I have no idea why Bird Pick is trying to front that this is a green tea when judging from the taste, shape, and brewing parameters it’s obviously an oolong. I picked some of this up in store because someone I follow mentioned it and I loved the idea of a buttery green…but yo, this is a milk oolong. It’s not a super high grade one, but it’s a milk oolong if I’ve ever tasted one. It’s a green oolong, yes, in that it’s not roasted (or whatever they do to oolong sometimes to make me dislike it – oxidize it? pan-fry it? overdry it?), so maybe that’s what it meant. Bird Pick can be weird with their naming, as with their Beauty Slim tea, which they sell as a green and which you would think means weight-loss, when in fact it’s a ku ding and slim refers to the needle-like shape of the leaves.
That said: I am not mad at this! It’s a tasty tea, and a sick deal for the price. As mentioned above, this is clearly a milk oolong (or silk oolong), referring in this case to the way the leaves are processed as I don’t think there’s any flavoring added. This tastes a lot like David’s Tea Quangzhou Milk Oolong except not quite as creamy – a few rungs lower in quality, but still a totally epic deal since milk oolong can be ridiculously pricey. If you have a Bird Pick shop near you I’d suggest a visit, their prices are reasonable and there’s none of the two ounce minimum nonsense that Teavana forces down your throat.
Anyway, here was my actual experience with this tea: I brewed it at first at 170 degrees for two minutes, still thinking it was a green, and that did pretty much nothing for it, the leaves barely unfurled and I didn’t get a lot of flavor out of it. Upon realizing it was not in fact a green tea, I did a second steep with water a minute or so off boil, and gave her three minutes. This let the leaves really start to open up and I got a delicious cup off of it. A nice, creamy mouth feel, rich buttery flavor, just a quality milk oolong through and through. I did two more steeps after that, again both near boiling, three and a half minutes and then four, and these cups were great as well. The fifth steep was pretty weak, but still gave me a little something. Not exciting enough to drink on its own but I stirred a teaspoon of matcha into it and it was great, gave the matcha some added interest.
Anyway, I really recommend this tea! Tastes great, resteeps well, marvelous value for the price, sucks that Bird Pick have trolled us all by calling it a green!
