I’ve had a “four seasons” oolong before that blew my mind. Now I don’t know what makes an oolong a “four seasons” oolong, but when I saw this at Teavana, I decided to go for it. I used another one of my Starbucks rewards to get a free ounce of this tea because I didn’t want to commit to two ounces before liking it. The sales girl was really pushing me toward the Monkey Picked Oolong, saying how much she and everyone else in the world loved it. I actually already have that one and am not as enamored with it as everyone else, so I stuck with this oolong.
At the first couple of sips, things were looking good. It’s sweet, creamy, and floral- my favorite characteristics of a green oolong. It wasn’t quite as amazing as the other four seasons oolong I mentioned earlier, but still good. As I was getting to the bottom of the cup and the tea cooled a bit, I noticed more bitterness and some astringency as well. I don’t know if it was because it was toward the bottom or because the tea had started cooling, but I wasn’t too happy about it. It wasn’t unbearable or anything, but I’ve had many delicious oolongs that set the bar pretty high. So anyway, a decent cuppa (& better than Monkey Picked IMHO), but I would probably not purchase this one in the future. With Teavana’s pricing, I could better spend my dollars on better and/or cheaper tea.
On an unrelated note, I’m so happy to be able to drink hot tea again because of the rain. I usually don’t like rain, but I guess this is the silver lining!
