Raspberry Oolong

Sorry I haven’t been posting lately; I have finally reached that stage in my tea life where I am drinking tea but don’t have much of a desire to write about it. Mostly it’s not new tea, for one. Actually I have been missing my usual “tea times” for no good reason except that I am preoccupied and stressed. Tea would make it better, of course!

The first time I had this tea, I was underwhelmed. The second time, I was pleasantly suprised. This time I am not surprised, but it is pleasant. The raspberry is so juicy and natural tasting, and the oolong is a nice background. It’s not really easy to pinpoint as a green oolong or dark oolong, but rather has subtle characters of each. A slight touch of roastiness here, the hint of a floral background there. It’s really quite a nice blend.

I brewed up a cup of this for lunch today after not having had it for quite a while. When I first tried this tea I was very excited about it but then ultimately underwhelmed. I don’t know if it was just my tastes at the time (which are definitely shifting) or my expectations shifting or what, but I enjoyed this one considerably more this time around. Nice, natural raspberry with a tasty oolong base. I feel like I should brew another cup of this sometime when I’m not eating while drinking it and do another review.

One more sipdown today, 184. :)

I’ve had this one for a while and its gone from unimpressive in my mind to quite tasty. Sometimes is fun to see how tastebuds change! Some teas get better, others get worse, and then there are those that don’t change. Now I appreciate a nice formosa oolong so much more than I used to, and also I appreciate slightly more subtle flavoring. Not that this one is super subtle, but it was subtle in comparsion to what I was drinking exclusively a year ago. It’s funny because I read my first tasting note of this and say (now), well that sounds delicious to me! But at the time it was not the flavor profile I was after. Glad I got to try this one and glad I had enough that I came around to it eventually.

Today I am drinking a number of teas that are penultimate sipdowns, meaning I have one more cup left. That way when I get back home in two weeks after my trip, I can sip down a bunch of things in quick succession. This is one such tea!

This is a really nice raspberry tea. As I have noted before, the raspberry is juicy and authentic tasting. It’s also a bit lighter than some highly flavored teas, and it’s one I wasn’t able to appreciate until much later in my tea tasting career. The oolong is a fairly generic formosa oolong, so it is neither green nor roasty, but it does contribute a few subtle plummy notes I think. A pleasant afternoon tea.

I decided to experiment a bit with this tea and steeped it for less time. I can taste quite a bit more raspberry flavour this way, although the oolong base seems a touch bland. Still it seems like a 5-5.5 min steep is the way to go.

On an un-related note, I got a mysterious, yellow package in the mail from Ricky today….maybe I should call the Bomb Squad. ;P

My second shot at this tea. I think I might have ‘over-cooked’ the leaves a bit because they’re a bit bitter-tasting, though it’s not too bad. Angrboda, how long/at what temp do you normally steep this tea?

I’ve noticed that, unlike many of the oolongs I’ve tried, this has some similar notes to a green tea, so maybe the steeping temperature should be lower accordingly. I wish I had more experience with oolong teas.

2nd Steeping.
The tea is lighter but I can actually taste the raspberry a bit more clearly, oddly enough. I’m also definitely noticing more of a vegetale flavour.

I found a little bit of this leftover in a random HOME stash and had it cold brewed in my Steep & Go! Apparently I was NOT using the Steep & Go properly so NOW I am having much more luck with it! YAY! Duh…me! Anyhow…I don’t really think Cold Brewed is the way to go with this one. I do – however – LOVE this one HOT – and will keep the rating as-is.

It’s been too long since my last cup of this liquid gold! YUM! I even had a chunk of raspberry in this bunch of loose leaf! YAY! This made my mid morning a happy morning!

I almost forgot how much I loved this one. I had some last night after I logged off so I am backlogging. It kind of smelled like Raspberry Chocolate Truffles! Ahhhhh…Heaven!

I really love this…really…I might have to up it to 100…I think I will.

It ages well too! YUM!

2nd infusion…
light in color and raspberry smell but still strong in raspberry taste to sip.
YUM…great flavored Oolong…will hike up my rating a few more points…

I felt like celebrating with Rijje today. And for that we need a good old favourite that, to my surprise, it’s been quite a while since I’ve had.

If it’s been so long since I’ve had it, HOW COME THERE’S SO LITTLE LEFT IN THE TIN, HMMM???

Who nicked it? Fess up!

It’s been ages since I had some of this, and today it seemed just the thing. I’m glad I picked it. Somehow it gets even yummier when had seldomly rather than when had often.

It got about twice as long a steep as I would have normally done, mostly on a whim. yu76tyggggg oh look, a cat on the keyboard. This is not a tea that I’ve had a lot of bad oversteep experiences with, and I suddenly decided to see if a longer steep (I do short steeps normally) would have any impact on the result considering how much leaf I normally use.

It turned out just as it should. Maybe even with a little more depth to it, but I’m not sure if that’s not just something to do with how I remember it. It is a good while since the last time I had any of it.

I’m on the second steep of it now, same time as the first and my normal second steep time. Less berry, as much oolong. Still very nice indeed.

