Tag: Oollo Tea

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Oollo Tea’s Milky Oolong

Milky Oolong by Oollo Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight

First Impressions

Oh oolong lovers, I have another oolong from Oollo Tea to share with you all. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pinpoint this product on their website – there is another milky oolong on their website, but I wasn’t able to determine if it was the same one (it has a different name…). Nevertheless, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on this Milky Oolong with you all. I purchased it as a part of a mystery bag at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival. This 15g sampler came in a sealed (not resealable) foil package inside of a patterned paper envelope. Because it was purchased as part of a mystery bag, I’m not able to determine how much this tea would cost per gram.

The leaves are tightly bunched together, varying in colour from dark green to a bright green. There are a few sticks here and there mixed in. From the information that I do have about this tea, I know that Milky Oolong is direct trade, single origin oolong that comes from Chiayi, Taiwan. Oh, and the dry leaves have a light floral aroma.

Preparation

There were no steeping instructions with Milky Oolong, so I opted to steep it at 195°F (90°C) for an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

Milky Oolong steeps a light golden yellow. The aroma of the tea is sweet and floral. The flavour is a bit different though – while I still get that gentle sweetness that comes along with the floral flavouring, I also get a nice creamy and buttery flavour to it. It has a smooth mouthfeel to it – no astringency or bitterness noted with the initial steep. I can’t quite pinpoint what the floral flavour reminds me of – I’d say something close to lilacs might be possible. It’s very bright and mingles well with the buttery tones found in Milky Oolong.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Milky Oolong nine times (ten steeps total!), adding an additional 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the colour of the tea got darker for the first three resteeps, and then began to get lighter in colour. With each steep, the floral flavours began to be less noticeable while the buttery flavours got stronger. I found the milky/buttery flavours peaked at around the fifth or sixth resteep, and started to get weaker after that. My last steep with these leaves still had a great amount of flavour in the cup.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oollo Tea’s Milky Oolong. I loved how great this oolong resteeped (ten times!) . There’s a beautiful balance between the floral and buttery notes that stays well-balanced throughout each steep, which was a joy to taste. I think resteeped quite beautifully, and I do wish that there had been more information available about this tea. Considering it was a 15g sampler, I got 3 separate teapots worth of tea in that sampler (5g per session) and got 10 steeps in the first session alone – no matter how much the leaves end up costing, that’s still pretty good value!

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Oollo Tea’s Classic Oolong

Classic Oolong by Oollo Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight

First Impressions

I bought Classic Oolong as part of a mystery bag from Oollo Tea’s booth at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival – unfortunately I’m unable to find the product page on their website so I can’t tell you how much it costs at this time (I’ll update this review if I get a hold of the information). This sampler contains 15g and the tea itself came in a vaccuum-sealed foil pouch (not resealable) inside of a floral patterned paper envelope.

The leaves are bright green, tightly bunched together. The aroma of the dry leaf reminds me of floral and pine tree. Classic Oolong comes from Maliba, Nantou, Taiwan and is single origin. Single origin describes the fact that it comes from one location – usually one tea farm/farmer and can be directly traced to the original location where the tea was harvested and processed. This is a huge difference from the majority of tea available via grocery stores, as you often don’t know where the tea came from aside from a general area or country of origin.

Preparation

There were no steeping instructions with Classic Oolong, so I went back to my own steeping guide. I steeped Classic Oolong using my Breville IQ Kettle‘s oolong setting (90°C/195°F) and my initial steep was for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Classic Oolong steeps to a light yellow. There’s a beautiful light floral aroma from the tea. On first sip, I can taste the floral, with a touch of pine in the background. It adds a bit of a ‘woodsy’ flavour to it, which is pleasant as it’s well-balanced against the floral notes. There’s some creamy notes that I can taste as well, which are delicious.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Classic Oolong a total of six times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The colour of the tea got deeper for the first three resteeps – becoming more of a golden yellow colour. The flavour became more floral and creamy and less pine. I found that by the third resteep, Classic Oolong had a very buttery flavour to it with a thick mouthfeel compared to the initial steep. I found it to be very pleasant.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oollo Tea’s Classic Oolong. I felt that it made for a lovely cup (pot…) of tea, and loved how the flavour profile shifted a little bit with each steep. I do wish that I could tell you more about the tea, so hopefully that information becomes available to me in the near future. The pine notes were a bit of a surprise, but I love how it gave way to a more buttery flavour profile. The leaves are a good quality though, as they resteep beautifully and allow for a good amount of flavour with each steep.

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Oollo Tea’s Honey Scented Black Tea

Honey Scented Black Tea by Oollo Tea
Black Tea / Straight
$8.00 for 25g

First Impressions

Oollo Tea was a vendor at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival, and I’m always pleased to sample teas at their booth because oolong is one of my favourites. And then there’s this tea, which is not quite an oolong. Honey Scented Black Tea is described by Oollo Tea as a “secret hybrid tea” as a mix between a black tea and an oolong tea. Either way, it was delicious when I sampled it which just meant that I had to try it.

The tea itself comes in a silver package – it was actually part of a ‘mystery’ grab bag that was available at the Tea Festival (I love grab bags, I don’t know why – I just like the surprise aspect of it, I think). The packaging is not resealable, which was okay because I do have extra tea tins around. If you lack a tea tin, you can put the packaging into a glass jar or a resealable bag – the important thing is to keep tea from going stale by keeping it away from light, air, and moisture.

Besides the stamped information on the front of the packaging, there wasn’t any other information regarding this tea. Luckily, Oollo Tea keeps information up on their website. The leaves themselves are dark, long, and wiry. The aroma from the dry leaf is primarily sweet like honey, with a hint of honey dew and flowers. Honey Scented Black Tea is from a Qingxin Oolong varietal, which was grown by the Fu family in Pingling, New Taipei, Taiwan at 400m elevation above sea level and harvested during the winter of 2017 – in case you wanted to ever pin point exactly when your tea was harvested.

Preparation

Oollo Tea recommends steeping Honey Scented Black Tea in 90-95°C (194-203°F) water for 2 minutes, and suggests that it can be resteeped two additional times. My initial steep was with 93°C (200°F) water for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Honey Scented Black Tea steeps to a beautiful orange colour, with a lovely honey aroma to it. No surprise, given the name of the tea. On first taste, I can taste the honey sweetness, it has a thin textured mouthfeel to it that easily coats the mouth. I found the honey dew freshness at the end of each sip, which makes the tea all the more pleasant. There’s a touch of astringency at the end of each sip as well, but it isn’t too much to make the tea off-putting. Surprisingly, there is no floral flavours in the Honey Scented Black Tea, despite me initially tasting it.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Honey Scented Black Tea three times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour stated pretty consistent as I drank each steep, I found that the flavour stayed pretty strong through each steep, although was a touch weaker for the third resteep (fourth steep total). I would say that Honey Scented Black Tea is good for at least two additional resteeps, as recommended by Oollo Tea, and I would push it for a third if you really want to get your money’s worth out of this tea!

My Overall Impression

I loved Oollo Tea’s Honey Scented Black Tea. It has a great honey flavour, with the crisp freshness from the honey dew flavours. If you don’t like astringency in your tea, I would suggest lowering the amount of time spent for each steep (perhaps 90 seconds instead of 2 minutes!), and definitely resteep this one to get all the flavour out of those leaves. It is a very enjoyable black tea, I think it’d be a great afternoon tea alternative from the classic Earl Grey because of the honey notes. That said, it’d probably take cream and sugar well since it is a black tea, but I don’t think you need to go too each on the sweetener!

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