Immediately after opening the package of DAVIDsTEA’s Quangzhou Milk Oolong I knew that this would be a tea I would really like. The smell is extraordinarily aromatic, and reveals immediately the reason for its name. It doesn’t really smell like actual milk as much as it smells milky. The scent is really more like pure, [...]
Sometimes a full gongfu cha ceremony is beyond the scope of time or practicality or attention span. One method that I use at times like this employs two gaiwans. I use the first one to brew the tea. Then after the requisite steeping time, which is dependent on how many infusions I have already brewed, [...]
Organic Rou Kuei Oolong from auraTea is a wonderful and unusual tea. It is a darker oolong with pretty long red leaves. The dry leaves emit a nice woodsy scent, foreshadowing a nice tea liquor. The brewed tea has a rich flavor that tastes almost like it has been roasted, like mesquite coated in molasses. [...]
Before any of the tea samples arrived, I spent some time on the auraTeas website and found it quite nicely laid out and easy to navigate. Searching for particular teas by type or by region is a pretty smooth process. There are a few errors in English throughout the site, but they’re not too distracting. [...]
I had not previously had the opportunity to taste any aged oolongs so I was very curious to try auraTeas‘ Formosa Aged Dongding, 2004. I prepared it in the traditional gongfu method, using a yixing pot and serving pitcher. The pre-brewed scent of this tea is wonderful, rich, sweet and complex and it has a [...]
As I sat at my desk the other day, drinking a cup of Monkey-Picked Oolong, I speculated on the naming history of this tea and then hunted down some details to add to what I already knew. I expect that none of you will be too shocked to hear that Monkey-Picked Oolong is not, and [...]
Tucked away in Post Alley next to Kells Restaurant, the Perennial Tea Room is one of the better tea shops in Seattle. In addition to their fairly extensive offerings of teas from all of the major growing regions in the world, they also host themed tea tastings. I attended last week’s tasting, which was an [...]
When we received the samples of Okayti Autumn Flush Darjeeling and Okayti Autumn Flush Darjeeling Oolong from Mighty Leaf Teas I decided that the most interesting way to sample them would be in a side-by-side tasting. The two are from the same picking at the same plantation, but one has been fully oxidized as a [...]
Here’s the short list of my personal rules that are violated by the drink in the photograph: Do not combine Chinese and Japanese elements. Do not mix caffeinated beverages with alcoholic beverages. Do not drink tea cold. Despite all of the above, I tried – and enjoyed! – shochu oolong (Oolong Hai) this past weekend. [...]
Having never formally studied any Chinese languages I surmised that the word “oolong” was the proper English transliteration of the Mandarin Chinese name for a family of teas and that “wulong” was a word that had come into vogue for use in preposterous and unfounded weight-loss claims in order to promote Chinese oolong teas. While [...]