I think I’ve said it before, but I feel sorry for all you americans who can’t just go and get some of this whenever you like. Not unless you’re willing to pay some probably pretty fierce shipping.

I have a countryman on Steepster now! flails Before, the closest I got, I think, was Rijje in Greenland, which… it’s close, but not quite the same. Anyway, Andreastt recently discovered ACP and had a question about this here raspberry oolong that you may have heard of. :p I tried to answer to the best of my ability, but decided it was probably better to make a cup and check that I actually think what I thought I think.

Besides, any excuse for a cuppa. :D

Since it will be a teensy tiny minority who will actually be able to read the conversation in question, let me just summarise. I mentioned a few of my absolute favourites from ACP, and I was asked how fruity-tart the raspberry oolong was or whether it was all done with essence of fruit.

I answered that it contains lots of dried fruit, but that it was probably doubtful how much flavour these gave off. It did suggest to me, though, that there was more than mere essence of berries involved here and that, if he didn’t care for very tart things, it might not be something for him.

To me, though, it is quite oolong-y at first. It’s got that wooden sort of flavour of a generic oolong, and then towards the end of the sip, there is the fruit flavour, which definitely has a bit of tartness to it. Not super-tart, but there is a small bite in it. Actually the fruit-flavour is really present throughout the sip, but I find it’s most prominent just before I swallow. As if it just needs a splitsecond longer to unfold in the mouth.

It is not, however, quite as tart as I initially remembered it.

Making tea in a hurry before I change my mind again. I’m finally trying to get through what I’m behind on the dashboard and first Morgana had Kusmi’s Samovar and I thought, “Oh, I should have some of that too!”. And then I scrolled down a little more and Rijje had this infamous raspberry oolong and I thought, “Oh, I should have some of that too!” And… You get the pattern, right?

So I hurried up and made a cup of this before the confusion was complete.

The obligatory sniffing of leaves in near-ecstacy that this tea requires was a good chance to take a look at the amount of leaves. We are dangerously close to a decupboarding here. I’ll have to do something about that post-England, I think.

Yummmm nommy.

Whew 9! Days! Back! I probably ought to stop following some people and try to make it easier for myself to keep up. But I don’t want to stop following anybody. Maybe I ought to have a secondary account with the smaller following list. Angrboda Lite. Nah, it would just get confusing. I guess I’ll just have to do the unpleasant and go through my follow list. This is not working. (How did I avoid breaking my back on a ginormous follow list before I stopped trying to follow everybody????)

Good morning Steepster.

Someone has, while I’ve been sleeping, logged a white tea with blueberry. You’ll forgive me for not have paid attention to who you were, sorry. At any rate, it inspired me this morning. And you would think that this inspiration would mean to make something with a white tea. Or something with blueberries. Er… well it’s got berries in it. And it smells heavenly. All sweet and fruity and it’s full of dried berries. It’s the sort of tea that you almost don’t even have to drink. Just sit around and sniff the tin. Yum.

Due to the nature of the cup I’m using this morning I can’t really tell you about the colour, but it looks like a light golden one while pouring. The brew smell primarily of oolong with a heavy berry note on top. I get associations to desserts and cakes and bakeries. A nice raspberry muffin, oh yes.

This development continues in taste. Where the dry leaves smelled heavily of berries and the brew was sort of half and half leaning towards the oolong, the taste is very primarily oolong and then a nice fruity sweetness, as if has been sweetened with fruit instead of sugar. Note, I haven’t actually added sugar or anything else. It’s extremely rare that I add anything to my tea, and if I do, I promise you’ll hear about it. But IF I had sweetened it, it tastes like I’ve used fruit instead of sugar, and… Okay this is turning strange. I’m even beginning to confuse myself. I’ll just stop.

Guess what I’ve got again.

And I must have got it from a new batch this time because previously when I’ve bought it, I’ve received oolong leaves with whole black currants and chunks of raspberry in it.

This time, chunks of raspberry? Try WHOLE raspberries. And not just one or two that got through the raspberry-chunking-machine unscathed. No, there are many of them. Many many raspberries.

(It’s so hard to not fish them out and eat them!)

Still as nommy as ever. Om nom nom.

this tea is chosen based on how easy the tin was to open anhd also because i bloody well deserve some spoiling.

the only reason i’m posting anythung at all is to say i’m going to be quiet and lurky for a little while because i managedto cvut the tip of my right index finger at work so i can’t really use it for anything. this is all typed with one hand and as you can see it’s not really ideal. i don’t have patience for this. but i can still use the mouse so i am around, i just can’t really type much. it’s niot as bad as it sounds only two stitches, it’s just in a reallu impractical place.

Inspirational tea for the WIN! Literally, actually, as I just hit 50094 words on NaNoWriMo. Just now.

Leonard Cohen is now singing ’I’m your man’ for me and I’m on the second steep of this now. The tea itself can handle a resteep quite well, but the berries, not so much. At this point it might as well just have been a regular plain oolong. A nice one definitely, though. It has plenty of flavour and plenty of lingering aftertaste. Like it’s crawling down into every little nook and cranny of my mouth and sitting there saving the nummy for later. Slightly astringent at first contact with the tongue but it goes away again.

