I finally get to try the illustrious Quangzhou Milk Oolong. I’ve been saving it until I had time to really enjoy it, and give it a good three steeps.
The scent of the dry leaf isn’t a surprise. That classic oolong semi-floralness mixed in with milkiness. Like a true cup of milk mixed in with the tea leaves. Weird side note, though. While I was waiting for the water to boil and had my tea ready to go in my Tea Stick, I caught a whiff of cheese. Like creamy havarti. Took me a while to realize it was coming from the tea!
I didn’t write down how long each steep was for, but if I remember correctly, I steeped this the first time for around four minutes at approximately 90°C. The steeped tea smelled similar to the dry leaf, although I found the milky aspect to blossom and take over the other notes. Now for the taste. Initially, I got a touch of floral, but the more I drank it, the more that went away. This has a wonderful, classic, underlying oolong, but the milkiness is domineering. It tastes like milk, but in a “dairy” way. I can’t really describe what I mean by that. It’s a more savoury milky note than sweet.
The second steep was even milkier. That slightly floral taste I was getting before was at this point gone entirely. And the milkiness got even creamier. A tad sweeter, as well. Second round definitely won. There was the perfect balance amongst all the flavours. It was more buttery, sweeter, and creamier.
The third steep was already getting rather weak. With the hint of floral long gone and the sweetness of the second steep gone as well, this started to almost taste like that havarti I was smelling earlier. That milkiness was going a little sour too. Not in an atrociously disgusting way, but it was noticeable.
Anyway, blah blah blah, that was my Quanqzhou Milk Oolong adventure. I bought about 16g or so, so I’ll gladly finish it off, but I’m not sure if I would buy it again? This made me realize that I prefer my oolongs on the more floral side. It’s still a marvellous tea.
