Ginseng Oolong

At first, when this was hot, I quite enjoyed my cup. The ginseng sweetness was interesting, but certainly not typical of my normal tea rotation. It definitely lingers!
But then when it cooled I started to dislike the fake sweetness, because it reminded me of splenda, which I cannot stand the taste of. Overall, I give this one a thumbs down. Not something I’d try again, even if it was offered to me free of charge.
Although… the oolong part was nice. I suppose that is about the only positive thing I have to say here heh

So tonight I decided that it was high time to sample my ginseng oolong sample from Teavivre, and alongside it, the sample of ginseng oolong that I recently picked up at DavidsTea! I brewed each according to the given instructions to see how they fared compared to each other.

I used approximately the same water:leaf ratio for this tea as for the Teavivre version (about 2 tsp for 2.5 cups), and noticed that the colour/aroma definitely took quite a bit longer to develop in the DT version, which is likely why it required 5 minutes instead of two.

The aroma of this cup is sweet and just sliiightly seaweedy. It’s interested, both my roommate and I noticed that the tea smells and tastes much like a fried seaweed snack we tried and loved last year. Basically, salted and fried up crispy seaweed. I’m wondering now if there was ginseng in it, or if it’s just a coincidence that the two are similarly scented/flavoured. It’s actually quite an interesting, tasty flavour, kind of toasty and delicious, and then an intense sweetness emerges, which must be the ginseng, along with a mild oolong flavour. I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of the sweet aftertaste, as it reminds me of licorice and artificial sweeteners, but I don’t find it quite as bad as either of those, so can tolerate it. So overall, this is actually a pretty yummy cup. Perhaps not the first tea I’d go for given a choice, but it’s certainly worth trying!

This is tasty! I was cranky with the ginseng green I got from Adagio, in large part because the predominant flavor was ginger and not ginseng. No such trickery here. I was a little spooked that the label said to steep this for 5 mins, but the flavor is perfect.

The tea looks like little mossy rocks. I showed them to my housemate and he thought they were cool too, even though as he said it “doesn’t look like tea”. I watched this one brew in the steeper. In the first couple of minutes the layer of ginseng starts floating off, and the water gets a tiny bit cloudy. After that the oolong leaves themselves start to unfold, tiny and leafy. Unlike most ball oolongs which really unfold during the steep, these stayed somewhat ball like. They almost looked like little pieces of rolled up seaweed floating in the water.

I love the flavor of this. The oolong flavor is at the forefront, tasting a bit like a roasted tikuanyin. After that there’s a hint of ginseng and a sweetness that reminds me a bit of stevia. This tea also feels really cooling inside my mouth.

I bought this in the little sample size (the individual cup size they sometimes have near the cash register). Ginseng doesn’t normally agree with me, but I was too curious to see what this tastes like to pass up at least trying it. I’ve been hesitating to try it for so long that I deliberately put it at the front of my cupboard so I couldn’t continue passing it by.

Thankfully, so far I am not experiencing any ill effects, maybe there isn’t very much ginseng in it? The oolong base is lovely and the ginseng taste isn’t overbearing, it actually reminds me of a spice? Hmmm…Tarragon maybe? I’m not sure.

The more I drink this first steep, the less I like it. The aftertaste lingers in a strange way, and is starting to make me feel a little weird. I don’t think my tummy likes this very much.

Even though my first steep didn’t agree with me entirely, I proceeded to do a 2nd and 3rd steep, which didn’t seem to bother my stomach as much. Not something that I’d buy again because of my reaction to the first steep. It’s not bad, but there are so many other teas out there that I’d prefer to drink.

Dry Leaf Nose: Sweet and lively oolong tea, with ginseng covering the nose.

Liquor: Green with some cloudiness, with an aroma of ginseng leaf and oolong tea.

Flavour: A delicious tea with a great darker jade oolong character (similar to Tie Kwan Yin), complete with piney overtones and slight shea butter notes. The liquor has a rich crisp oolong taste with a strong and pleasing ginseng aftertaste. It lingers well and is excellent for several quality steepings. The first steeping has a very strong oolong character.

