Taiwan Oolong Black Tea

This is a sipdown of the sample I received from Nuvola a while back.

I had a bit of a stressful weekend so far. A truly toxic person is trying to get me involved in her dramas, I had a lot of tedious work to do that I wasn’t looking forward to, and we have some decisions to make that I just wish would go away, preferably because we won the lottery and were Elvis-rich and then I would fly to Nevada Hospital and make tea for GMathis and surf teh interwebs with her. I would bring Samwise and say he was a therapy dog and we would dance with him in the waiting room. (Can you tell I need an ESCAPE???)

I took a break from my cleaning and had a cup of sanity and some Bissinger’s Chocolates. Honey, if tea and chocolate don’t make it better, you need to get in somebody’s LAP!

I had forgotten that this black tea steeps up rather light, but it surely was good. The taste is very fruity and complex. It went quite nicely with the chocolate even though it wasn’t as powerful as the Keemuns I usually drink with sweets. Instead of cleansing the palate for the next tidbit like my usual choices do, this sort of sidled up to the chocolate and made friends. There was a hint of roastiness for a low note, lots of middle fruity notes playing along, and a high note of sweetness singing over it all.

This is a really nice tea and not “run of the mill.” I think it would be great to have hanging around!

My first thought when I picked this tea to try was “Oooh, black oolong. Now this is interesting.” Honestly, as long as I’ve been here at Steepster, I had somehow never heard of such a thing. I ripped open the little packet and inspected the leaves. Dark and thin, rolled into long narrow strips. It looked like a fine black tea with a few hints of golden brown here and there.

I treated this one gently as well, and may or may not have used a bit too much water in my ceramic teapot. The liquor is a pale tan, and smells like black tea with a hint of sweet fruit. The taste is very, very interesting. While it does have hints of floral, spring-like oolong, I can taste the black tea oxidization more. It’s caramelly and much more robust than a traditional oolong. Malty, even. Like a light golden tip tea… sort of. This is hard to describe and delightfully complex, and I love it.

Also, after checking the website to see how much this tea is, it’s listed as $60HK for 50g… I was horrified at how expensive it is. But then I checked a converter on Google. It’s only about $8 USD. Whew!

It’s been a week since I received this sample and I’ve only just now got around to drinking it. I was feeling a little under the weather when I got it, and I didn’t think those were the best conditions to have it in, having promised to do my best with it. And now a week has gone by and I still haven’t got to it. I was beginning to feel a little guilty about it, so I decided that today was The Day, especially as it would come in handy as a pick-me-up after the c25k torture of the day. (Horrid today! Horrid! A marked difference from Friday which was a 3.2 km running, no walking, powering through triumph! But horrid today.)

Nuvola Tea approached me by email, asking whether I would be interested in receiving a free sample and posting about it. That’s the first time I’ve been approached with such an offer, so it felt rather special to me for them to do so. Like my opinion mattered. Kind of flattering and humbling all at the same time. I know some of you others have tried this several times, so you probably know what I mean. After having asked a couple of questions, I eventually agreed and promised to do my best. So this is it.

I don’t normally pay any attention to recommended parameters. Water temperature, yes, leaf amount and steeping time, no. I know which strength I prefer my teas to have and which length of steeping normally produces the best cup for me. The person who wrote out the recommendations may not share my particular preferences, and so tea brewing becomes every bit as subjective as the actual flavour experience itself. So most often I go by my own experiences first. If that doesn’t work, then I might start looking at instructions and get some inspiration that way.

With this particular tea I thought I owed it to Nuvola Tea to try and follow their instructions as closely as I could, since they were providing the leaf for free in order for me to post about it for them, and there only being enough for the one go. As it turns out, though, I do actually still get to do it my way, as these instructions fit pretty closely into the procedure I was planning on following as mentioned above. I would have have made the steeps a wee bit longer initially, but the difference here is fairly small, so I might as well follow theirs. Coming that close to their instructions based only on my own experience and educated guesswork makes me feel all validated and smart!

