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This tea was expensive. Super, super expensive. Which made me hope that it was a real milky oolong, and not one that has had additives thrown in it. I specifically enquired at the Covent Garden branch of Whittard’s if this was the real deal, no flavourings etc, and was told it was. So, I’m going to treat it as such. I’m writing this down because I have been tricked in the past. But I do think that this is the genuine thing this time, not only because of Whittard’s reputation and the knowledgeability of the attendant at the shop, but also because of the way that this tea brewed and re-brewed.
This tea should be called “buttery oolong”. It brews a light orange-yellow, and is silky smooth on the tongue. The yellow green balls of large whole leaves unfurled fully at the third steeping, though they kept growing until the 5th or 6th one. I got 10 steepings of full 200ml cups, each one full of flavour out of a teaspoon of leaves. So an expensive tea, but economical if you re-brew it (and you should!). This tea smells and tastes like good, creamy butter. It smells like butter when dry, the tea “soup” smells like butter, the wet leaves smell like butter, and all ten steepings tasted like butter. The difference between them are with the added flavours that rise in later brewings. If you are a butter person, take the first few cups. Otherwise, take later ones. This tea will not take milk well (very light), is naturally sweet (no sugar needed), not at all astringent, and I have a feeling that it will be hard to ruin it by over brewing.
The only question is: do you like butter?