Zealong Dark

Holy roasty toasty awesome in my cup! I’ve had this for a while now and this is the first time I’ve had it since I purchased it way back when Tony was closing shop. But half of it is off to a friend of mine from New Zealand who was very interested in this tea. So I’m just getting around to enjoy this. This is just a damn good cup of tea. The smell is slightly vegital with hints of a toasted flavor. The taste is just amazing. Glad I can get multiple infusions out of this one!

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Water: 16 oz 195°F
Tool: Adagio IngenuiTEA 16 oz
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: a little roasty, hints vegetal
Steeped Tea Smell: buttery vegetal
Flavor: roasty, lightly vegetal
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: roasty
Liquor: translucent light yellow-brown

2 Resteep:
Water: 16 oz 195°F
Tool: Adagio IngenuiTEA 16 oz
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes

a bit astringent

3 Resteep:
Water: 16 oz 195°F
Tool: Adagio IngenuiTEA 16 oz
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes

yummy

4 Resteep:
Water: 16 oz 195°F
Tool: Adagio IngenuiTEA 16 oz
Steep Time: a little over 4 minutes

MilitiaJim says weak, I agree

5 Resteep:
Water: 16 oz 195°F
Tool: Adagio IngenuiTEA 16 oz
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes

weak, no more after this

Favorite Zealongs: Aromatic, Pure, and then Dark.

I don’t love dark enough to swoon over it, but I do swoon over pure and aromatic.

http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/02/chicago-tea-garden-loose-leaf-oolong.html

Delicious! So far I am enjoying the “Dark” Zealong the most. I will write more detailed notes once I have made more steeps.

Uhm, so I had this tea but I had it about 4 hours ago so it’s all kind of a blur to me. I remember thinking it was really good. It reminded me a lot of Samovar’s TKY which is pretty much the only darker oolong that I like enough to buy (I’m a green oolong girl) but this one was even sweeter and more fruity. Perhaps not quite as toasty/roasty but definitely not to be mistaken for a green oolong. Very smooth, very clean, very sweet, very fruity…. very tasty!

Right now, I’m going to tie this with Samovar’s TKY. I’ll probably end up adjusting the rating when I 1) get to try it and Samovar’s TKY close together so I can compare better and 2) have a chance to pay more attention to see exactly how tasty I think it is.

And wow, writing this log made me realize that I haven’t even tried a second steep. I’m going to go do that now! (What a crazy day!)
^8g/8oz

(ETA: Had Samovar’s TKY to compare and like this one better so I’m bumping up the rating.)

I got my (ginormous) order from Chicago Tea Garden today! Yay!!!

I was really looking forward to trying this tea. I really wanted something dark in the oolong spectrum and nothing was quite hitting the spot. They were all turning out a bit too sweet to fulfill my ravenous need for roast. I love ALL oolongs, but sometimes a girl craves roasted tea, you know? I must say, the sticky rice tuochas very nearly turned my head, though.

The aroma of roasted nuts hit me as soon as I opened the tin. I’m smelling walnuts and pecans at Christmas. The tea leaves are really tightly rolled up. I had to give it two boiling water rinses before they started to loosen up. The delicious nuttiness was just enormous in the wet leaves. Oh yeah, this was definitely what I was looking for.

So, I went for 1.5 tsp for threeish ounces of water. I kinda faked the gong-fu with a small mug and the tea strainer (to keep the leaves in the mug when I poured, they were under the strainer!). My order for a couple of gaiwans has yet to arrive, and I kinda wanted to try this tea on porcelain before futzing with different clays. I’ve done it before, it’s not that hard. I gave the tea a few seconds at a time and increased the steeps from there – near the tenth steep I was doing a minute and a half. Only issue today is that I pulled a dumb blonde moment and poured the hot water from the kettle on my fingers. Derp. Lucky it wasn’t boiling, huh? :)

The liquor comes out a nice golden tone, with a delicious roasty smell that just made me want to hurry up even more. It tastes like it smells – roasted nuts, a bit like my mother’s walnut and pecan pie, without the sugar. It does have a mellow sweet finish to it, but it’s understated. Just the way I like it. My sister noted a chestnut flavour at the very end of it, which I agree with, though my experience with chestnuts is limited. The roastiness fades as the cup cools, the result being a very odd (though pleasant) nutty mellow quality.

As the steeps progress, there’s a very odd toasted…chamomile?! taste that emerges. I don’t mind chamomile, but I prefer the earlier steeps by far. Or maybe I didn’t steep them enough at the end of it? I was very confused to pick up on it, anyway. It’s the only reason I didn’t rate the tea higher. Maybe I did something wrong. Weird.

Anyway – final judgement on the tea? SO GOOD. Do try. And do drink it hot. The tea really shines.

