Orange Blossom Oolong

I tend to generally enjoy a flavoured oolong, but I’m not too keen on floral teas. I have, however, succesfully had teas with orange blossoms before and find them to be quite tolerable.

The dry leaves certainly smells like oranges. I suspect it’s not just orange blossoms, I suspect there is also some actual orange flavouring in here. It’s a very pungent smell. Almost perfume-y. And when I say perfume-y, I mean perfume-y as in sitting behind a woman on the bus who used the same perfume every day for so long that she no longer has any idea of how much perfume she’s actually wearing. (There’s a woman like that on the bus I take to work. I try to avoid sitting within two seats of her if I can. On a particularly bad day, it’s like I can almost taste it.)

Then, when I poured the tea, the strongest floral aroma wafted up from the cup. Very floral. Dusty and grey smelling and highly suspicious.

This lead me to study the ingredients list a little closer. True enough, it said ‘natural flavours’ so it’s definitely been just flavoured with orange. It also said ‘jasmine petals’.

Jasmine petals?!

I abhor jasmine flavoured teas! Why are there jasmine petals in something that’s supposed to be orange blossom? Why do the words ‘orange blossoms’ not even feature anywhere at all except for the name of the blend? It does not look like the picture and the description on the site even says it’s got orange blossoms in it. Now I’m sitting here with a cup that has managed to sorely disappoint me before I’ve even tasted it.

This is not at all an old tea in my collection, but it’s definitely going on the Consider-This-First shelf regardless, just so I can get rid of it quicker. Unless anybody wants it, in which case I’ve got somewhere between 20 and 25 grams, I think, and I will happily give it away.

Right, I’d better taste it.

It’s not actually as bad as feared right at first. At first I’m getting a strong orange flavour but none of the jasmine. The orange is so heavy that I can’t actually find much in the way of the base tea. I can only tell that it’s something rather more delicate than a black base, but I can’t say anything about the oolong used as such.

Just when I think it’s not actually going to be so abysmal, I swallow. And hello, jasmine! It doesn’t seem like it’s completely overwhelmed with jasmine, but for someone who dislikes the stuff even a little jasmine comes across as lots. Impossible to ignore it.

Yeah, I don’t like this tea at all.

Why is this stuff not sold as ‘Jasmine and orange oolong’? Because that’s what it is.

Seriously, Steepsterites. If anybody wants it, let me know. Husband is currently drinking the rest of my cup. I’m going to make something else.

(edited for grammar error)