Melon Oolong

I’m craving fruit, but there is no fruit at home! So I broke into this melon oolong. Melons are so lackluster this time of year. Thank goodness we have tea to tide us over till summer.

This particular tea is like cantaloupe and honeydew. Smells so sweet! I definitely underleafed. Will fix for next time! The taste is very good. Melony and summery with a nice green oolong base. I still want real fruit though.

I have a feeling that this will be good cold. I’l make the second steep a cold brew. It’s time for bed anyhow.

Good night all!

I sure am drinking a lot of tea tonight. This is my second cold steep of the day and I already have another one in the fridge, plus I had matcha this afternoon. I’ve already planned out my evening tea as well, sigh. Hopefully it’s not too much caffeine—usually tea caffeine doesn’t have too much of an effect on me, but 5 cups in one day is more than my usual so we’ll just have to wait and see.

I love melon teas, and I already have two I adore (Butiki’s Cantaloupe & Cream and GMT’s Persian Melon) but they are both white teas and hey, one more can’t hurt! Actually, counting watermelon I probably have way more than 2, but for some reason I don’t count watermelon in the “melon” flavor family. Cantaloupe, honeydew, and stuff closer to that is what I think of when my brain goes to melon. I guess the flavor of watermelon is just really different? It’s also got a really different consistency.

The description doesn’t say what type of melon flavor is used. It smells somewhere between cantaloupe and honeydew, so I’d assume it’s sprite melon. When Japanese snacks are listed as melon flavored that is usually what it is. It’s also got very pale flesh, and the chunks of dried melon in here are white. So, sprite melon oolong! The smell itself is juicy, fresh and enticing but almost candy-ish in its sweetness. I find that true with a lot of Lupicia’s blends, but they rarely have that artificial, sugary-sweet aspect once brewed.

This is no exception, since the taste is pure, delicious, fresh melon! At first I thought the oolong was kind of lost, but as my tea “warmed up” (my fridge is VERY cold!) the oolong popped into the picture. Soft, floral, and very delicious. The melon compliments it perfectly, and it seriously tastes like fresh-squeezed melon juice mixed with green oolong. Perfection! Well, honestly this doesn’t beat out Cantaloupe & Cream, but in its own way it is almost as good!

I’ve been eating such insanely rich foods lately that when I think of tea, all I want is something fruity and green. I could really go for a bowl of fresh melon, but this melon oolong will have to do! The dry leaf smells incredibly juicy & sweet. I can almost taste the ripe melon!

Sipping… this tea’s flavor is much lighter than the scent would suggest. As I sip, I’m thinking, “where is all of the melon?” Just as I’m about to give up, I taste it. There it is: creamy melon juice & flowers from the oolong. To me, it’s unquestionably honeydew. It’s sweet and juicy and SO delicious. The oolong is hand in hand with the melon and contributes that green, leafy bit to round out the cup. The two together combine into that juicy melon closest to the rind — you know, the almost bitter, almost flavorless part. I love how this tea is a perfect balance of sweet honeydew melon and floral oolong.

A part of me wishes that the flavor were a bit stronger. I would love that overwhelming melon sweetness in a cup of tea, but I’m enjoying this cup so much despite the rather mild flavor. Thank you, ToiToi for letting me try this tea!

This one did not come in my happy bag, unfortunately. I was hoping for more like this, oh well. This sample came from AlphaKitty! Thanks so much!

This was delicious! The melon was so juicy and awesome, like the ripest, sweetest cantaloupe or perhaps some of the other more exotic similar melons I’ve tried. It fit in great with the slightly buttery, green and fresh oolong. And it if anything it got tastier as it cooled down… This would make a fantastic iced tea. The quality of the flavoring on this reminded me of some of Naivetea’s oolongs, although the flavoring is a bit heavier on this one. I really hope the pineapple oolong, which did come in my happy bag, is as good as this one!

LOVE the smell of this tea. I was walking past the counter in a store in Osaka and this one caught my eye. I had to have it. The brew was decent but the flavour wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. The smell should be turned into a parfume though. Delicious! Word of caution these teas are MEGA pricey and unless you just want to drop cash for fun then I suggest you go find other teas. I am…

More detailed notes to come soon, but this tea was everything I hoped it would be (and in a gorgeous tin to boot!) This is a keeper. Taking it iced to work tomorrow, pretty excited to give it a shot.

The bag says to steep for 1-2 minutes, but I did 4 anyway – the white tea and green tea I got in the same order ALSO say 1-2, so I think Lupicia might just include the same directions on all their teas. (Party foul.) I’ll try another cup at 2 minutes soon.

-Cash

LOVED this tea. I have everyone try it. I like it a tid bit sweet, to bring out the juicyness of the melon flavor. I love oolong as well and i thought this was a great take on the usual. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :) i love it hot or cold. Also, the flavor gets better with every cup, the second is usually the best.

Great tea. Mellow but tastes strongly of melon. It is really really weird. I’d buy it though, I like weird teas.

So, this was a sipdown! I’m not a huge fan of this tea. The melon (no clue what kind of melon it is: smells sort of like cantaloupe, but not quite) was really strong, while the Oolong was a bit lost, not to mention this was an easy one to get bitter on me. I found the melon taste to both smell and taste a bit artificial, and it was just too strong for my liking. It produced an odd tasting cuppa (maybe overripe melon?), and left the strangest (not so pleasant) aftertaste on my tongue. I wouldn’t buy this one again. It may have been drinkable, but it was on the cusp of being a down-the-drain-er for me. I think the melon definitely needs a tone down.

mmm… taste like watermelon hard candy. delicious.

Lupicia has a lot of flavored oolongs, and they’re a really mixed bag. The super-sweet, almost cloying melon did not match well with the oolong, in my opinion. Rather than getting a unified blend I could smell a melon scent and taste the oolong tea, but I couldn’t really taste the melon flavor. Rather disappointed, but I did use one of Lupicia’s teabags – next time I’ll try to loose tea and see if it’s any better.

Smells very juicy – like a super-ripe cantaloupe, or maybe a honeydew, dipped in oolong. And it tastes just like it smells – like cantaloupe coated in an oolong jelly (if such a thing existed). Pleasantly weird. And very summery.

This is one of my favorite teas from Lupicia! It smells like melon candy, but tastes a bit more mellow. More like honeydew and cantaloupe. You can really taste the melon in it.

I agree with aug3zimm – this tea is very cantaloupe-y and juicy, and yes, pleasantly weird! :) I think I would like this better as an iced tea, rather than a hot tea, but it’s still very tasty and not too syrupy-sweet.

This is an excellent flavoured tea if you like the taste of canteloupe or honeydew.

Very intense, almost candy-like musk melon scent. The flavor is a little more subtle.

After the success of yesterday’s Pineapple Oolong, I was cautiously hopeful about this one – and it didn’t disappoint all that much. The aroma is great, but the flavour, which is more along the lines of rock melon/honeydew melon rather than watermelon, is more subtle and doesn’t blend quite as well with the oolong tea as the pineapple did. Still not bad at all.