TeaEqualsBliss

You have peaked my interest.

I love orchid oolong! Too bad it’s so pricey.

How does this tea compare to the Hand Picked Tieguanyin Spring Oolong from Verdant Tea? They both seem to have the same description and candy-like comparisons.

I would say the other one is more honeysuckle-esque if that makes sense!

Thanks for the review! Your reaction to drinking this is pretty much the same as mine was the first time it was brewed for me. Very fun to read this and relive drinking the tea. The man who supplies this one had a certain grin on his face like he already knew what I would think, and I gave him the exact “You’ve got to be kidding me!” that you wrote. His response was essentially, “yeah, that’s right.”

About the differences between this and the Tieguanyin. This tea starts with an unroasted Dong Ding oolong from Taiwan. Dong Ding is a bit different in texture and flavor compared to Anxi Tieguanyin. It is thinner in mouthfeel, while also sweeter and more citrus-like. The spring harvest Dong Ding is then allowed to absorb the scent of orchids over a one week period much like traditional jasmine scenting. The orchid scent in this one extends the aftertaste, and interacts with the unique Dong Ding texture to be pretty thrilling.

The Tieguanyin is equally complex, but there is more buttery and creamy texture to it. The candy-like sweetness is more of a saffron and honey sweetness, and not a raw sugar sweetness that “TeaEqualsBliss” so aptly captured in her description. The floral notes are more tied to sweet grass flavor than to the licorice flavor of the Orchid Oolong.

Sorry about the price Twilight! Taiwanese oolongs are generally more expensive to start with because of cost of land and cost of living there. This one is a spring picking that is normally sold unscented at a pretty high price, and then allowed to absorb orchid flavor in the traditional and time consuming method of spreading out new flower blooms among the tea leaves each evening for a week. Luckily, you don’t need to use too may leaves to steep this one up, and each batch of leaves yields many infusions. The price per 8oz cup is about 15-20 cents when you do three steepings and a tsp per 8oz.

Luckily for all of us, love of tea is a lot cheaper than love of wine or even cheese!

wow – I have never been so jealous reading a review! As soon as I read it I went to their website to see if they do international orders and they do – just wondering about the taste of the candy and the flour aromas, I really don’t do well with mango, peach, stone fruits in general flavouring in teas – is this tea free of those sorts of aromas?

I, personally, couldn’t pick up on any mango/peach fruits on either of the teas. I think you will be pleasantly surprised!!! I’d say GO FOR IT :)