectar out, yeah, I was a wild woodlands child.

In the gaiwan, the aroma of first steep and slightly opened up leaves is pretty intense, strong notes of flowers and gentle spice, like tulip tree, spicebush, orchids, honeysuckles…honestly this reminds me a bit of a Dancong with its headiness. After that initial burst of flowers there is a bit of creamy sesame seeds and honey. The liquid is very sweet, creamy and flowery with notes of honey, tulip tree, and honey locust. Wow, this the the tea of tree flowers!

The first steep is pale, surprisingly so, it starts with a gentle honey sweetness, a touch of sesame seeds, and then honey locust. Huh, I honestly have never tasted that outside of honey locust pods, that I find immensely fascinating. This sweetness fades to a gentle spiciness that is reminiscent of spicebush and distant flowers, which lingers in the aftertaste.

For the second steep, the aroma is honey and flowers, honeysuckles, honey locust, and tulip trees, it is very sweet. The texture is smooth, a bit silky, the taste is a sugary sweet explosion! It is like my mouth just filled with warm honey, honey locust, scuppernongs, and tea blossoms. The sweetness lingers for quite a while afterwards.

Third steeping’s aroma is still so sweet, loads of flowery goodness and honey sweetness, honey locust and tulip trees are blooming in my cup. This tea does not really change, and it is not super varied in its taste, and you know, that is totally ok because it is super sweet. Who needs dessert when you have liquid honey and honey locust pulp, it is like wild nectar and flowers. For all that this is a dark Oolong, it is not smoky or roasted at all, so no need to be afraid of that.
Blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/10/what-cha-vietnam-red-buffalo-oolong-tea.html

a really pronounced cocoa taste leading into a bit of cinnamon, with a rich complexity, and a creamy texture. of course the tea had no astringency to speak of, along with a decent amount of sweetness. I hadn’t had much luck with rolled-ball style oolongs dark roasted oolongs as a favorite prior to this but I loved this tea.

Vietnam Red Buffalo Oolong
Origin: Moc Chau, Son La Province, Vietnam
Elevation: 1000m+

Dry Leaves: This was the tea that was the most interesting, for some reason it reminds me of a dark roast TGY. It has a lot more red and browns then the picture suggests, although the leaves are predominantly black.

Temperature: 194oF
Brewing Time: One Minute (adding thirty seconds each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Charcoal and Oak
Flavor: Charcoal, Smoke, Floral, Honey, Cinnamon and Malty
Tasting Notes: I didn’t like this at first, it felt too much like a dark TGY. While I am not a big fan of darker oolongs, but with each sip it grew on me. The initial charcoal taste was a little off-putting, at first I couldn’t taste anything else, but I started to taste a smoky honey taste. It is a little reminiscent of a purple tea; it has a nice smoky edge that gets stronger with each subsequent steeping while the charcoal taste grows weaker. This has a nice staying power; I got seven infusions out of this before I started to notice a considerable loss of flavor.

This was the tea that I was the most excited for, even though I prefer greener oolongs, and while it is not my favorite it is quite nice. It did take me a couple steepings to appreciate this tea, but at $9.60 for 50g it is definitely worth it. I may or may not buy this again, I don’t like having a lot of dark teas, but I could see myself buying this again if I don’t care for the new Indonesian TGY has sourced.

[More Vietnamese teas at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-cha-discover-vietnam-part-1.html)

smooth, mellow, honey, those are all apt descriptors. i was expecting a little more of what i think of as oolong-ness, not sure how to describe that, but it doesn’t necessarily include “mellow” or “honey.” LOL! that said, this definitely is a great tea, i am quite enjoying it, but am going to have to put notes on the label so i remember NOT to pull this one out when i’m craving a good ol’ fujian oolong. pull this one out for mellow, smooth, golden honey goodness. sure is good for that.

Kind of light for a tea this early in my day, maybe 3 minutes with 7g wasn’t enough? I definitely taste the honey notes, but the woody notes taste more like a ricola original cough drop, MINUS the menthol, to me. I can see this being a good “sore throat” tea.

Warm, slightly floral, slightly woody flavour and aroma. Very smooth.