Ginger's Oolong

And the last tea we tried tonight. I have a confession: some day I will be a crazy cat lady. I love my two cats and completely spoil them. One of them is named Ginger, and I thought it was adorable that this tea is called “Ginger’s Oolong”. Yep, I’m a dork. I got a sample.

I was a bit surprised at first because most of it looks like very small leaves, almost as if it was made with a CTC oolong. I thought, who would make CTC oolong? Then I remembered I’ve drank tea bag oolong before, the beloved yamamotoyama, and while it’s nothing special it’s not awful either.

Brewed up this tastes lightly floral and fruity with a nice bite of ginger, almost like drinking a not very strong herbal ginger infusion. But unlike the Adagio supposedly-ginseng-but-really-ginger tea I had recently, this is good. Nice ginger flavor without being overpowering or drying out my throat and mouth. I think this works well with the oolong as a balancing act.

Edit, a couple of classic Ginger photos:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lubrvgPgJa1r581hyo1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzkeizxv0j1r581hyo1_500.jpg

I ordered this sample quite a while ago and have been saving it for a special day, and today is that day! Twenty-five years ago today I drove to South Carolina to give a young man a pound cake. I came home engaged! (Must have been a really good pound cake, or he was a starving college student!) This morning, I awaken to find….the Teavana Dragonfly tetsubin and warmer on my tea table! EEEEEE! He had driven out of town yesterday to get it, calling my youngest to make sure it was the right one! I had to make a really special oolong in it.

And this is it! A really special oolong! I thought I was using too few leaves since it was a sample and this is the large pot, but this is full of flavor. The oolong base is dark, which is my favorite kind of oolong, and the ginger is just right – not too strong, not too biting. I agree that it tastes like candied ginger because it is so sweet, and I am not really getting a bite as some described, unless perhaps I just don’t know what that is! I find it smooth, naturally sweet, and warm with ginger flavor. If I order another whole tin of oolong, I think it will be this one. Even hubby liked it sans additions, and he really only drinks a couple of teas, and those with milk and a LOT of sugar, or iced and Southern sweet!

Harney makes a terrific formosa oolong and I love ginger so I had higher hopes for this one. Smells weird in the package and even weirder as a tea. I don’t have much else to say about it except I’m glad it’s only a sample. I will try steeping maybe with less time and see if I can improve upon my icky feelings.

I love this tea. I ordered a sample size of it and now I am thinking I’ll have to order a tin. It’s dark oolong, if that’s your thing (and it happens to be the kind of oolong that I like). It has a nice mellow ginger flavor in the background; more of a candied ginger flavor than a fresh ginger. It’s cold and dreary here today and this tea is perfect for the day. It reminds me of something…

That soft, buttery oolong taste with just a mild zing of ginger. I foresee an empty tea tin in my near future, as I will probably be drinking a lot of this.

I did not like this tea at the first and the second time I steeped it. I thought it was too sweet, and lacks the spice of ginger. But then I have increased the steeping time and have liked more. I have steeped since then for about 5 minutes, water at 90°C, and the sweetness have go down, and I can taste the soft taste of the oolong.
But still lacks something that reminds me of ginger. And the smell of the infusion is weird (mainly when i do a second steep of the leaves).

I really like ginger, and I love Harney’s regular formosa oolong, so I thought this would be a perfect combination. But, that didn’t turn out to be the case. The ginger in this tea is very faint (no bite at all), so for me it was just an unsatisfying element that was tempering the sweet woodsy flavor that makes me love their unflavored formosa. This felt like a “diet” version of the original with a tiny bit of ginger flavor.

I enjoyed this tea. Liked the spice from the ginger

Fragrance from the tin is quite strong, but when brewed delicately the taste is mellow with a nice bite at the end. 160-170 degrees for 2-3 minutes maximum is recommended.