Orchid Temple

First Infusion (2:30, boiling)

So today is Oolong Day! Why? Because I said so. I’ve picked out an oolong and I’m pretty much going to be drinking it all day. This is my first non-flavored oolong in loose leaf, so I’m pretty excited.

So I opened up the little packet for orchid temple, and the smell that comes out of the dry leaf is … toasty. In a black tea sort of way. The leaves here are rolled, in a very schizophrenic, oolong sort of way. Not quite little pellets, very asymmetrical… but a pretty green. When I poured the water over them, there was a bit of a frenzy, and a verifiable forest grew in my pot. I can see why people want to brew oolongs in glass, because the leaves are quite beautiful, and they expand very nicely.

The wet leaves smelled a bit vegetal, but the medium-gold infusion… oh. my. gah. Seriously. It smells delicious. Buttery and warm and a bit bake-y, like shortbread. Or butter cookies. With a bit of a floral undertone. Very, very mouthwatering, indeed.

My first sip, as a result, was very disappointing. This oolong, on first steep, tastes absolutely nothing like it smells. The taste is actually pretty toasty, and vegetal. A similar profile to a Chinese green. There is barely the vaguest hint of the smell (but I’m probably imagining it, because I want it so badly!), and a fair bit of astringency. My mouth feels pretty dry. Even as it cools down, there’s really nothing to write home about. The flavors are very bland and unpronounced. Sad panda face.

But I know that oolongs tend to get better on their second and third infusions, so I’m giving this one the benefit of the doubt. I’ll be drinking lots of it the entire day, and recording the results, right here!

Second Infusion (3:00, boiling)

So I steeped this again, and the infusion was a bit darker this time. The smell from the wet leaves was completely veggie-like, and it had creeped into the smell of the juice this time. There was still a buttery component, but it was balanced by a very cooked green smell.

So the taste has evolved a little bit, but nowhere that I wanted it to go. The aftertaste is now really sweet (the flavor hasn’t left my tongue since I stopped drinking it 10 minutes ago), but the taste on the forefront of the sip is pretty vegetal and slightly bitter. The astringency has definitely smoothed out, but it certainly doesn’t taste like it smells, which is extremely disappointing. Even when I slurp the tea, and run it along the different parts of my tongue for taste sensations, there’s no fireworks. Funnily enough, I swallowed the wrong way and ended up coughing a lot. Only then did I taste buttery goodness. Bah. We’ll keep going, though…

At this point I’m feeling that boiling water might not have been the best idea for this tea. Golden Moon specifically states boiling, but this oolong is definitely on the greener end of the scale. Most of the flavor profile is kind of like a weedy Chinese green. Not the most pleasant taste in the world at all, but we’ll see what happens.

Third Infusion (3:30, boiling)

Here we go again… I’m seriously starting to get more and more disappointed. This steep was around the same color as the other two. The smell, however, was almost completely green. And there was a metallic tang of an undertone that made me wrinkle my nose.

The taste… the taste is bizarre. I think I might be getting a bit more of a creamy taste now, but it’s mixed with a very oceanic, briny taste. Like it’s been steeped in water where crustaceans have been frolicking. So strange. As it cooled, the marine component became more pronounced. The sweetness is still there in the aftertaste, but it’s a bit muted, and the astringency is back. I threw out around 3/4 of the cup. Now I’m just curious to see what subsequent steeps will taste like. If this is oolong in general, then I don’t think I’m a fan, and I’m starting to get discouraged. :(

Fourth Infusion (4:00, boiling)

Last steep for me. Just dumped the leaves, because I’m really sick of this, and it’s not getting any better. At all. I want to give a shout out to the leaves here, because they’re beautiful and complete once unfurled. If only the taste matched it!

So on this last steep, the leaves actually smelled buttery again! And when the tea was piping hot, it too shared that buttery quality! I was pretty surprised, so I was excited to try it. Annnnd… the taste is really strong bitter. I thought I might have tasted that butter for a second, but it was completely gone once the tea cooled. Not good. So these leaves are being dumped.

Overall, I’m really disappointed with this, and I’m sad that my first oolong had to go this badly. Hopefully my next one will be better!

Golden Moon sample No. 8 of 31. I was glad that my random selection today was an oolong. I was in the mood for one. I can already tell I’m not likely to stop at one oolong today.

The dry leaves are very green, ranging from a dark forest color to a much lighter yellow green. Some stems are present. The leaves are tightly curled, almost in little balls. Their fragrance isn’t strong; they smell a little grassy, with a slight bit of toastiness (not nearly as as much as more oxidized oolongs often have). There’s a hint of a floral note, but it isn’t anywhere near as intense, or as beautiful, as that of the Life In Teacup An Xi Tie Guan Yin Grade II modern green style.

