Ripe Mango Oolong

I am so behind on my tasting notes, this is from 3 days ago! I think it just slipped my mind, so I suppose I should dive back in. This was in my box from LiberTEAS, which yes I am still digging through. Honestly, I doubt I’m even halfway there yet! The shame of a slow tea-drinker.

I love mango, and it seems to be a flavor that’s pretty easy to capture in tea-form. After a 12-hour cold brew this had a really fresh, juicy mango flavor, almost like fresh juice or biting into a ripe mango. It’s not artificial at all, which is always nice. However, surprisingly I am getting a really strong floral taste as well. I thought at first it might be from the oolong base, which adds some nice grassy vegetal notes, but it’s clearly rose. Like, if I didn’t know better I would swear this was a rose mango blend. Though really, that’s not an issue for me since I LOVE rose! In fact, I think I enjoyed this a lot more because of the rose taste. The fruity and floral notes just go so well together. I’ve really enjoyed the teas I’ve tried from Lupicia so far, they really nail their fruity blends.

In one word, delicious delicious _delicious!

I don’t have much time to type, so in short, this reminds me of a mango version of Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong. I love it!

Got this free teabag yesterday in the mail along with Lupicia’s newsletter. What a great, summery choice. On to my shopping list this goes!!

Wow. This is MANGO TEA. Yes, it deserves all caps. Probably the most distinctively mango tea I’ve ever had. It’s smooth, sweet, has a very true-life mango flavor. You would think all these things would combine to give a delightful tea. And it does… Kinda.

See, I’ve got this thing against flavored oolongs and greens. It just makes me grumpy. Oh sure, sometimes it’s done right – I love the creamy coconut flavor of GM’s Coconut Pouchong – but that one is the exception for me, not the rule. This one is a bold mango flavor and it’s just too overwhelming for me.

However, if someone is looking for a good, mango-juice-lite type tea, this would totally be the winner. And since mango is the husband’s favorite fruit, I passed the rest of this cup (8oz) on to him. He was fairly delighted.

Since this is the bagged version I was trying to look thru the shear bag to see the leaves and they look green to me but it could be because of the bag, not sure. Anyhow…this smells AWESOMELY like Mango! YAY! The post infusion liquid looks alittle like a green tea as well…grey-ish yellow-green in color.

This tastes very much like a tropical mango with a little woodsy-ness of the oolong…very nice!

This is yummy! :)

(drinking the bagged version of this tea)

One of my favorite oolongs. It has a good fruit flavor, not overpoweringly mango, but just right.

Sweetened with a dash of splenda.

This is such a beautiful and delicious tea! The oolong tea base is smooth and delicate. It has the most adorable floral bouquet, which is fragrant and nectarous like osmanthus. When paired with the mango scent, the result is a sweet, delightful tea with fruity and honey notes. YUM!!! Now feeling like a bee in summer garden… :D

It tastes more like a muscat-peach blend than mango – but the smell is just like fresh cut mango. Smooth and sweet, not a hint of bitter to it. Quite good, but more of a novelty than a daily drinker.

I am updating my tasting note here. 1 – 1/2 minutes is plenty of time to steep this oolong, I tried it again today and it is much better with less steeping time.

I do like many flavored oolongs by Lupicia but unfortunately this is not one of them. Smells of mango but not only vaguely fruit flavored in my opinion. I would recommend giving this a short steeping time because it will turn bitter very quickly. Not really my cuppa… but perhaps it will be yours!

Huge, full, twisted leaves of Taiwanese green oolong with just the right amount of succulent mango flavor. Soft, creamy mouthfeel and chewy texture that stands up to multiple brews (the mango flavor starts to fade after a couple brews, but you’re left with a pretty tasty pouchong after that.)

I’ve held off on the note for this tea, but… ah, I can’t exactly just ignore this issue, either!

When I first opened the package, I was surprised at this sharp artificial scent. I was immediately reminded of acetone. The scent did quickly give way to a nice, familiar mango smell, so I didn’t worry too much over it.

Three sessions later, all with varying parameters, I still haven’t been able to eliminate that persistent chemical flavor. Brewed up, the tea does taste distinctly of mango, and the baozhong base is very mildly present through some florals. But then there’s that chemical-tasting /something/, making this unpleasantly astringent and bitter-sour… It’s more than just a note or strange aftertaste too – ahh, it really takes over the profile of this tea…

I’ve had this batch for a month now, and I’ve brewed this hot (Lupicia’s recommended parameters), hot (Taiwanese oolong parameters), and iced with sugar. No luck getting rid of that heady off-taste; I’ll keep trying until I finish the batch. Based on some discussions on the forums about some flavored teas needing to “sit”, I’ll try airing the tea out for a few hours (?), then I’ll report back!

Tastes good. Smells better. Would make great potpourri if it weren’t so expensive and difficult to get in this country. Very pleasant to drink.

A friend bought this tea and found it too floral for her liking, so she kindly passed the leftovers on to me. And I’m very glad she did – as an admitted fan of floral teas, I think this is delicious.

It doesn’t taste all that much like mango – the tea is much crisper and, as mentioned above, significantly more floral. I associate fresh mango and mango juice with a sort of heavy sweetness that’s absent here, and I don’t find mango particularly floral. If I’d tasted this tea without knowing what flavor it was meant to be, I probably would’ve guessed lychee (which is another flavor I really like, so no problem there).

The oolong base is quite delicate. It doesn’t really hold its own against the fruity/floral flavoring, but said flavoring is done so well I don’t mind. I drank this hot (and plain) today, but I bet it would be amazing iced.

I bought the bagged version because it was cheaper than the tin and they were out of just the regular loose tea. I have to admit, when I opened up the packaging I was disappointed. Whereas the loose oolongs I have bought from Lupicia in the past had tightly-rolled leaves that unfurled huge and beautifully, the contents of the bag were mostly small pieces of leaves and dust! I don’t know, maybe the package accidentally got crushed at the store or something.

Despite the absolutely LOVELY, strong, juicy mango smell (which is what convinced me to buy it), my expectations were lowered by the appearance, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the brewed tea tasted delicious. The mango taste was definitely there, both when steaming hot and slightly cooled down. With a small spoonful of sugar, it was perfectly juicy without being cloying. Very refreshing. I can only imagine that the loose leaf tastes even better!