Tag: Oolong Tea

First Impressions

Baozhong Oolong (also known as pouchong oolong or light oolong) is today’s tea. It’s an interesting oolong because it falls somewhere between a green tea and an oolong tea, with the processing methods. Baozhong Oolong is described as a floral oolong by Oollo Tea and I can certainly tell why when I first opened up the sample package.

The leaves are dark green, with a high wiry twist to the leaves before they dried. There’s a vegetal smell that is mixed with light floral notes. There’s a subtle sweetness to the dry leaf that reminds me of the sweet smell of vanilla blended with honey. It smells delicious, to say the least! The ingredients for Baozhong Oolong is simply the oolong tea leaves.

Preparation

Oollo Tea suggests steeping Baozhong Oolong in 90-95°C  (194-203°F) water for 3-5 minutes and up to 3 brews on their website. On the packaging, it was 85-90°C (185-294°F) for 1.5-3 minutes and up to 3 brews. I used my Breville IQ Kettle‘s oolong tea setting (91°C/195°F) and for my first steep of Baozhong Oolong, I steeped it for 2 minutes.

First Taste

The first thing I note is the pale golden yellow colour of the tea, Baozhong Oolong is pretty when it steeps because it’s just this lovely golden colour that I quite enjoy. The first thing that I note when the tea is steeping is the smell – there’s this buttery floral smell to it that is inviting. After steeping it for 2 minutes, I poured my first cup and had a sip. One of the first flavours that I pick up on is the smooth creamy texture to the tea, there’s a light buttery/creamy taste to it that makes the tea taste rich. On the end of each sip of this tea, there’s a honeyed floral taste to it that goes very well with the buttery cream quality of the flavour profile. As I finished off the first cup of this tea, I couldn’t help but appreciate how complex the flavours are, and how differing it is from the start to finish of each sip of this tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped this tea for a total of nine times. The second and third resteeps turned out to be a brighter, more golden yellow. The honeyed floral flavours became more pronounced, while the creamy butter taste and richness to the texture of the tea remained the same. Steeps four to eight tasted very similar, the overall flavour begins to decrease in intensity, but it’s still palatable and delicious. By the ninth, I was still enjoying it but found the flavour to be quite exhausted out of the tea leaves at this point and didn’t attempt a tenth steep. For each additional steep, I added an extra 30 seconds to the steeping time.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oollo Tea’s Baozhong Oolong. I’m always pleasantly surprised when I get a good quality tea that can be resteeped a few times, because I’m always cautious about the quality and how much I can get out of a tea. Baozhong Oolong did not disappoint in the slightest with nine steeps of the same tea leaves. What I really enjoyed the most from this tea is the complexity in the flavours – from the creamy butter beginnings to the honeyed floral end of each sip, it just makes for a very good cup of tea. Bonus is its ability to resteep over and over again,

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Iron Buddha Oolong by Oollo Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight
$10.00 for 25g

Oollo Tea has provided me with Iron Buddha 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

I first learned about Oollo Tea when I attended the 2016 Vancouver Tea Festival (oh yes, this review is long overdue!). The loveliest thing about their booth was their friendly staffers running the table and offering samples! Iron Buddha Oolong is a tea that I got in a sampler packet, I relied on their website for more information regarding the background of the tea.

The first thing I noticed when I tore open the packaging is that Iron Buddha Oolong smells like plums. There this nice fruity aroma to it that reminds me a lot of plums and apricots – those familiar stone fruit flavours. There’s some woody and earthy notes to it, but the plum is what stands out to me the most. The tea leaves themselves are dark in colour and tightly rolled.

Preparation

The steeping instructions provided by Oollo Tea for Iron Buddha Oolong is to steep in 90-95°C (194-203°F) water for 2 to 5 minutes. They helpfully include that it can be brewed 5 times.

First Taste

I steeped about half of the sampler package for my pot of tea, as I knew that the leaves would need room to expand. The first steep I did was for 2 minutes, and the Iron Buddha Oolong steeps to a deep orange. The smell of the tea reminds me of honey and plums. After the two minutes, I tried a sip and found that the tea itself has a very nice texture to it. There’s almost this thickened feel to it. Iron Buddha Oolong gave me a nice warming sensation as I drank it, there’s zero bitterness or astringency to this tea, and there’s a nice smooth mouthfeel to it.

The plum notes in this tea are quite nice, and mingle well on the tongue. Iron Buddha Oolong has a nice natural sweetness to it with the honeyed notes that it does not need additional sweetener.

A Second Cup?

Because Oollo Tea suggests up to five steeps, I could not resist trying it out for multiple steeps. The second steep (2mins, 30secs) was paler than the first steep, but the honeyed notes became strong. For steeps three, four, and five, the flavour remains well balanced between the plum and honey notes. Steeps six and seven start to wane a little bit in terms of flavour, but it’s still pleasant. By steep eight, the tea begins to lack flavour enough that I didn’t try for a ninth.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oollo Tea’s Iron Buddha Oolong. I’m always a sucker for a good quality tea that can be resteeped again and again and again – and for eight good steeps, this is a sure winner and definitely worth the price of the tea. While $10 for 25g may seem expensive, please keep in mind that I used half of a package of a 5g package for a pot (so ideally 25g would yield 10 pots of tea, with 7-8 steeps per pot). The sweet plum flavour of this tea is delicious, and I think it would be great tea throughout the day (and I would recommend it, seeing as how many times it can be steeped!). The beautiful honeyed taste to Iron Buddha Oolong makes it a winner for me, since I love sweet things.

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