Tag: Oolong Tea

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DavidsTea’s Salted Caramel Oolong

Salted Caramel Oolong by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Salted Caramel Oolong is one of those blends that I saw in a photo, was a bit curious at all those salt chunks, and just had to give it a try. This is an oolong blend from DavidsTea and comes in a familiar silver pouch. As always, I still hate the labelling and the teeny tiny print… but nobody asked me for my opinion (I just happen to give it freely). The blue is nice, but I can see how it might be difficult for someone with poorer vision or perhaps colour blindness to have difficulty reading this turquoise text on a medium blue background. But again… nobody asked me for my opinion.

The aroma of Salted Caramel Oolong basically reminds me of salted caramel (treats). It smells like how one would expect it, and it’s very tempting. The tea consists of: oolong tea, caramel bits, sugar crystals, pineapple, carob, chicory root, artificial caramel flavouring, and salt. Those crystals that you can so easily see in the blend are sugar, not salt – yes, my dear readers, I tried one in the name of science. I’m not sure why they saw the need to add flavouring on top of the presence of caramel, I find that often just leads to disappointment over the expectations versus reality when it comes to steeping a flavoured tea. That said, it smells like candy (a pro) and I cannot smell the oolong base at all (a con).

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Salted Caramel Oolong in 90°C (195°F) water for 4 to 5 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep of 5 minutes with the recommended water temperature, which just so happens to be the oolong tea setting on my Breville kettle.

First Taste

Salted Caramel Oolong steeps to a deep reddish brown and there just seems to be a lot of… stuff floating around in it. Lots of bits here and there, some oils. If any of that sounds off-putting to you, I would recommend steeping Salted Caramel Oolong in a filter instead of an infuser – just makes life a little bit easier. It smells like salted caramel candy, but not much like oolong at all. The taste reminds me of liquid dessert – it’s sweet, I can taste salted caramel, and it’s got a thickness to the texture of the tea. I find it to be coyingly sweet, and very much has a mouth-coating effect to it.

This oolong blend definitely does not require any addition of sweetener, and I think that it could do with some evaporated milk (which I whole-heartedly added to the cup). The addition of dairy (or a dairy-free milk alternative if that’s more your jam) really helps to temper down that sweetness and adds a level of decadence to it – the creaminess helps perpetuate that idea of caramel, but the oolong base is still not present.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Salted Caramel Oolong, and found that it just wasn’t there in terms of what I was looking for. It was still quite sweet and that oolong base was nowhere to be found. I would recommend Salted Caramel Oolong for just the one steep (and as a tea latte over having it straight).

My Overall Impression

I thought that DavidsTea’s Salted Caramel Oolong was just okay. I think this tea by itself is just far too sweet – so far that it might give a person a toothache despite the fact that they’re a sweet tooth. I’m saddened by the fact that I really could not taste the oolong base, I think it was just overwhelmed by all of the other ingredients that are present in the blend. I find that the tea is greatly improved in the form of a tea latte, so would highly recommend drinking it in that format if you’re a fan of tea lattes. I am disappointed that the oolong base was nowhere to be found within the flavour profile because of the over-powering presence of the other ingredients that are present in the mix.

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The Tea House’s Phoenix Dan Cong

Phoenix Dan Cong by The Tea House
Oolong Tea / Straight

I received Phoenix Dan Cong as part of my swag bag from the 2020 Virtual International Tea Festival. At the time of writing, Phoenix Dan Cong was not available on The Tea House’s website, so I was unable to determine the price of the tea.

First Impressions

Phoenix Dan Cong came to me in sealed, non-sealable, silver packaging – nothing a tight fitting metal tea canister or even just a zip-top plastic bag won’t fix in a pinch. This was part of my swag bag from the 2020 Virtual International Tea Festival. I don’t have a lot of information on this tea, as it’s product page was not available when I was writing this review, but I’ll do my best!

The leaves are wiry and very dark brown. There are some deep, stone fruit aromas from the dry leaf, which are really intriguing. Traditionally, Phoenix Dan Cong is an oolong tea and is grown and harvested from Phoenix Mountain in China. This tea looks like a straight tea and I don’t believe that there are any other added ingredients (just the way I prefer my oolong teas…).

Preparation

The Tea House recommends steeping Phoenix Dan Cong in 190°F (88°C) water for 1 minute. I opted to use 185°F (85°C) water and did an initial steep for 1 minute.

First Taste

Phoenix Dan Cong steeps to a pretty light golden yellow colour. It has a remarkably smooth texture, with notes of plums or apricots (both lovely stone fruits), and just a floral finish at the tail end of each sip. The tea does a nice job of just coating the inside of my mouth with flavour, which is quite well balanced. Zero astringency and zero bitterness and just overall quite smooth and easy to drink.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Phoenix Dan Cong a total of seven times (eight times total with the same leaves). The colour of the steeped tea definitely gets darker, a more golden yellow and the flavour deepen as well while staying fairly consistent in terms of the flavour profile. I found that the fruity notes got stronger while the floral notes did back off a little bit. Still an easy tea to drink though, and quite enjoyable.

My Overall Impression

I loved The Tea House’s Phoenix Dan Cong. I thought that the tea was a lovely experience from start to finish. I really appreciated the level of complexity in the flavour profile and how it subtly changed as I drank it. It really made for a delicious cup of tea and I thought it had some great flavour for a tea that doesn’t contain additional ingredients. The floral finish was really one of my favourite parts of the tasting experience with this oolong.

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Teakan’s Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin

Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin by Teakan
Oolong Tea / Straight
$30.00 for 70g

Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin is one of five teas from Teakan’s Tea Exploration Kit (Volume 2) and makes up 15g of the 70g of loose leaf tea in this curated collection.

First Impressions

Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin came to me as part of Volume 2 of Teakan’s Tea Exploration Kit. This is the fifth/last review I’ll be writing for Volume 2 (and I’m so looking forward to when Volume 3 is released! I’m hoping for an all-oolong kit). Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin came to me in a sealed, resealable kraft paper pouch with a simple printed label. This is a scented oolong tea from Anxi, Fujian, China. The tea itself was harvested in autumn 2019, so a bit over a year old now.

The leaves themselves are lightly bunched, with varying shades of green that are mostly light to medium in depth of colour. The aroma is strongly that of osmanthus flowers and the tea was scented in a manner similar to how they scent jasmine green teas (keeping the flowers with the tea during the production of the tea, and then the flowers are removed). It has a strong floral with a light vanilla aroma to it, it’s very inviting and reminds me a lot of spring time because of the floral notes.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin in 90°C (194°F) water for 3 minutes (western steeping style) or for 30 seconds (gongfu steeping style). I opted for western style steeping and used water that was heated to 91°C (195°F).

First Taste

Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin steeps to a pale yellow. It has a very floral aroma with a light vanilla fragrance in the undertones. The flavour is primarily that of sweet floral, with some vanilla flavour that lingers on the tip of the tongue. There’s an almost buttery creaminess to it that kind of coats the mouth when you drink this oolong and it has a nice flavour to it.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin six times (seven steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The floral quality of the flavour stays throughout and is fairly consistent, while the vanilla notes deepens initially and then begins to fade. The flavour stays very pleasant throughout and I would recommend resteeping this oolong as much as you care to do so.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Osmanthus Tie Guan Yin. This made for a really nice steeping experience between admiring the dry leaf, the first taste, and the multiple resteeps. It just has a nice flavour and aroma to it, and is very easy to drink and slurp down. I even allowed a cup or two to cool to room temperature and it also tasted pretty good cold, so I think it’d be a great candidate as iced tea or cold steeped.

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