Bai Ya Qi Lan Oolong

Love! I absolutely adore Oolong teas, and Life In Teacup has become one of my favorite purveyors of Oolong teas (as well as other teas!) because their teas are always of utmost quality.

This is an amazing Oolong – Sweet, lightly floral, hints of toasty flavors in the distance. I definitely taste that marshmallow likeness to this, sweet and soft and yummy. A dryness toward the end of the sip, ending with a crispness that is almost mint-like. The floral notes remind me of orchid and osmanthus. Sweet and absolutely delicious. I love LOVE love this!

Prior to infusing this smelled like a cross between a green and oolong but with a little extra something! It was like smelling a Citronella Candle while in the woods! A very unique aroma that I enjoyed!

The flavor is out of this world! It’s sweet and floral but has natural lemon hints as well as a little bit of toasty-business happening, too!

This is pretty special!

I’ve finally broken into more of the “sampler order” I made with Life In Teacup and am so happy that I did! I was really having trouble putting into words how this tastes – the closest that I could get was “you definitely know that you’re drinking plant water.” But that sounds bad, and this is anything BUT bad. I really think the other reviews do a better job of breaking down the aroma/flavor of this tea. And when I read “marshmallow” I had a “EUREKA!” moment of finally being able to nail down the aftertaste. Sort of like a marshmallow that’s been over a campfire (but just barely). I may have to order more of this! NE (would be TG, but I want to spend more time with this one with better steeping parameters than I have here at work).

First Steep: I am really loving the overwhelming sweetness. It’s floral, but does have a marshmallow-like quality. There is something fluffy, plush and soft about the flavor. I think this is the sweetest oolong I’ve tasted so far. Really delicious!

Second Steep: More floral and less of that marshmallow sweetness. Yes, it’s still tasty and sweet, but the flavor is dancing much more around flowers than anything else.

I would continue, but it’s time for food! I will update later with my thoughts on future infusions of this tea. For now, I am very happy with this tea and would honestly drink cup after cup of that first steep.

Very pleasant! Slightly minty, definitely get the "orchid fragrance " floral flavor from this. Not even the slightest bit bitter at first steeping. Earthy, tastes very green. Reminds me of a nice floral garden. Okay this is going to be a really weird analogy but it kind of tastes like I’m chewing on very pleasant, very fresh cuttings in a perfume shop, but in a good way. Really… good way. It’s kind of confusing, but the flavors combine well and create a generally very nice experience. I’m still getting my bearings with unflavored oolongs, so I might update this score later, but this is pretty darn good.

Leaves smell very grassy green teeish, promising.

Mmmm the smell of tea is quite powerful and nice. Color is bright yellow.
Tastes sweet, very flavored, super smooth. Idk how I would describe the aroma. It has a bit of a nutty thing but also something almost a bit fruity and also flowery. Yeah, complex but yet so simple and delicious. Just yummy.

Light and fresh with an easy going marshmallow sweetness and cool minty, floral aftertaste. I’m feeling perfectly lazy right now and this tea is doing me right.

Ooh, I am giving this tea nothing like proper attention but it is very sweet and lovely!

A light sweet oolong with a sweet marshmallow taste. Resteeps nicely.

The dry tea has gentle yet distinctive floral fragrance, which, in traditional Chinese tea jargon, is specified as orchid fragrance (however I personally have no experience of fragrance from an orchid plant). In the first a few infusions, tea water is light yellow with some green hint. The aroma lingers around the upper palate up into nasal cavity. The aroma is a mixture of early spring flower and grass. Later infusions of this tea yield more intensive yellow color with golden hint. The flavor shifts from upper palate to closer to throat, generate a warm feeling.

This tea caught my attention in a few ways. First, this is a traditional, famous varietal that is rarely seen in market nowadays. It took me some time to find a good product of Bai Ya Qi Lan. Secondly, this tea is made from the same tea cultivar for Wuyi Qi Lan. However, by tasting, it’s almost impossible (100% impossible for me) to tell the two Qi Lan are from one same tea cultivar. In tea world, there are many tea cultivars that display distinctively different characters when grown in different area and processed with different methods. Again this tea demonstrates such diversity.

Comparison with other tea: People who favor green style Tie Guan Yin, Chinese green tea and Taiwan high mountain oolong may like this very well. People who favor Wuyi Qi Lan, it will be interesting to try this tea and compare, but don’t expect this tea to resemble Wuyi Qi Lan in any way :P

5g tea in 4oz. water. 30sec. steep time is for first 3 infusions.