Tag: Oolong Tea

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DavidsTea’s Oolong Supreme

Oolong Supreme by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Straight
$19.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

Oolong Supreme is a tea that I had been eyeing at DavidsTea for a long time but it is fairly expensive in comparison to the less expensive options like Cream of Earl Grey or Santa’s Secret. The description of Oolong Supreme states that the tea is Dang Cong Oolong tea from the Wudang Mountains of China. It’s a bulky tea, it’s a much larger bag than what I’m used to for 50g of tea from DavidsTea. I picked out Oolong Supreme as a reward with my frequent steeper points. The tea leaves from this tea are amazing, the dry leaves are huge! They have this beautiful fruity smell, which reminds me of a mix of apricots and plums.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping in 85°C (185°F) for 4 to 7 minutes. I did the first steep for close to 3 minutes (as per the Tea Association of Canada) instead as I felt 4-7 minutes was a long time.

First Taste

Oolong Supreme steeps to a pale yellow with a very mild aroma. It smells very much like the dry leaf – plums and apricots! It has a mild sweetness that mingles well with the taste of plums and apricots. The description of Oolong Supreme mentions notes of shea butter and “roastiness” which I can’t seem to find, but that’s okay because this is just the first steep and I will be trying at least one more steep. No bitterness or astringency to note, Oolong Supreme is a nice smooth cup of fruity oolong tea.

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A Second Cup?

Surprise, surprise, Oolong Supreme resteeps well! I resteeped Oolong Supreme a total of five times (so six steeps with the same leaves). Each time I used water that was about 85°C and I added an extra minute or so for each subsequent steep. The flavours developed with each steep, I feel that the flavours were the boldest with the second and third resteep. There was a stronger sweet fruity taste with each resteep – definitely more apricot than plum by the end. The sweetness doesn’t get too strong that it overwhelms the fruit flavours as they develop, they grow a bit bolder together. Try as I might, I didn’t find the shea butter or roastiness in the tea for any of the resteeps. The fifth resteep was when the flavour began to be less strong.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Oolong Supreme. The smell of the dry leaf is just how the tea tastes like after steeping, and the tea leaves do amazingly well with resteeping – as one might expect from a good quality oolong. In total I steeped the same leaves six times and got five wonderful steeps out of. The flavours really developed with each steep as the leaves would unfurl just a little bit more and I think it’s a great time to have if you have the time to resteep and appreciate the changes in the flavour. This is definitely not the type of tea that you would steep once and throw the leaves away – that would be a terrible waste! While Oolong Supreme is on the pricier end of DavidsTea’s product collection, I think it’s a wonderful addition to your tea stash if you happen to like oolongs. If you’re unsure about oolong tea and you do live near a DavidsTea, you can opt to purchase a small amount just to try (I’ve gone as low as asking for 10g in a little baggie) or you could use your frequent steeper rewards on this tea if you’ve hit 100 points in a redemption period.

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Tea Ave’s Oriental Beauty

Oriental Beauty by Tea Ave
Oolong Tea / Straight
$14.99 for 25g

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

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First Impressions

I am a sucker for detailed packaging and Tea Ave does not disappoint. The label for Oriental Beauty gives some details about where the tea comes from, the roasting level, oxidation level, and then the brewing methods (of which there are many). The brewing methods include use of a gaiwan, tea bag, tea pot, and cold brew. Wow. This little sample bag had enough for me to do two cups on separate days.

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The tea leaves are lovely with light twists in the leaves. The dry tea has this great sweet floral and fruity aroma to it that isn’t overwhelming. The floral scent is quite light and it smells quite nice. Oriental Beauty consists of qing xing oolong.

Preparation

For the tea bag method, Tea Ave recommends steeping in water at 85°C (185°F) for 1 minute and that the tea can be resteeped up to 5 times.

First Taste

Oriental Beauty steeps to a beautiful clear golden yellow. The aroma from the tea is very much like the dry leaf – a light sweet, floral and fruity scent. The tea itself is smooth, with a mild natural sweetness that doesn’t overwhelm the taste of the tea itself. The sweetness to the steeped tea reminds me a lot of honey, but it doesn’t overpower the natural floral and fruity taste to the tea. The fruity part of the taste reminds me a lot of berries. It’s a very pleasant cup of tea with absolutely no bitterness or astringency at all.