Liquor is pale yellow with a green tinge, very like that of many green teas. The aroma is unusual. It is floral, but… it unfortunately reminds me of the floral smell of some dishwashing liquids. It has a soapy undertone.

Thankfully, there is no soap in the taste. I do get a little bit of butter, a little bit of cream, and some floral taste on the first steep.

Second steep: 3:30 min. Color is a deeper yellow, aroma is still a little soapy, but it seems to be less now. Flavor has a more toasty, vegetal quality now. Not as heavy on the butter. There is a mild floral sweetness as well.

Third steep: 4 min. Less toasty, more vegetal, about the same buttery, about the same floral.

Fourth steep: 4:30 min. Not toasty, less vegetal, more buttery, more floral.

Fifth steep: 5:00 min. Sigh. I’m not going to do a fifth steep. I’m just not liking this enough to do another one. :-(

On a positive note, I love how wet oolong leaves look. When they unfurl, they are quite dramatic looking. It’s the same effect as those little gelatin capsules kids drop in water, and as they dissolve animals made of sponge come out that are four or five times the size of the capsule. It makes steeping somewhat unpredictable, though, since you never know whether the leaves are going to outgrow the filter when you start. (Are those oolong leaves in your filter or are you just glad to see me?) These were no exception. Wet, they are grand, majestic things that have expanded to take up about four times as much room in the filter as when they started. Olive green, with interesting serrated edges.

In all, I’m unlikely to order this one. It doesn’t bowl me over. It doesn’t even show enough promise that I want to give it another chance. I don’t find the aroma appealing, it doesn’t do anything special for me in terms of mouth feel. And it isn’t as flavorful as others I’ve had, nor does it have the character of some I’m currently enamored of.

I’m a little sad about it as I was hoping to discover another favorite. C’est la vie.

This tea looks very light with an appealing toasty aroma. I think I’m detecting “toastiness” a lot in my teas, nowadays. Maybe I’m just reacting to the warmness of the water? But in any case, this tea does, initially, seem very “toasty” to me. I think toasty is tasty, so that’s good. On first sip, I taste buttery gardenias….yummy! On subsequent sips, I’m reminded of GM’s Coconut Pouchong sans coconut. This must be the “oolong” aspect. It’s almost like roasted green tea mixed with steamed banana leaves and white flowers. The aftertaste is very orchid-like.

This is good but if I were to rate the GM oolongs (on personal preference), it would definitely be Coconut Pouchong first, Sugar Caramel Oolong second and this third.

Golden Moon Tea Sample #8, selected at random.

The buttery note of this type of tea is always pleasing and so is the floral note. It’s good and pleasant but I don’t think that there’s anything here that will sear this tea into my memory and impel me to spend money on a full size. I like, but am not in love with, oolongs, green teas and white teas, so if you are reading this, please be a bit jaundiced about my opinion. I’m the person who thinks that the smokiest Lapsang Souchongs should be smokier. I am the person who drowns herself in perfume instead of applying a tiny whiff. I’m the person who used to wear Bob Mackie knock-offs. So I can respect this tea but not, perhaps, love it.

In my attempt to be productive today, I put on a load of laundry… and made more tea. That counts as productivity, right? Especially since that removed one more sample from my pantry.

Let me preface this by saying: I’m picky about my green oolongs. Because I love them. A lot. And have had some really awesome ones. Because of that, I honestly wasn’t expecting that much from this one It’s not a cheap tea at $20 for a 4.5oz tin, but I’m in love with some that cost four times that so I really don’t think this will be a fair comparison. But it’s a green oolong so I can’t not compare.

The good news is, I wasn’t really disappointed by this one. I mean, I didn’t expect great things and I didn’t really get them. That’s not to say that is it a bad tea. It’s not. It was pretty good for what it is, actually. Has a nice light, floral scent to it – sweetly vegetal with a hint of creamy. The taste could be a little thicker – I used 3.5g/6oz so I know it isn’t my brewing that made the taste thing (or it shouldn’t have been) – but overall it’s pleasant. The aftertaste is somewhat heavy – not a light floral aftertaste or thick, chewy green flavor that I’ve had and loved in different oolongs, but rather somewhere in the awkward middle.

By far the best thing about this tea is the scent as it smells really wonderful. But for me the taste is just… lacking. I want fresher, richer and more vibrant tastes. I think if I had had this tea a year or so ago, I would rate it a lot higher but now I just want more out of my oolongs than this one can give me.

