The dry leaf smells just like you might expect — sugar, caramel, and oolong — and it’s lovely! Due to this it’s the first dessert tea that’s made me want to bake up something similar, rather than hoping that the tea will live up to a given dessert.
These are nice curled up oolong leaves, nothing exciting to look at at first but beautiful as they steep and unfold. The liquor itself is also nice to look at and sniff, a toasty warm yellow with a weaker but similar sent to the dry leaf.
Unfortunately, the flavor also doesn’t live up to the initial scent. While I can very much enjoy weaker teas, I feel like this one in particular would do better to have a strong taste; in my book, if you’re going to cover up the tea with not-so-tea-ish tastes, it’s generally best to go all the way. Fortunately, the flavoring that is present isn’t even vaguely artificial, and in fact tastes like a higher quality of ingredients was used than I’d normally find in my kitchen. The overall taste is also assisted a lot by the type of oolong that was used; while its hardly my area of expertise, I can tell that it’s on the rich, sweet side.
I tried adding sugar and milk as is suggested on Golden Moon Tea’s website, but it was hardly an improvement; instead of bringing out new elements of the flavor, they just took over the taste to the point that it was as though I’d just put them into hot water.
One last thing that I really like about this tea is the feeling it leaves. Some tea just feels like drinking water when all is said and done, but there’s something about this one that’s very comforting and even somewhat filling. It might be due to the small aftertaste.
I was expecting something different from the name and the smell, but I actually really like this even though it’s disappointing in some ways.
