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Tea Ave’s Osmanthus Oolong

Osmanthus Oolong by Tea Ave
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$14.99 for 25g

I received this sample of Tea Ave’s Osmanthus Oolong for free, a review of the tea was not requested by the company.

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First Impressions

Osmanthus Oolong is described as having a “base of creamy Alishan Jin Xuan oolong, this tea is scented with the fragrant osmanthus flower”. I’m not entirely sure what osmanthus flowers smell like as I’m just not familiar with the flower, but Osmanthus Oolong has a very light scent to it. It’s light with a fruity and floral smell – it smells like apricots and peaches, with a sweet floral scent that I just can’t place (I am assuming that it’s the osmanthus).

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The dry leaf is beautiful, and there’s small orange floral pieces mixed in with the oolong. Like the other labels that the other Tea Ave samples I have reviewed have had, the one for Osmanthus Oolong is also quite detailed. The origin of this tea is Alishan Mountain Region, Nantou, Taiwan with a base of Alishan Jin Xuan oolong. It also has various brewing directions (gaiwan, tea bag, tea pot, and cold brew). There was enough tea in the sample bag for my small pot.

Preparation

Tea Ave recommends steeping in 100°C (212°F) water for 2 minutes. This tea resteeps up to 4 times with an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute for each subsequent resteeping. I steeped my pot of tea for 2 minutes.

First Taste

In a word, yum. Osmanthus Oolong steeps to this beautiful clear golden yellow. It has a bright and fresh aroma to it – very similar to the dry leaf with the apricots and peaches, with floral undertones. There’s a creamy sweetness to the oolong that works well with the apricot and peach taste. I think that Osmanthus Oolong is tasty in that it coats the mouth well, there is no bitterness or astringency and I quite like it. I sipped this pot of tea over the course of an hour, just refilling my cup over and over again and it put a smile on my face every time because I really enjoy the creamy mouthfeel with the bright fruity taste.

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A Second Cup?

Osmanthus Oolong does not disappoint in its ability to resteep! The label on the sample baggie said that it can be resteeped up to four additional times – I did just that! For those that haven’t resteeped teas before, here’s what I did: initial steep – 2 minutes; 1st resteep – 2.5 minutes; 2nd resteep – 3 minutes; 3rd resteep – 3.5 minutes; 4th resteep – 4 minutes. I found that the additional thirty seconds with each steep was just enough to develop the flavours. The first and second resteeps were actually more bright in terms of the sweet apricot and peaches flavour that was present in the tea. It does really well with being resteeped.

My Overall Impression

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I loved Tea Ave’s Osmanthus Oolong. The fruity smell and taste of apricot and peaches is divine, it really adds a little something to the oolong that makes it enjoyable. I think it’d be a great tea with pastries, it definitely is a tea that you should have when you have the time to have a nice long tea experience. It resteeps very well, so don’t let the cost scare you off from trying the Osmanthus Oolong! Being able to resteep it four times makes the value of the tea worth the cost. It tasty with it’s fruity flavours that don’t overwhelm the palate, and it makes for a great tea to enjoy again and again throughout the day.

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DavidsTea’s Bai Hao Yin Zhen

Bai Hao Yin Zhen by DavidsTea
White Tea / Straight
$14.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

I don’t often drink white teas, but I opted for DavidsTea’s Bai Hao Yin Zhen when I had a Frequent Steeper reward to use (I usually save those for the more expensive teas to try out). This tea is quite light and airy, I got my 50g of this tea in a larger bag than usual. The leaves themselves are quite long and pale in colour, if you touch them you can feel how soft they are because the leaves have a light layer of fuzzy down that adds to the silvery colour. DavidsTea’s description of the tea that it “is a true luxury”. At $14.90 for 50g, it is not one of their most expensive teas, but it is on the higher end of their prices. Bai Hao Yin Zhen’s ingredient list is simply “high-grown white tea from the mountains of Fujian Province, China”. The dry tea leaves have a sweet honey smell to it, and also has very subtle hints at a grassy/vegetal fragrance.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Bai Hao Yin Zhen in 90°C (194°F) water for 4-5 minutes. I consider that suggested water temperature to be too high for white teas, I opted to steep in 80°C (176°F) water for close to 3 minutes.