1.5 tsp for 250mL water @ 90C, steeped 4 minutes, drunk bare.

I hardly know how to describe this one.

Sweet and crisp, as the write-up goes. Lingering. Almost floral — really hard to describe. Really good. This one shoudl be good for at least two more infusions.

The boyfriend convinced me to get some of this oolong, not that I need more oolongs, I have so many I haven’t tried! Anyways, I brewed him up a cup of this, and I am going to taste and log on here.

The dry smell is very green smelling, I like it, there’s a bit of something strong, must be the ginseng in it. Wet leaves, oh, this cup smells quite good now! I am getting a hint of butter, and of course a lovely oolong. I’m really not sure what ginseng smells like, but I’m sure it’s in there!

This tea has a lovely taste. The foremost flavor is oolong, then the ginseng kicks in, then, afterwards, there’s an interesting sweetness. It feels almost as if your throat is coated in honey, and it tastes similar as well.

Overall, this is an interesting tea. As I haven’t tried many ginseng teas, I don’t have much to compare it too, but it’s decent. The sweetness at the end is a bit different. I will have to try a full cup of this at some point (PS – the bf likes it a lot too)

Licorice-like sweetness fills the mouth on the sip. Oolong vegetal taste faintly in the background.

WOW! As a huge fan of the Quangzhou Milk Oolong, I was really excited to try this new oolong, and I wasn’t disappointed!

The tight “mossy pebble” leaves are perfect for adding to a travel mug and just topping up the water as you go along. It’s definitely the greenest liquor of all my oolongs, and something about that makes me happy.

It’s a sweet, slightly creamy tea with a subtle almost honeysuckle undertone. After drinking, it leaves a lingering sweetness on my breath, which in turn leaves a smile on my lips. I’d never had ginseng before, so never would have thought to combine it with oolong, but I’m really in love with the combination!

Not my cup of tea. This tea was a reco from my local Davids. The sweetness that comes through this tea reminds me of artificial sweeteners. Sadly, not even interested in trying a resteep. Will not be repurchasing.

Well this brews up quite a bit darker than my straight oolongs. Hmm. We will see, we will see. Oh the fiance just walked into the kitchen and commented “that tea smells disgusting, get it out of here”. Oh wonderful.

Hmm. I don’t think I’m too fond of this one. Must be the ginseng. A very strange aftertaste in the back of my mouth/throat.

I’m going to be a bit of a black sheep here and be the first one to say that I’m really not a fan of the Ginseng Oolong. Even though I really wanted to be.

I had this as a hot cup to go. That may have been my problem – so I won’t write this one off completely at this point.

Drank it straight, and likely oversteeped with too hot water. I found that at the top of the sit it tasted like a good standard oolong, but it quickly took on this clinging sweetness that lingered long after the swallow. Weird sensation. I’m not used to sweetness with oolongs, so it really threw me off. As it continued steeping on my walk home, this became even more pronounced. I’d really like to try this again under different circumstances – shorter steep time, proper water temp, etc., to see if my experience improves.

Got a sample of this with my recent order.
Not bad, I enjoyed it with a little bit of sweetening.
I don’t know that I would order it for myself, but wouldn’t turn it down if offered it.

Funky, weird, tasty…

I’ve been on an Oolong streak for the last week, I have almost knocked off all the oolong’s DAVIDsTEA has to offer, many tasting notes will be coming in the next couple days, especially the straight oolongs.

I kept getting told I had to try this tea, it is one of the favorites of a couple of the girls that work in my local Davids store. At first I was put off of it mistakenly thinking it was ginger not ginseng, after clearing that up I considered it was worth a try.

I found this to be a unique tea not only in appearance but in flavor as well. The ginseng coated oolong balls look more like something you would find at the bottom of an improperly cleaned aquarium, funny enough the smell is not too far off to boot! Steeping the tea brings out more of the ginseng sweetness in the aroma.