Now, when I received the sample there was also a leaflet included which showed a table of the different teas Nuvola offers, sorted according to strength and degree of oxidation, with a small one sentence description of each. That was pretty inspiring. I found a couple more things in that table which I would like to try at one point, and at least one of them was a tea that I don’t think I would have otherwise even looked at.

More importantly for me, however, the leaflet also has a map of Taiwan with the origin of each tea is drawn in. I love that! I love knowing where a tea comes from in slightly more detail than just ‘Taiwan’ or ‘Sri Lanka’ or whichever tea producing country you can think of. There will be differences even within the same country and that makes for half the fun of exploring a region. This particular tea was produced right in the middle of the island

Okay, enough with the introductory chatter. The actual tasting begins here.

So now, the first steep was given 30 seconds as according to Nuvola’s oolong brewing recommendations, because in spite of all intentions to do my best, I still managed to botch the temperature. It has a very sweet aroma, quite caramel-y, and with just a smidge of something kind of floral waaaay in the background. It mostly cararmel. Actually it rather reminds me of that Jade Orchid Oolong that I liked from Shang Tea. The one that tasted like creme brulee! Could this actually be something similiar to that? It would be awesome if it were!

The initial flavour I’m getting is a something mineral, but it’s fleeting and quickly gives way to a mixture of floral and caramel. This is indeed caramel-y. If I didn’t know any betting I might have thought it had been flavoured. There are some slightly dry-ish cocoa-y notes as well but they seem to stay mainly on the edges of the flavour, letting the caramel really take the lead.

To tie off the comparison with the Jade Orchid Oolong from Shang Tea, yeah, this really does remind me a lot of how I remember that one to be. All sweet and dessert-y.

For the second steep I made sure to go by the recommendations for a black tea rather than an oolong. All this really entailed at this point, was giving the temperature a notch upwards, but the steeping time was the same. This time the caramel note has stepped back a bit and the cocoa-y note is coming more into the mix. The primary note, though, is nother caramel nor cocoa but something vaguely fruity. I can’t tell which sort of fruity, but I think it seems most like some kind of stone-fruit, like nectarines or apricots. There’s a slightly floral top note here as well.

Again, there is a fleeting note of mineral and then it’s gone all fruity! It’s definitely a stone-fruit, I think. Plums! In the background the mixture of caramel and cocoa-y-ness, which provides a sweet and smooth aftertaste. Like just having eaten caramel-flavoured sweets.

Hey, this is going rather well in spite of my initial confusion!

The third steep combines tea drinking with one of my favourite things in the world: Being sat on by a cat. Especially one of mine as they are so adorably cute and they purr! I just have to be really careful not to spill hot tea on her. The aroma of which has now taken on a wooden sort of oolong-y note (oh, and now my cat went away. Boo. I can’t compete with the lure of the water bowl apparently) with cocoa and that same fruity, plum-y note underneath. No caramel at this point.

The flavour is the same as the aroma. AGAIN that one fleeting flavour of minerals, which is odd, actually because it’s always there in the first sip, but only the first sip. I don’t get the logic of that, really. Perhaps it has something to do with temperature or something. Anyway, after that initial misleading sip, the flavour is largely fruity and cocoa-y-wood-y. There is still a wee bit of caramel left, but only on the aftertaste. Something tells me I’ve seen the last of that caramel at this point.

The fourth steep is had after a few hours break with a puzzle (and a cat halping me). I do loves me a good puzzle, but they never seem to last long enough. I’ve got one 4000 pieces one which I’ve taken out now. That ought to keep me entertained for a while, but I’ve only done it once before and it’s quite difficult, so here I am for a bit of liquid courage. It took a month the first time around! O.O Not sure what I’ll do with it in regards to hoovering, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

Anyway, my liquid courage has an aroma that is very much like the one in the third steep and therefore shan’t be commented further upon. The flavour is all smooth and slightly cake-y, and to my surprise the caramel bottom note is there again as strong as ever. It was just that the other notes were covering it up some before. Those have receded, though, so I’ve got caramel-y smoothness which even tastes ever so slightly thick and milky. That’s funny, I was certain the caramel note was finished.