First Taste

Bai Hao Yin Zhen steeps to a beautiful pale, golden yellow colour. The smell of the steeped tea reminds me a lot of grass and dry hay. On first sip, the tea is smooth. There’s a very mild sweetness with a light taste of grassy notes in each sip. There’s zero bitterness, and it’s overall a very nice cup of tea. The flavours aren’t particularly strong, but I have never found silver needle to be the type of tea that you make and have on the go, it’s more of a tea that you have to relax with and sip.

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The silvery down layer of the tea leaves isn’t visible after being steeped, the leaves open up and they’re a bit of an olive green.

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A Second Cup?

Bai Hao Yin Zhen resteeps well! I resteeped the same leaves four times in my tea pot and the flavour improves for the second steeping (the flavour is richer, a little bit stronger, and the colour is a deeper golden yellow). The flavour holds true for the third steeping, but doesn’t hold out very well for the fourth steeping. So overall, I found that Bai Hao Yin Zhen resteeps well for two additional times.

My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Bai Hao Yin Zhen. I think it’s a nice quality silver needle and it makes a great cup of tea. It resteeps well, something I always appreciate when the tea is on the pricier side of things. I gave Bai Hao Yin Zhen only three cups out of four because of the steeping directions given by DavidsTea. Their directions are much too long and too hot for a white tea, something that would probably result in a lackluster cup of tea for someone who followed the directions to the letter (and would be disappointed by their Bai Hao Yin Zhen, considering how pricey it is).

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Two Leaves and a Bud’s Jasmine Petal

Jasmine Petal by Two Leaves and a Bud
Green Tea / Straight
$8.49USD for 37.5g (15 sachets)

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First Impressions

I received this box of Two Leaves and a Bud’s Jasmine Petal as part of a swap, so it did get a little bit crushed in the packaging. Each tea sachet comes individually wrapped in a clear plastic wrapper. There is some print on it that tells you the name of the tea and type (Jasmine Petal; whole leaf green tea) as well as the caffeine level (light) and steep time (3 minutes). At the bottom it states “compostable tea sachet” which is something important because I always feel bad if I have tea in a sachet that can’t be composted (can I really enjoy tea if I’m contributing the landfill?).

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The sachet itself is a pyramid with a handy string to fish the tea back out. It smells amazingly floral – it has a very bright and strong jasmine scent to the dry tea. If you look in the tea sachet, you can see fairly large tea leaves in there. No fannings or dust for these tea sachets, that’s for sure.

The side of the box states that the ingredients are from China (ingredients of Jasmine Petal are: green tea, jasmine flowers). The other information includes the fact that the tea has about the same amount of caffeine as a third of a cup of coffee, to use water that is 180F and to steep for 3 minutes.

Preparation

Two Leaves and a Bud recommends steeping in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

I steeped Jasmine Petal for about 3 minutes. It steeps to a familiar yellow colour that I’ve come to expect from a green tea. It smells amazing, the jasmine scent is a lot stronger in Jasmine Petal than in most jasmine green teas that I’ve tried before. I think this is because it contains jasmine flowers, rather than just having been scented with jasmine flowers. The tea itself is quite nice. It’s got a smooth taste to it, with a touch of bitterness at the end of each sip. I think 3 minutes might be a little long for this tea, I would try it again on a first steep at maybe 2 or 2.5 minutes to see if that makes a difference. The bitterness isn’t terribly off-putting because the tea itself still has a great flavour. The jasmine taste isn’t as strong as it smells, but I don’t mind that too much because I’d prefer to have my green tea tasting like green tea.

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A Second Cup?

I tried resteeping the sachet and it didn’t do too well. While the sachet uses whole leaf, it just didn’t do as well as I would have expected for a sachet that uses whole leaves. The second steeping was weak in flavour and aroma.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Two Leaves and a Bud’s Jasmine Petal was just okay. It makes for a good cup of jasmine tea, and I really appreciate that Jasmine Petal contains jasmine flowers instead of green tea that’s been scented with jasmine flowers. I think that 3 minutes is entirely too long to steep this tea for, because of the fact that it begins to get bitter and nobody likes a cup of bitter tea usually. I would have rated it higher if it had more appropriate steeping instructions. Overall, I think that Jasmine Petal does okay as a jasmine green tea and I will definitely have another cup again, but I don’t think I would buy it when there’s so many jasmine green teas out there that don’t give me too long of a steeping time in the instructions.

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