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A Second Cup?

Although the directions said to resteep up to five times, I actually resteeped an additional seven times. The mild sweetness to the tea actually gets bolder for resteeps 1 to 3. The flavour of the Oriental Beauty remains true to the first cup for resteeps 1-5. The 6th cup was beginning to taste thin in comparison to the cups before it, and the 7th cup was basically a watery ghost of what the oolong did taste like.

My Overall Impression

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I loved Tea Ave’s Oriental Beauty. This is a fantastic oolong as it resteeps very well. While it is one of the more expensive teas that I’ve reviewed so far on One More Steep. I think the fact that it does taste fantastic and can be resteeped many times makes up for the initial sticker shock. I definitely think that this is the type of tea that you should have when you’re not going anywhere though, as you wouldn’t want to leave wet tea leaves laying around to be reused the next day. If you’re going to resteep (and resteep again!), it should really be done all in the same day since it can be difficult to properly dry the tea leaves out (and mold is a horrible thing to ingest). For the value of a great tasting tea that can be resteeped up to 5 or 6 times, I think that Oriental Beauty is a wonderful oolong that deserves a taste if you’re looking for a tea to treat yourself with.

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3pm Oolong Tea’s Mint Oolong

Mint Oolong by 3pm Oolong Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight

This is a review of a tea that I received for my birthday in 2015. I won’t be doing too much digging into the costs of the gifts that I’ve received. For Mint Oolong, I genuinely couldn’t even find the product on the company’s website.

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First Impressions

The presentation of Mint Oolong is really nice. It comes in a clean, clear glass jar that comes with a glass stopper. The jar holds 50g of tea, the label has information in both Chinese and English – and there’s even a nutritional label in English and French on the bottom of the jar. The design is really nice, and I really appreciate how pretty it looks (the glass stopper even has some nice design elements to it to keep it interesting). The fact that it is clear glass makes it not the most ideal tea storage container, but as long as I keep it in a dark place I’m okay with it because it has a great air tight seal to it.

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The tea itself smells delightful. Very minty, and you can see the mint leaves in it, but it isn’t overwhelming the natural fragrance of the oolong. It’s quite a refreshing fragrance though, as a lot of minty things often are. The tea itself is quite fragrant, the stopper on the glass jar is quite snug to help keep air from getting in with the tea, which is a great feature since it helps to prolong the shelf life of the tea. The tea is very simple with two ingredients: oolong and mint.

Preparation

3pm Oolong Tea recommends steeping in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. I steeped for about 4 minutes.

First Taste

Mint Oolong steeps to a golden yellow colour, it smells more of the oolong base than it does of the mint leaves. The tea itself is pleasant and enjoyable. Steeping for about 4 minutes yielded a nice cup of tea that is smooth with no bitter notes at all. I found that the mint wasn’t as pronounced in the taste, although there is a hint of it at the end of each sip. The oolong plays the starring role in the tea, as it should given that it is an oolong tea. It’s very enjoyable, and tastes great hot. I allowed the second half of the cup to cool down and it’s really enjoyable as a cold tea as well (I didn’t have it concentrated enough to try it with ice).

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A Second Cup?

Mint Oolong does amazingly well with one more steep. The flavour of the oolong is still very much present, the mint plays less into the overall flavour and it continued to dissipate with each subsequent steeping. I found that the oolong did well for about four steeps altogether and the smoothness of the oolong got more enjoyable with each cup.

My Overall Impression

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I liked 3pm Oolong Tea’s Mint Oolong. I love how well this tea does with resteeping, it really showcases the quality of the tea when it can be resteeped and still taste really great. I really wish that the enticing mint that I could smell in the dry leaf was more present in the tea with the oolong flavour because it didn’t really do much for me. I felt it was a bit of a let down that the mint didn’t have more a presence in the overall tea flavour, but the smoothness and the pleasantness of the oolong made up for the fact that the mint didn’t have a bigger role in the flavour profile.

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