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Yunomi’s Shimane Oolong Tea

Shimane Oolong Tea by Yunomi
Oolong Tea / Straight
$7.50USD for 20g

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Yunomi has provided me with Shimane Oolong Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Shimane Oolong Tea is part of Yunomi’s collection of teas from the Takarabako Tea Farm, located in Oba Sorayama District, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. While the sample packaging for this tea was not resealable, it has a soft, papery feel to the outside of the foil bag.

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Shimane Oolong Tea is described as being organic on Yunomi’s product page for this tea. It is a straight oolong tea, and I was pleasantly greeted with the aroma of this tea when I cut open the packaging. The dry leaf smells like golden raisins and freshly made toast. Inside, the dry leaf consists of mostly medium sized leaves with some broken stems.

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Preparation

Yunomi recommends steeping Shimane Oolong Tea in 90°C (194°F) water for 3 minutes. I did my initial steep for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Shimane Oolong Tea steeps to a pale honey colour, the aroma of this tea is primarily golden raisins with something that reminds me of peaches. The tea itself has a very mild astringency, not too much that it caused me any mouth-puckering. It has a slight sweetness, which goes well with the raisins and peaches, and it also has a refreshing crispness to the tea. Each sip of this oolong ended with a slight bitterness, I didn’t find it incredibly off-putting so I continue to drink the tea.

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I chilled a cup of Shimane Oolong Tea in the fridge and it’s delicious cold as well, in case you’re not feeling like a hot cup of tea during the hot summer days.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Shimane Oolong Tea eight times over the course of a day. I wasn’t overly careful with my steeping times towards the end, but the tea remained tasty with the flavours of golden raisins and peaches. I found that astringency remained in the tea throughout all the steeping of these leaves, but it wasn’t overwhelming. If you’re not a fan of astringent teas, I would recommend steeping for less time for the initial steep. The tea itself got to be a more golden yellow colour, and began to lose flavour by the seventh resteep. The bitterness that I had encountered at the end of each sip lingered on throughout all of the steeps.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Yunomi’s Shimane Ooolong Tea. I found that this oolong was quite tasty. There was such a complexity to the aroma and the flavours of this tea, that it was really enjoyable to drink. If you’re not a fan of astringency, I would recommend steeping less than the suggested length of time. The flavours are well balanced in this tea, both for the initial steep and the subsequent resteeps. I think this would be a great tea to have with a savoury meal because it’s not too sweet (even with the flavours of golden raisins and peaches), and it’s definitely a tea that I think should be resteeped again and again because the tea leaves are such high quality.

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Pluck’s Spadina Blend

Spadina Blend by Pluck
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.00 for 30g

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Pluck’s Spadina Blend came to me as part of The Sugared Teacup’s June themed subscription box.

First Impressions

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Spadina Blend is described as being inspired by Toronto’s Chinatown, and it’s not surprising based on the ingredients found in this black tea blend. Pluck describes it as having notes of “lychee, lemongrass, ginger, and coconut” and besides the coconut, the rest of the ingredients are very familiar to me as someone who grew up going to Vancouver’s historic Chinatown on a weekly basis. The first thing I could smell when I opened up the bag of tea was the mix of lemongrass, ginger, and coconut. The lychee fruit has a sweet floral aroma to it, and I did note some sweet fruity smells to it, but nothing overly floral. I must acknowledge the fact that lemongrass and ginger are both very strong aromas, so it’s hard for something delicate and floral to make an impact in comparison.

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In Spadina Blend is the following ingredients: black tea, lemongrass, dried ginger pieces, dried mango, unsweetened coconut, lime leaves, natural flavours.

Preparation

Pluck recommends steeping Spadina Blend in 100°C (212°F) water for 5 to 7 minutes. I opted to do my initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Spadina Blend steeps to a beautiful golden orange, it’s such an inviting colour! The aroma from this tea is primarily ginger and lemongrass, which I don’t find surprising given how intense those ingredients can be on their own, in teas, or in a dish. This tea honestly reminds me a lot of when I was younger and if I was sick or had a sore throat, because my mom would make me a drink that had a lot of ginger in it (and honey).