The fifth steep seems to be the last. For one thing, I’m running out of day. For another thing, I’m also apparently running out of flavour. It’s still quite caramel-y, but that’s the only flavour note left to me. Maybe if I had increased the steeping time more than I did it would have been a different result, but I didn’t.

In that event, I shall pee, post, have dinner, watch The Pirates and go to bed. In that order.

Thank you to Nuvola for this Oolong Black Tea sample!

I was suffering from the beginnings of a migraine today, the nausea felt like vertigo making me dizzy. In my bag was this sample which I had promised to share with Joe at Happy Lucky’s yesterday. I told him about the tea trees being at 9000 ft. in the mountains of Taiwan. What an adventure it would be to taste the tea and discuss the flavor together.

A stop to get a light for my refrigerator and another at the Post Office were challenging. Would I be able to make it to tea? (My car’s outdoor temperature gauge recorded 95 degrees, still hot and dry for September.)

“It’s just nausea, push through it. Caffeine will be good for the migraine anyway,” I told myself. So off I went to my tea pub.

When I arrived today, there was a buzz of people in front of the bar and behind it (including Joe). There was the owner George in his bermuda shorts, fiddling with some tea things…greeting me with a big “Hi Bonnie, how’re ya doin?”

I explained that I had a little migraine and needed caffeine, but that I had brought some Taiwan Oolong Black Tea grown at a high altitude that I wanted to share.

What happened next was Tea Theatre!

A flash of cups, a Gaiwan…six people lined up on barstools and several servers behind the bar as George deftly worked his magic. Pourings, scenting, tastings for everyone…steep after steep, after steep…on and on at least 6-7 times. I lost count.

The interesting thing was that from the beginning, the tea was potent. There was no need to work up to a 3rd or 4th steeping to gain the full flavor of this tea. The taste was assertive as though all the hard work the trees had to go through to produce the leaves at the high altitude was condensed and released like golden pearls. The flavor released easily from the leaves.

Comments flew around me…

“Dark Cherry”, “Malty”, Chocolate", Wonderful lingering flavor", “Rich and complex”.

My own notes were:
I felt a coolness on my tongue (which the others felt on the lingering finish also). There was a nuttiness and flavor somewhat like tutti frutti (brandy, sugar and many kinds of fruit placed in a crock and stirred…an old recipe for preserving fruit). A floral scent from a musky flower.

The color of the tea was honey from beginning to end and very fragrant. The leaves reminded me of smoky, malty Formosa Red (Red Blossom Tea) that I reviewed before (although this came up only when I was reminded of this tea by Joe).

And…my nausea…gone. The caffeine did what it is supposed to do and helped take the effects of the migraine away!

I can’t think of a better way to have experienced this tea than with this community of tea lovers.

I had a great time with a very lovely rich and flavorful tea!

Thank you Nuvola Tea for this delicious and unique sample!

What a great idea of offering this very intriguing black tea. It’s always nice to find a good Taiwanese tea, especially a oolong or black – but find a hybrid, now that’s absolutely perfect!

The really long dark strips of tea leaves are more like an oolong, but they are more oxidized to the range of black tea. The taste is sensationally sweet, with some roasted fruity peach notes. The liquid has a pleasant medium fullness with a faint maltiness toward the end of the sip.

This tea is another great reason to love Taiwan teas! Thankfully companies like Nuvola Tea see the need to expose the Western culture to this great treasure. What a privilege it is to experience the long history & tradition of other cultures that celebrate good tea. Definitely a great cup!

This is tasty tea. It’s very sophisticated compared to all the flavored things I’ve been drinking. :) I was a bit confused by how this is both an oolong and a black tea, but after my first few sips, I’ve concluded that this is merely what I would call a dark oolong, something more oxidized but still lighter than what I would think of as black tea.

