Oolong Tea

A review of Oolong Tea by YamaMotoYama

I have tried many of the YamaMotoYama tea brand and I am happy to say I am trying another of their tea.
I am using one tea bag in my cup and pour the boiling water over the tea bag. I leave it to steep for a few minutes; I then remove the tea bag and put it aside.
Tea’s color is dark amber, very orange like in the coloring and the tea’s aroma is that roasted chestnut kind of smell. It is a very pleasant aroma. As I taste this I find that I am enjoying the malty and smoothness of it, and remind me of the Foojoy Oolong teas that I had purchased a while back.

I seem to prefer the darker oolong for their roasted flavoring and that smokiness in the cup, all good for after a meal or to drink while having a heavy meal.

I like this tea and that it is Oolong tea with no astringency at all. It is malty and smoothing to the palate.

This is one of two bagged teas I still buy on purpose. Similar to Foojoy Wuyi but even cheaper and tastier. I am sure it is rather one dimensional compared to loose but since I have never tried it loose I can pretend I don’t know better. It is a heavily oxidized oolong and makes a very dark cup very quickly. From what I have written in other reviews, I should hate this tea. Its roasted smokiness reminds me of smoldering leaves in the fall air. I claim to not like smoke – it just works here.

This tea is so decent for the price, and for being a bagged tea. It has a great smoky/malty flavor, and like K S said you can oversteep it and no problem. I once let a cup of this go an extra 6 minutes while I was prepping dinner, and no harm done.

Thank you Starberry for sending me this sample!

Mmmm… This is good. I wanted something smooth and simple at work and this tea did not disappoint! This is also my first time having oolong on its own (though now that I taste it, I’m pretty sure I’ve had it at restaurants before) and I’m glad I did because I really like it a lot! It’s one of those teas that you can just have no matter what kind of mood you’re in. Unlike chais, breakfast teas, and herbals, I have to be craving their flavors. This is the taste I used to think of when I thought of tea as a child. It kind of makes me wonder what higher quality oolongs taste like on their own.. BECAUSE THIS IS PRETTY GREAT TO ME! It’ll be interesting to compare. I’ve got some Monkey-picked oolong at home that I can try and see the difference!

The only thing I have against this tea is that it leaves my mouth feeling dry after taking a sip.

I’ll definitely be picking some of this up for work!

What to say for my first tasting note on Steepster… feels almost prestigious. I have no idea how I came across such a great site full of so many like-minded people. I suppose I can talk more about this in the discussion area and try to keep this note a note; but as my first interaction with the community, I’d just like to show my support for the Steepster team and everyone like me who enjoys the finer things in life.

Now, Yamamotoyama Oolong Tea: My first impression as I opened the packet was the pleasent scent of cigars – I’m not an expert (yet), so I can’t specify what type. I’m also a bit of a newcomer to tea-making etiquette, so I had to use hard tap water and a tea strainer to pour water into the cup. I didn’t measure the temperature but I’d left the kettle to cool for a minute after boiling.

At the start of the steeping process, it took a few seconds before any colour seeped into the water, and when it did it was a predictable golden colour. After about 5 minutes (again, I didn’t measure – a practice I’ll make sure to get into) I removed the bag – and I didn’t squeeze it since squeezing releases harsh tannins and over-steeped water – and left it to cool a little before drinking. The colour after the ~5 minutes was normal black tea colour with a green tint, which I guess is a good indicator of the partially-fermented Oolong leaves.

The first flavours all kind of weave between each other and lightly flow over the tongue. There’s the distinct, smoky and complex character that you notice first, closely trailed by a light creaminess that makes it so easy to drink. To anyone wanting to try this tea: Do not add sugar. It gets sweeter towards the end, but not in the sickly lingering way that sugar does in tea.

Before long I started to taste a round, slightly sour, slightly metallic flavour. I am almost certain that this note was caused or tainted by the water I used and any other contaminants.

And that’s the end of my first tasting note. I think that’s all the complexity I can get out of a bagged Oolong. I might update in the future with different steeping times and temperatures, but I am reluctant to try milk due to the creaminess.

Sorry for the long-windedness, anyone who has read this. I’m sure my future tasting notes will be briefer, and I hope I can get the hang of all of this and become an active member of the community.

YamaMotoYama teas have always been my go-to bagged tea while traveling. You can pick them up at any Asian market for next to nothing, I paid $1.99 yesterday for my box of Oolong at the Olive Farmer’s Market in St. Louis.

What I love about them is that they’re pretty much impossible to screw up even if you leave the bag sitting in your cup for an extra 15 minutes (not that I would ever do that). This tea also doesn’t care that you don’t have the right temperature water (I have absolutely no clue what temperature I used yesterday I only know that it was marginally hot). The tea also works well hot, iced, or room temperature and you can’t say that about a lot of teas.

Even with my poor brewing standards this week I still managed to end up with a really solid cup of tea that had a nice smokiness to it. The only thing I don’t love about this tea is that it doesn’t resteep well, but at $1.99/16 bags you won’t hear any complaints from me.

P.S. I miss my Zojirushi water pot and my ingenuiTEA, I need to stop traveling so much. At least I know that when I get home I’ll have a new tea pot and set of Japanese cups waiting for me to play with.

I am somewhat new to tea appreciation, but I am hoping to learn a lot as time goes by. I picked this tea up by chance at an Asian market and I have to say that although I simply threw it into my hot water kettle and just let it sit in there for 10 min., I was really happy with my tea. The only thing is the slightly mouth drying feel that I get… but maybe that is due to the fact that I didn’t follow any particular steeping instructions (this time). Still, I’m rather pleased!

this tea and this trade mark is the kind wich is all terrain, it can handle even boiling water and it won’t be a heavy disaster, if use a good hot water, and a good steep time it will give such a good taste.

(is a excelent tea for a low price, the green teas of this trademark are also good but more delicate to temperature and steep time).

Try it if you want a nice bag tea for every moment, their sealed packs are great for transporting them. great for bag tea.

It’s a bag tea. A cheapo bag tea.
Another product of my late-night adventure shopping.
It smells like pot.
I’ve never smoked marijuana, but I know what it smells like. It smells like this tea. Well, a lot stronger than this tea, which has a very weak scent, but you get the idea.
Guess how it tastes.
I’ll give you a hint. Bad.

I’ve drank all kinds of oolong from cheap to ultra pricey and this stands out as a great classic brown oolong. Brews true dark brown, with a strong but mellow taste to match. Don’t overbrew it- but if you hit that sweet spot between weak and “been in the Chinese restaurant teapot for a week” spot, it’s a solid contender. Dirt cheap but beats out teas that are twice the price.

Yamamatoyama is a solid choice, though the quality of their domestic Japanese teas far exceed out their export-quality stuff. It’s actually a very high-end tea company in Japan, so they save their best tea for their domestic market. Even so, this export-grade oolong holds up well for an everyday, unfussy brew. I always recommend this one to friends looking for a simple “Chinese restaurant” type tea.