I am not enjoying this one as much as I would have hoped. I like oolong teas, but this one seems a bit too floral for me. There is a floral note to the dried leaves and then one to the brewed tea. Sifting through other reviews on here, it appears I infused it a bit incorrectly, but you live and learn.

As I said, the dried leaves, curled into little balls, smell like oolong with a strong floral note. I will not lie, that this note concerned me, so I added a few rocks of sugar to my cup as it was infusing. Followed package directions, infused hot, three minutes.

The liquor is a very pale yellow and the odor is characteristic of the dried leaves, there are no additional aromas released upon brewing. The tea continues to baffle me because though I can smell the floral orchid note, I really can only taste oolong while it was hot. As I allowed the tea to cool, I noticed more of a bitter note at the end of the oolong, this was not here while the brew was hot. This bitter note is more upsetting because I added sugar to the brew.

I fear I messed something up, that or I do not like orchids in my oolong…

Underwhelmed. Mehness. The flavour of this tea does not live up to the promise made by its fragrance. It smells really nice, but the flavour is a bit bland, a bit weak. The fragrance is mostly that of green tea: fresh-smelling, a bit vegetal. There are also some floral undertones here. Given its name (and given that I read only the name, and not the ingredients), I thought I’d get more orchid (I love floral teas), but that’s not the case. There is only the most subtle of floral hints in the fragrance, and even these are mostly absent from the flavour.

I like less subtlety in my tea, so found this a mediocre offering. Next, please.

This is a very pleasing, quiet contemplative cup of tea for me. Very light and floral, unlike some of the more recent oolongs I have been trying which are more on the buttery/vegetal side. I am still on the fence about whether I like floral type teas but I think this would be a nice, mellow substitute for something like a jasmine green. Pretty a-ok in my book but not totally riveting.

The description here seems quite accurate to me: green and floral. Also a little buttery, at least in the aroma. The color is a very pale green, almost like a white tea. This reminds me of Samovar’s Four Seasons, but maybe just because that’s the most recent green oolong I’ve had; this is lighter in flavor, and sweeter. It doesn’t quite have the rich buttery mouthfeel of FS though. (Note: they are both Tie Guan Yin/Iron Goddess varieties)

This was a very generously sized sample – at least 4 grams of tightly rolled leaves, total. I’ve steeped it twice so far, and may adjust the rating depending on how many it yields. I don’t quite have a system for how much QPR affects my ratings, but it is a factor i.e. if this yields a comparable number of steeps as Four Seasons, it will get a slightly higher rating because I like them similar amounts and this costs half as much. I find it relevant, because if a tea feels like a ripoff, I genuinely enjoy it less.

ETA: I’ve had six steeps of this now, and it’s getting milder, but no faster than the Four Seasons did.

2.3g leaf, 3.5 oz water, 45 second steeps near boiling
$21/4oz

After my strong cup of French Breakfast this morning (the caffeine in there had me buzzing for quite a while!), I wanted something a little more mellow for this afternoon. I’m down to my last few Golden Moon samples, so this seemed like the right one. I had a feeling the tightly compacted chunklets would do a good job of expanding, and that was definitely the case. After two minutes of steeping, they looked to be about halfway undone, i.e. a good place to stop and take a first taste.

1st steep: 2.5 minutes, 190 degrees: There’s a pleasant buttered vegetables aroma, which is partially but not fully realized in the flavor. I also have some subtle floral and toasty notes, but they’re pretty far in the background.

2nd steep: 3 minutes, 190 degrees: I’m not getting as much toastiness this time, but a little more general vegetal flavor. Buttery notes have toned down too. Aroma is milder but still grassy and pleasant.

Overall not a bad Oolong, but I probably wouldn’t seek it out especially.

I’m baaaacccckkk! Due to switching internet providers I had about a week without service (can we say, going insane)?! Anyways, I am backlogging from teas that I have had over that time. I decided to try this sample since my previous Orchid Tea that I sampled from a tea bar tasted watered down. This one was ok, definitely not watered down tasting…pretty smooth, but nothing special. I expected a more floral note to it, but it was very mild…so mild that I kind of had to concentrate a bit too be able to pick up on it. All in all it was a decent tea, but it seemed to be lacking something.

I’ve decided that I’m a floral freak and I’m letting my floral freak flag fly (say that ten times fast)! Oolongs are still new to me, so I’m guessing that someday in the future I will think this one’s ho-hum. But for now I’m loving this. I’m on the third infusion and plan to keep goin’ as many times as possible – I just had to get my first 3 steeps down before I forgot (and will edit to add more info if I feel it is warrented).