Like others have noted, this is a clean tasting oolong. Not bitter/not astringent and just as important not vegetative. This a is relaxing, very mild, slightly floral brew. But although this oolong is described as “dark”, there is almost no toasty/toasty flavor..but maybe this oolong was “roasted” just enough to kill any grassy flavor….

this tea smells like roasted peanut butter, very nutty. it has a very clean taste, with some really interesting charcoal notes. The charcoal flavor tastes as if I took some tea in aluminum, and let it sit in my charcoal grill over night, or over a few nights and absorbed the charcoal taste. Very interesting flavor accent. This tea is very refreshing, and just makes me want more. out of the 3 zealongs, I can’t decide which I like best, I feel like they are all good for different moods and times of the day. :) Thanks for sourcing this, Tony!

Smokey, Slightly Buttery, and Slightly Toasty — very fresh and clean palatal.

I have to thank Ashmanra for sending me this tea and waiting to have a tasting with me. Maybe my nose is broken but I really didn’t get much charcoal or smoke from this tea, dry leaves or wet. It does have a very roasted nut flavor and aroma to me with a slight sweet, floral note at the end. I didn’t enjoy a second steep all that much but I may have used too much water for my amount of leaf. It was a little creamy but it tasted more of a weak green tea to me.

This tastes like a very light rock oolong with some slight floral overtones. The body has a very nutty taste, but as others have noted, the aftertaste is sweet and not at all bitter.

After tasting all three, I think that I’d currently rank all three varieties:

1. Pure
2. Dark
3. Aromatic

But this is subject to change, because I plan to give more thought to these reviews the second time around.

Darker brew, smoky flavor, neither sweet nor bitter.

This is a simple nice oolong with a wonderful roasted nut flavor at the end of every sip. It almost tastes like roasted corn at a summer picnic. It doesn’t have the sweetness or vegetal taste of lighter greener oolongs and is perfect when you want a little more bite to your oolong. I love trying teas from places other then china and india and this tea can definitely stand on its own when compared to chinese oolongs. After seeing lord of the rings I’m sure New Zealand has many perfect places to grow and process tea. Very nice.

This tea smells really nice when dry. It’s kind of a roasted scent, but clean.

195/3 min. – I’m trying to up my oolong brewing time as I prefer a stronger cup.

After brewing, it smells as if I overdid it. It’s pretty strong, but when I taste it, it’s perfect! I can taste the roasted leaves. It’s very good. There is no fruitiness or floral taste to it, just a nice roasted oolong flavor. I liked this version much more than the Zealong Pure.

I finally got to taste this tea, which was sent to me by Lori! Thank you, Lori! It took this long for me to get it to my friend in New Zealand so we could have a virtual tea tasting on Skype and then to arrange a time we could do this.

The funny thing is that I am in the States getting this in a swap from someone and I mailed a portion to someone who is two hours away from the plantation where it is grown! They have just opened a tea room there called the Camellia House.

The dry leaves smell really good. The wet leaves smell REALLY smokey! The tea is very smooth, not bitter or astringent at all, nutty, nice planty and not nasty planty. First steep was two minutes and I was generous with the leaves. WOW! They really open up!

The second steep was dark DARK yellow and full bodied, and there was a creaminess I hadn’t noticed in the first steep. I only added an extra 30 seconds.

Goooone! I bought this like over a year ago from Rachel on Teatra.de. It looks like it might be being sold at another vendor since CTG closed. It only got through about 5-6 steeps before it lost its zazz.

I love this one. Clean and simple tasting like the Zealong Pure, but with a little bit of roasty goodness. Never got bitter or astringent (you know I have a tendency to oversteep, I think I like things dark). And still held that sweetness that was in the Zealong Pure, a kind of oolongy sweetness.

This tea clears the mind, like the Pure, and puts a smile on your face. I think between this and the Pure, I would use the Pure for relaxing days and the Dark for I want to relax but I have some things to do days.

4g tea
about 5 oz water
Zealong’s website suggests about 5g per 5oz, so thats why the low amount of water.

Aroma is strong and nutty and finishes with a lingering sweetness.

The color is a light pale yellow. The leaves were rather large and dark, they have not unfurled completely.

This is a very smooth tea, the flavor does not come across nearly as strong as the aroma. There is no bitterness, no astringency. The subtle flavors may be overwhelmed by the stronger iced Assam i just finished prior. Will have to see if the re-steeps alleviate that and maybe adjust the rating higher.

Tried this in the Hong Kong tea expo. Good, Taiwanese flavours. Clean without the nasty grassy notes. A bit expensive for what it is.

Quite pleasant. The aroma is toasty and the taste is very light and slightly fruity. I might try a longer steeping time to make this a little less light.