70

I kind of forgot that I got the oolong sampler from Adagio, but rummaging through my samples today I realized that I have two left to try! I think I was a bit offput by the Darjeeling, which just wasn’t that great. But I had such an awesome experience with the Dancong I decided to dip into this tea today.

The leaves were really broken up, and didn’t look at all like an oolong. In fact it kind of reminded me of bagged tea—I don’t think it was squished during shipping, as my other 3 in the sampler have nice big leaves that open beautifully when brewed. Not really a great first impression, and it went downhill from there: this brewed up so dark and smelled like a mediocre black. It didn’t taste much better, and was missing the nuances of flavor I was hoping for. It was mostly woodsy, with a kind of unpleasant earthiness/ashiness. There’s a hint of that raisin flavor they say it’s supposed to have, but it was way too weak to really pick up on. I’m not sure why, but this brewed up really watery despite using two teaspoons for 8 ounces of water. If I didn’t know this was an oolong I would have guessed it was a low-quality Ceylon.

When it’s cooled the flavors are a bit better and you get a soft floral note, it’s actually not bad all! I’ll bump up the rating a bit for that, but it’s unfortunate that this tea is so unappetizing when hot.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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Bio

Tea has always been a passion of mine, though I got away from it during college. A lack of cupboard space and a constant influx of people into my suite made me pretty much abandon my teas at home. But now that I’m done with school, it’s definitely come back with a vengeance—to the point where I’ve purchased about 65 different kinds in the past 3 months!

I like most kinds of teas—yes, even peach, which I used to think I disliked!. Oolongs are definitely my favorite, and I’m an avid fan of earl grey, floral teas, and chai blends along with anything melon. The only kind of teas on my “no” list are rooibos blends (which gives me headaches) and banana flavored ones since bananas are public enemy #1 in my mind.

The best thing about tea for me is how you can be passionate about it and still have it integrate into all of your other hobbies. I like a lot of things: writing, video games, books, sewing, figure collecting, astronomy… it’s a long list. But whatever I’m doing, I can have a cup of tea in hand!

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New York

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http://www.plastikitty.com/

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