Also, it makes me think of those of you who now and then describe a tea flavour as ‘baked’ and I can’t for the life of me figure out what you mean by that, but this tea reminds me of it, so maybe it IS bakey and only my subconsciousness is registering it?

I should probably make a pot of Pai Mu Tan since that one has turned into my celebration tea, but really, I’d rather see if I can get a third steep out of this one. So I’ll do that.

I brought a little of this with me to work to day to share with my boss. As mentioned previously we tend to drink the same tea at work, but lately we’ve grown a little weary of the Assam we usually have. That’s a good tea, actually, but at work we rarely have the time and conditions to pay proper attention to it when brewing. Besides, we thought it would be nice with something to choose from.

I showed her AC Perch’s website and asked her to have a look and see what sort of stuff she would like. This was one that caught her eye, and I could happily tell her that it’s awesome!

Normally, we make a one litre pot and have that during the day. Normally, a little is even discarded at the end of the day. Today, I made a pot of this one for us, and it was empty before noon. That really says a lot, doesn’t it?

We have now decided that we shall get a 100g bag to keep at work of this one, and I’ll be taken that opportunity to reinforce my own supply as well. It is, after all, another Standard Panel tea.

Nom nom nommity nom.

Nom.

Nommity.

Nom.

Did I mention nom?

Oh Rickyyyyyyyyyy! Guess what I’ve gooooot!

I made a little pot of this, drank it and resteeped. And angels started singing.

Oh berry! Oh oolong! Oh welcome back in my cupboard.

Ack, I have the first niggling pokings of a headache. How annoying.

Only way to fix such things that I know of is to have some favourite tea. It’s already getting a bit low in the tin again. Granted I shared some with a couple of you, but still… I think I’ll order a bigger batch when the time comes to re-stock.

For those of you that I’ve been waving this one teasingly at, I just saw a review over on Teaviews.com today about a strawberry oolong, which you can read about here http://www.teaviews.com/2010/06/04/review-naivetea-strawberry-oolong-4/
Maybe it would be a suitable replacement when this one is only really available to people in Denmark or people willing to pay a fortune in shipping. Reading about the strawberry oolong made me think of this one, at any rate.

TeaEqualsBliss inspired me. I wasn’t actually going to post about having this, but I’m doing it anyway. So we can all see the inspiration.

Or something.

Yeah this again. Nothing to say about really. But I had to enter a tea in order to make a post so… shrug

Am I the only one whose Dashboard page is acting up?

The ONLY updates I’m getting is what people liked and commented on. No reviews at all since some time yesterday.

And that’s not like you all to be so active with comments and stuff and logging nothing!

What’s up???

(Is anybody even going to see this…?)

I felt like something fruity, so I put the kettle on. And then I was too slow in cleaning out the pot, so it had cooled a bit before I was actually ready to use it. And since I had cleaned the pot in hot water (and the hot tap water gets really really hot where I live) the pot was already nice and warm. So that left me wondering if I should boil new water and use this to scald an already warm pot or what to do.

And then I thought of my raspberry oolong and decided to just pretend that it had been my plan to make that one all along (instead of the blueberry from Adagio). Perfect really.

I’m spending the day trying to bury myself in the last little bit left before I can say I’ve won NaNoWriMo. 2K to go. Estimated 30K to go before I reach the end of the story. The plan is to reach the 50K words to win NaNo and then continue writing and eventually finish the story. I’m not interested in publication at all, but when I’ve finished the story (If I ever make it) and it’s been rewritten and heavily edited I know where I want to upload it on the internet and will of course share the location of it if and when that time comes.

Anyway, this tea is going to help me do this today. It’s to give me some focus and concentration. Maybe I should have used a crappy tea, since if all goes well, I’ll end up with half a completely forgotten cup.

I have my tea. Leonard Cohen is singing ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ for me. I’m ready.

Green moods don’t last long when you discover that the green you made wasn’t the green you wanted. I was packing up tea samples for Jillian and Bethany (if she’s still interested), and spotted this tin and decided I was really in an oolong mood now instead.

Mostly because whenever I see this tin I have to take the lid off for a couple of sniffs. Yummy.

I can definitely see myself stocking up on this again when it’s gone and I’m beginning to dread the day when it is.

I seem to have my innards back under control (fingers crossed) and I have also managed, it seems, to get rid of that godawful bad taste in my mouth. Good thing, that, because I’m sick and tired of peppermint infusion!

I’m sticking my neck out and trying some real tea. Hopefully I won’t regret it later.

This one was my first ever flavoured oolong (that I can remember), and it’s quickly become a favourite. It was lucky I found it because I was buying something else from the site at the time and just randomly started clicking around to see what else they had.

It smells absolutely divine and it tastes equally as lovely. I like it better and better every time I have some of it. It’s just what I need for a post-sick comfort tea.

I’ve already reviewed this tea earlier and I’m having some now because it’s bloody cold around these parts tonight!

I just wanted to say: Comments! Comments on Steepster! YAY! tosses confetti