I really like the mouthfeel on this one. Smooth and full. It has a luscious quality to it. The flavor here is pleasantly floral, but only a little. Just enough to make you intrigued. Only lightly roasted. Mellow.

I’m finishing up my third steep made western style. There’s a lovely natural sweetness here. It can probably go once more but I need something different now. :)

Thank you to Nuvola Tea for this sample!
Nuovla Tea always impresses me!
After the new year this is one of the companies I plan to make a good order with!
Here are some snippets from my upcoming review (scheduled at this time for December 24th on http://sororiteasisters.com/ )

Premium Taiwan Oolong Black from Nuvola Tea has a sinful aroma! It smells sweet, deep, intoxicating. There is a malty aroma cutting through the sweet aroma, then nutty, woodsy, so many wonderful sensations – and this is just the initial smell!

I love the complexity of this tea! On one hand its sweet and makes me feel like Willy Wonka in a candy shop but as soon as I find myself relishing in the sweet goodness this fresh breeze rolls in offering a light refreshing note of rock mineral and hay as if I am strolling through the woods on a sunny day.

This is a rare and wonderful delight and I highly recommend trying some tea from Nuvola! I know so far I have sampled about 5 of their teas and I have yet to find one that is less than stellar!

I will need to capture my thoughts better at a later date but this sampler from nuvolo was incredible. As some may be aware, I’m not a huge fan of oolongs but I do love my black tea. This is a wonderful blend of the two with a multitude of flavours.

Special thank you to Nuvola Tea for sending me this surprise sample! Really it was quite a wonderful surprise. My first order from Nuvola came with two free samples, then a second two were sent promptly after they had heard of a simple mislabeling and then this one arrives unbidden in my mail box Tuesday morning! What a wonderful generous surprise!

I feel a tinge of guilt as I still haven’t reviewed the Pouchong they sent last time, but yesterday I was in the mood, nay in need of a good black tea. See I’m on a week long staycation, husband and son are in Indiana, I should be spending most of my time cleaning an organizing, but my sister gave me three books on Sunday, the Hunger Games trilogy and I have devoured them. I started reading Monday evening and stayed up until 4am finishing the first book, I never stay up that late and when I do I’m usually sick. I survived though had a tea date at Clementines with my friend Michelle the. Had her over for Milk Oolong (oh my goodness another thing to review). When she left I started the second book, then went to the local brewery with my sister for a very late dinner and a flight of beer, got home and continued reading, I willed muself to go to bed an hour earlier leaving a few chapters for the morning. That was the morning I needed this tea.

This tea, this tea is lovely! I’ve only ever had two other black teas from Taiwan and only one other “black oolong”. The leaves on this one are gorgeous both dry and especially when wet, the stems and edges have a redness to them though the centers are most definitely black, they are full, slightly twisted, not huge but a good size. The smell is dark, rich, intoxicating, it reminds me of cocoa but not quite the way other black teas do, this one is unique. It’s not quite chocolately and not quite bready, it is sweet and rich in ways I’m not used to describing in tea. It reminds me a bit of brandy. But first I should mention the first sip had a sea air taste to it, again not fishy, though maybe the slightest bit salty, I could taste some of the vegetal qualities of the oolong, then it got darker and sweeter like currants or plums. I reinfused it several time, coming back to it after a car appointment and toward the end it took on a lighter more floral quality like Darjeeling, no more like Oriental Beauty. Very lovely!

It kept me company reading yesterday and I got to bed at a much reasonable hour half way through the final book that I finished a couple hours ago. Been a long time since I’ve indulged in a good fiction novel and I’m grateful to Nuvola for sending me such a wonderful reading partner in this lonely house.

Backlog:

I love the aroma to this tea – it is sweet and slightly woodsy, and it reminded me of my home … here in the Pacific Northwest, after a rain.

A delightful tea with a profound fruity note, honey-esque tones, also notes of wood and flower. Very nice.

Here is my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/03/01/taiwan-oolong-black-tea-from-nuvola-tea/