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The taste of this black tea blend is primarily lemongrass and ginger to me, I didn’t really taste a lot of coconut or the mango, but I can smell the lime from the lime leaves. There’s a hint of spice to this tea from the ginger, and sweetness that I believe to be derived from all the fruit that is in this tea, which helps to balance out the ginger.

I set aside a cup of this tea to cool down to room temperature before I added some ice. I think it makes a fantastic iced tea, the ginger adds a bit of refreshing heat but the other flavours get to be more forward when the ginger is toned down. There’s more fruity notes that I can make out when the tea is iced and it allows me to taste more of the other ingredients, which is nice.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Spadina Blend once, and found that the flavours were lacking compared to the initial steep. The intensity of the lemongrass and ginger wasn’t there anymore, and the rest of the flavours were a bit muddled in the background. I would say that Spadina Blend is good for one steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Pluck’s Spadina Blend. The ingredients are a nice window into Chinese ingredients, and the ginger and lemongrass were very forward and bold ingredients that Pluck had chosen for this black tea blend. I found that when hot, this tea reminded me a lot of the times when I was sick as a child and that the ginger was the strongest part of this tea. However, when iced this tea is so different. The other flavours get to come out to play, and there are more fruity notes in this tea which balance well with the strength of the ginger.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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DavidsTea’s Peachy Lychee

Peachy Lychee by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I got my little bag of Peachy Lychee at a local DavidsTea store after the person behind the counter went on and on about this one. She said it was her new favourite (when iced) and I had to have a sniff. The first thing that I smelled when exposed to the dry leaf was peaches. Peaches, peaches, and more peaches. And then there’s the sweet, floral aromas that balance quite well with the peaches. If you’ve never had lychees before, I would describe them as having a sweet and crisp floral aroma. They’re quite a delicious fruit, if you ever get the chance to eat them.

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Peachy Lychee is a black tea blend, the ingredients are: black tea, apple, candied pineapple, orange peel, sweet blackberry leaf, white hibiscus, peach, lychee, and natural flavouring. It never ceases to amaze me how prominent apple can be in fruity tea blends, despite not being anywhere in the title. Apple, however, does go well in a fruity tea as it adds a nice level of sweetness that I always enjoy.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Peachy Lychee in near-boiling water for 4-7 minutes (as per their website, ‘near-boiling’ is 90-95°C (194-203°F). My initial steep of Peachy Lychee was for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Peachy Lychee steeps to a beautiful golden yellow (it’s a bit more orange when you have larger amounts of it… more about that later). The aroma that comes up from the steeped tea is solely peaches. After letting it cool down just a little bit, I had a sip. The taste of this tea was a good mix of fruity and floral – the peaches and lychee flavours are quite good. I did add some sweetener to this tea (honey, for those curious) and found that it really helped to add an extra punch of sweetness to it while helping to brighten up the flavours.

I wound up icing this tea as well and found it to be delicious. Iced, the peach and lychee flavours were more refreshing. I would recommend having this either iced or cold steeped.

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A Second Cup?

I did try to resteep Peachy Lychee and found that it didn’t really hold up to being resteeped. The fruity and floral flavours that I loved so much in the first steep were weak in the second steep. I would say that Peachy Lychee is good for one steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Peachy Lychee. This fruity black tea blend does an okay job as a hot tea, but it definitely ticks all the boxes for me as an iced tea. The aroma and flavour of this tea, both dry and steeped, are delicious. The floral sweetness from the lychee is present and isn’t overpowered by the peachy flavours that most people would be familiar with. I would highly recommend having this tea either iced or cold steeped, and a little bit of sweetener goes a long way in brightening up the flavours and making it even more refreshingly delicious.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.