Steep 1 (180ish for 3 minutes): I always think that I’m going to hate oolongs on the first infusion. The dry leaf smell doesn’t do anything for me and then the first taste is always so very veggie and I’m not a huge veg fan. Still nice, but very veg and no floral (but the leaves hadn’t fully opened). Oh – and I had done a short rinse on them.

Steep 2 (180ish for 3 minutes): Less strong veg and just the tiniest little whisper of floral. Mmm…

Steep 3 (180ish for 4 minutes): Where the hell did this sweet floral side come from?!?! It’s like a completely new tea! It has a great floral taste and then it’s the most interesting sweet lingering sensation on my tongue. I’ve never experienced that lingering sensation before. If someone handed me this tea on its third steep and had me try it, then I think that I’d be utterly confused and not know what it was. A floral white perhaps? Again – remember I have a noob palate. ;) Off for the fourth steep I go! TG

A light tea with a predominately green tea flavor. Significant floral notes, almost to the point of being a green jasmine tea. The floral taste doesn’t last long and it is a green tea that you get as an aftertaste.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find this tea in a better quality Chinese restaurant.

I had 2 steeps of this. It smelled so good I couldn’t stop smelling the package even after I’ve emptied the leaves into my gaiwan. It reminds me some cute tea shops that I used to frequent when I lived in NY. I love the dark green leaves all rolled up into a ball. There are some stems in there. The scent is a little musty, sweet, floral, and green.

I had 3 steeps. The steep is a nice yellow color. It tastes and smells buttery and green. There is a hint of floral and sweetness to it but it is very slight. Something lingers in the back of my tongue and its a bit fishy. Sometimes I get that similar taste with some senchas I’ve had. I imagine this would be good with seafood.

I didn’t rate this very well because it was also a bit bitter and the fishy thing.

-EDIT—
So I did one more steep and it was so smooth! The fish thing I’ve been experiencing has diminished. I’m bumping the rating up a bit.

Ah it was ok. Nothing seriously huge about this one or as it is “nothing to write home about” May have to try it again to make sure. It was sorta grassy/earthy but like I said no “Wow” factor here.

This isn’t the strongest tasting tea, but I would definitely accept a tin of this for a gift. I think I would even buy it!

I will need to try more oolongs before I can give a really good review of this. I’m not sure my palate is sophisticated enough to figure out what’s missing. Maybe there’s nothing missing, but after reading the other reviews of this tea, I suspect that I just haven’t tried enough oolongs.

Another oolong from Golden Moon. I loved the other orchid oolong that I’ve tried, so it was a no-brainer to get a sample of this one. The dry leaf has a strong scent but it seems lightly scented, if that makes sense: unlike most flavored/scented teas it seems, this one smells primarily like the vegetal green oolong with only a hint of sweet floral aroma to it. Looking back, that actually matches up with the other orchid oolong I tried (the Orchid Oolong from Tea Lux).

That one became very floral when brewed, but this one less so. The florals pick up in the taste a bit, and even provide a lingering sweetness at the tail end, but I wouldn’t consider this to be a highly floral tea. Just a breath of florals, really. It’s mostly the vegetal green oolong, slightly nutty, a bit roasted, and the florals fold in like they were always part of the tea, like it was natural and not scented at all. Overall a nice, tasty tea, but not quite right for my palate.

It smells like oolong and looks very bright clear yellow.
It tastes floral, bit oolongy but quite watery too. But I can’t say I dont like it. It’s OK for me. A really gentle one.
It could have fuller and smoother oolong taste tho. I like the aftertaste more than that taste while drinking it…

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #15:
Goodness, the packet wasn’t kidding about the whole pale green thing. My initial brewing, which I did exactly as I was told to, (Boiling water, really?) and got a very light, almost tasteless green tea. No floral note that I could discern, and altogether not particularly impressive.

I let my second cup steep longer. It’s now more of a golden color, and has more taste, but on the downside is, of course, also more bitter. By quite a bit. The original steep didn’t have any bitterness, which was probably the point.

On the third cup, the tastes seem to have settled down somewhat and I’m finally getting something floral. It all seems quite muted to me though, and I can’t help but feel decidedly meh about the whole thing. Guys…I think I might just not be that into Oolong.

This tea is a light fermented Wuyi Oolong which means the leaves were grown in a specific area in the Fujian Provence of China. Even though this is a light Oolong it is remarkably toasty in the first infusion. Not toasty like a dark roasted Oolong but a lighter flavor version that retains the complexity without the strength.

The second infusion loses a lot of the toastiness and really showcases the floral undertones and sweetness. Don’t get me wrong it still tastes fermented. This is absolutely no where near a pouchong but it does have that kind of lightness to it.

Anyways light but complex flavor.

Brewed 3 minutes. Taken Plain. Sampling first and second infusions.