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Oollo Tea’s Maliba High Mountain Oolong

Maliba High Mountain Oolong by Oollo Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight
$10.00 for 25g

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Oollo Tea has provided me with Maliba High Mountain Oolong for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

Oollo Tea’s Maliba High Mountain Oolong is a 2015 spring harvest, and from the Maliba area of Nantou, Taiwan. I quite like the fact that they provide information of various teas. I ripped open the package of Maliba High Mountain Oolong and it kind of slipped out onto the table – graceful, I was not. Maliba High Mountain Oolong has this very light floral fragrance, mixed with something that reminds me of the ocean – just the salt water smell that you can experience when you’re by the ocean.

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Maliba High Mountain Oolong is dark, tightly rolled, and I’m very curious about how it will unfurl when steeped. This is a straight oolong tea from Taiwan that was grown at an elevation of 2000m.

Preparation

Oollo Tea recommends steeping Maliba High Mountain Oolong at 90-95°C (194-203°F) for 1.5-5 minutes. I steeped 2.5g of Maliba High Mountain Oolong in 195°F water for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Maliba High Mountain Oolong steeps incredibly pale in the first steep, a very pale yellow. There aroma of the tea has strong floral notes. When I sipped the oolong for the first time, Maliba High Mountain Oolong has a nice sweet floral note, with just a touch of saltiness. The salty notes of the tea adds a bit of umami quality to the tea, the savoury notes mingles well with the sweet floral notes. The complexity of the flavour profile in Maliba High Mountain Oolong is a delight on the tongue.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Maliba High Mountain Oolong a grand total of seven times, adding an additional 30 seconds per steep. The floral becomes a bit more subdued throughout the steepings, and the savoury notes become more prominent. I found that the flavour was most intense for the first resteep, and it remained fairly strong until the very end.

Maliba High Mountain Oolong unfurls and opens up an amazing amount. The unsteeped tea is 2.5g and the steeped side is also 2.5g – look at how much it opens up! I’m always amazed at how much the tea leaves will open up when it’s steeped.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Oollo Tea’s Maliba High Mountain Oolong. I love the sweet-savoury aspect of the initial steep of this oolong, and also how the tea gets more savoury with each additional steep. The oolong has a great flavour, and I love the fact that it can be resteeped so much. The umami flavour is great, and I love that it’s affordably priced, especially considering how well it resteeps.

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The Key of Tea’s Tummy Love

Tummy Love by The Key of Tea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$7.50USD for 2oz

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The Key of Tea has provided me with Tummy Love for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

The Key of Tea describes Tummy Love on their website as being a “warming blend of herbs and spices to aid in digestion” and looking at the list of ingredients I can see why that might be the case! Tummy Love is an herbal blend that consists of lemon balm, cinnamon, lemon peel, ginger root, fennel, and dandelion. When I opened the sample bag, I can definitely smell the lemon, ginger, and cinnamon. I can’t really make out the fennel or dandelion in the aroma of the dry leaf, but I can see them and I’m not surprised that I can’t smell them with the strong fragrances of the other ingredients. It looks lovely though, and I can see the different ingredients which is quite nice.

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Claire of The Key of Tea provided a photograph of the retail packaging for Tummy Love:

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Preparation

There weren’t any steeping instructions on the website or packaging, but Claire of The Key of Tea recommended steeping the tea at minimum 5 minutes. I steeped Tummy Love in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 5 minutes for the initial steep.

First Taste

Tummy Love steeps to a really nice yellow colour, it reminds me of sunshine in a cup and it’s just very cheerful. The herbal blend has a strong lemon and ginger aroma to it after it’s steeped, it smells quite inviting. On first sip, I’m surprised that the lemon isn’t as strong as I had expected. The ginger flavour is the strongest out of all of the ingredients and it’s the first thing that I notice when I drink it. I love the strength of the ginger, it has a great warming quality about it that I appreciate from ginger.

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I did add some honey to the tea to see how it would do when sweetened. I found that Tummy Love did great with the honey – the ginger was more toned down, and it tasted like candied ginger, and the other ingredients were able to come out when the ginger was toned down so I could taste the lemon and cinnamon.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Tummy Love a total of three times – I found that the first two resteeps were quite good and had great flavour, the herbal blend was tapped out of flavour by the third resteep, so I would say that Tummy Love is good for two resteeps. With my usual steeping pattern, I added an extra 30 seconds per additional steep.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved The Key of Tea’s Tummy Love. I found that the herbal blend smells delicious, and I really liked the ginger flavour. I found it did great with the addition of sweetener, and the honey did help to temper the ginger and let the other flavours shine through. That sad, Tummy Love is great without sweetener and has a really nice, strong ginger flavour.

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DavidsTea’s Berry Romantic

Berry Romantic by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

A bit late, but Berry Romantic was one of DavidsTea’s special Valentine’s themed teas this year (The Earl’s Valentine was back again, I didn’t try to find it again in stores because it was such a struggle last year). Berry Romantic has a pun-tastic name, and is a flavoured oolong. It smelled amazing in stores and I really wanted to try it. The description of this tea describes as ‘strawberries and cream’ and I really do have to agree – the first thing I smelled when opening the bag was strawberries.

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Berry Romantic consists of: apple, oolong tea, cane sugar, blackberry leaf, gomphrena petals, jasmine buds, strawberries, rose buds, natural strawberry flavouring, and artificial cream flavouring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Berry Romantic in 75-80°C (167-176°F) water for 4-7 minutes (as per their website); on the packaging it’s “hot water” for 4-7 minutes. I miss when they had the temperature of water printed on the labels instead.

First Taste

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Berry Romantic steeps to a light golden orange and it really does smell like strawberries and cream! The strawberries/berries aroma is much lighter than I expected from the dry leaf – but at the same time, it’s to be expected with added flavouring. I cannot make out the aroma of the oolong at all, which is a bit disappointing. For an oolong blend, the flavour of the oolong is lost on me when I taste it. The strawberries and berries flavour is strongest when sipped, with mild dairy notes with the cream. There’s not much of a floral flavouring to it, which is surprising considering the amount of flowers in the ingredients list. Berry Romantic has a subtle sweetness to it, mostly due to the cane sugar and berries I presume.

I added some additional honey to my cup of Berry Romantic – the added sweetness helps brighten up the strawberry flavouring, and makes it more delicious.

A Second Cup?

Berry Romantic doesn’t steep well – the strawberries flavour doesn’t come out as strongly, and it’s more floral the second steep around. The oolong doesn’t really come through the second time around either.

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My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Berry Romantic was just okay. While I really like the way that Berry Romantic smells and tastes (for the first steep), the berry flavour is delicious but I was left wanting a bit more because the oolong flavour wasn’t really there at all throughout the entire steeping experience. The first steep was definitely the best and I think best evoked the strawberries & cream flavour that DavidsTea spoke about in their description of Berry Romantic, but it is a one steep wonder. It would be a great tea to serve at an afternoon tea with desserts and sweets, but not one to resteep repeatedly throughout a morning.

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