China Classic Oolong

I have been making daily brew of this for quite some time and enjoying the amber coloring of this tea with it robustness in flavor. I like inhaling the smokiness as it is boiling or steeping and I can honestly say I prefer this Classic Oolong by Foojoy above all else to date.

I have also sampled my Vintage Wuyi Wulong and this is not as good in flavor. It is mild and not at all robust like Foojoy’s Classic Oolong. It holds none of that roasted scent as does the Foojoy.

What I have been able to do is to diffuse the strength found in the Foojoy’s Oolong by adding one bag of the Wuyi Wulong, making this classic oolong less smoky in flavoring. Mind you I prefer the smokiness since it reminds me of the smell of coffee.

I am saying and encouraging coffee lovers wishing to switch to drinking tea to try Foojoy’s Classic Oolong.

So I am going out the door this morning and I notice my wife has a box of International Delights Almond Joy non-dairy coffee creamer cups sitting on the counter. Well who doesn’t like Almond Joy? So I grabbed one and tried to decide what tea will go with this. I started to use puerh and I still may have to try that one next week. I settled on this wuyi oolong thinking the roastiness would work well. I poured the whole container in the cup and it turned this dark tea almost white. This is obviously coconut but not really milk chocolate and only a little almond. I’m a bit disappointed not to get those flavors. I do think half the creamer would have been better. Still it was a fun way to start my work day.

I brewed a cup of this bagged tea with 5 chocolate mint leaves. The result was very good. The oolong is a dark wuyi oolong and is roasty. The mint is a light peppermint taste with a hint of chocolate. The combination really worked for me this morning.

I think I usually use boiling water. Today I used cooler water and a 3 minute steep. Cooler water makes this tea. The roastiness is milder and the sip is milky. Delicious. Upping the rating.

I keep a couple different $2 boxes of bagged oolong around for the convenience of when I am too lazy to use the press. Measuring out the tea would add a whole 5 seconds to the process. As cheap as they are, the bags aren’t really a bargain, when you consider how many times loose leaf can be resteeped, unless you are a steep once and throw out kind of person. I digress. Here I am, bag in hand. On the black end of the oolong scale. This is roasty and toasty. You can almost taste campfire in the sip. One of these days I will try a loose version and never look back. I’m pretty sure I am missing a big chunk of the flavor this type tea is capable of delivering. For now, this was a good choice to begin my day. Better than I remembered.

So…I had this, evidently, at a restaurant about a year ago. If it’s where I think it was, my entree was likely so spicy it burnt off my ability to detect all but the most rudimentary flavors. So at the time, I called it “nutty.”

K S sent me another bag to try, sans spicy drunken basil stir fry, and I’d like to amend my previous description. This time around, I’m getting Juicy Fruit. (Which, according to various wiki-think opinions, incorporates banana, pineapple, and peach…and maybe jackfruit, whatever that is.)

Vagueness notwithstanding (on my part), it’s pretty tasty, I know it meets my Cheapster Steepster standards, and there’s always something to be said for a convenient little bag you can tuck in your purse or pocket. Worth checking out.