The final brew is quite dark compared to a lot of the other oolongs I have been drinking, I believe the only one really comparable so far in color for me has been high mountain oolong. But between various steeping times and Gung Fu methods its been a wide variety of colors and flavors from the oolongs.

I don’t quite know where I sit with this tea, I bought a 26 gram sample and have gone through about half of it. I enjoy the taste but I am still not sure if it is one I would keep in my stash or not, it’s got the rest of this sample to wow me otherwise it might get removed.

Wow, so this is maybe the first oolong tea that I’ve tried and enjoyed. Given the choice, I usually like to go for flavored or scented teas, I rarely go for straight teas, let alone an oolong variety.

The first brew of this tea had an overpowering taste of ginseng, with not a lot of the oolong flavor. The second brew however, was much more well-rounded. Both had intense flavor, without over-doing it or being bitter.

There’s a certain freshness to this tea, and the after taste is one of the most astringent that I know of. If you have ever chewed on licorice bark, you are already familiar with the feeling it leaves in your mouth. It’s refreshing, and I think it would be a good one if you were feeling a sore throat coming on, or weren’t feeling well.

Overall, it’s a neat tea. Not what I was expecting, but delicious in it’s own way.

I’m just really stuck and cooped up in my room watching video lessons and doing intense functions and physics work for the unit tests tomorrow, not to mention having to do my biology presentation over again because my laptop crashed and hence, why I have to do my powerpoint over again.
Luckily, this tea is once again accompanying me to handle my jobs well. This tea is basically my go to tea! It’s got a nice flavour to it, and the sweetness just kind of lingers throughout the process of drinking it. I love it both hot and iced, and I’ll be sure to go buy this in a full tin – sad the one nearby only offers Ginseng Oolong in the little packets.

Update: So now my nearby David’s Tea offers Ginseng Oolong in bulk! The moment I saw it on the counter while sniffing other teas, I just HAD TO HAVE IT, and so I did, a full tin of it. This has got to be my most favourite teas of all teas at the moment. I went through half the tin within approx. two weeks? It’s amazing to drink for any given time on my schedule. In the mornings when I need something to keep me up, a refreshing drink, when I’m sick or feeling like horrid, and even all nighters. It tastes good hot, and still good when it cools down. This tea is perfect.

My DAVIDsTEA friends told me about this one day (they were all ooh-ing about it for some reason, I forgot) when I walked into the store and I decided to buy a little sample of it to take home to try for myself.

It’s been sitting in the back of my cupboard for a month now and I’ve finally remembered to try it. (Was in the mood for oolong)

At first I couldn’t remember why they said I should try it, something about the taste..hmmm..
After the cup was brewed, I took a sip aaaaand nothing. It’s just a nice vegetal oolong.

Then seconds later after the first sip or two I didn’t realize but I inhaled through my nose and noticed this strange sweet after taste in the back of my throat. Like many on here said, it’s kind of artificial? I felt sick at first but it sort of grew on me. It’s a licorice-y (menthol?) kind of sweet. Very strange. I loved that the dry leaves looked like tiny green pebbles.

Don’t know if I’ll restock because it nearly made me upchuck but it’s neat.

Very green,sweet and very smooth. I didn’t know if I would like it so I only bough 50g but sort of wished I bought more. A great pick me up tea.

I hadn’t had a lot of experience with oolongs, so I was interested in trying the sample pack I had. The tea itself looked like green dog kibble, and had a mild, aromatic smell.
The liquor itself was equally mild. I enjoyed it, but would’ve liked something a little stronger.
And of course, this tea also made me violently ill afterwards, but up until that, I mostly liked it.

Well, I steeped it too long, so it came out a bit bitter. The ginseng sweetness showed through, and it’s a weird sweetness in the back of my throat… not wholly unpleasant, but very weird. I don’t know if I’d buy a whole tin of this, but it’s not horrid.

The second steep, is less weird. I mean, I can still taste the ginseng, but now it’s better with the oolong.