Citron Oolong

Woah. This tea is one of the more interesting ones I’ve had in a while! COURTESY OF AUGGY, who is amazing, if you didn’t know this already. Seriously amazing. Tea goddess. Not lying.

So I had a rough night last night, and as a result, I probably only got three hours of sleep. Can you say, “BRAAAIINNS?” Yeah, nearly comatose. I needed a pick-me-up. And since Auggy’s Citron Oolong was just sitting here, looking sad and neglected, I figured I’d steep some up. Cause that’s what we do at Steepster. We steep tea. Then think we’re important enough to log our thoughts. I don’t know where I’m going with this.

Anyway, I measured out the required 1 tbsp (and my eyes bugged out at how HUGE the tablespoon looked this morning – read: I AM NOT AWAKE) and dumped it into my IngenuiTEA. The leaves are little crackled-up balls, like someone made tea spitballs and then threw them into the mix. And there are lots of flowers. Lots. They’re very cute and delicate. The tea, overall, is very pretty dry. The smell was really citrus-y but light. Not like Lysol or a cleaning agent. I can’t really describe it.

Anyway, the tea did its little dance, and boy did the oolong do its dance. The leaves wasted no time unfurling and wriggling and becoming their gorgeous, russet-and-green selves.

The tea ate a lot of water. Because when I poured, my cup wasn’t as full as it usually is. But no worries! This might be one tea that actually smells better WET than dry! Mmmmm. It smells like the iced lemon cookies (those soft, squishy ones) that I sometimes have. Bake-y and buttery in a delicate lemon way.

The buttery really comes across in the smell of the infusion itself. The smell is mostly pure lemon, with this intense butter note. Hesitantly, I took a sip.

Okay, I can completely see the Fruity Pebbles comparison! Because now that I’ve read everyone’s comments, yeah, Fruity Pebbles, in sort of an awesome way. But I definitely taste delicious lemon notes, with a floral undertone. There’s a bit of orange in there too, but it’s hiding and it only really comes out if you concentrate on it with every sip. As for the oolong part… I’m not sure if I really taste it. Then again, I have little-to-no experience with oolongs, but I’m not tasting anything that rings soundly of teaness. Other people have mentioned that the oolong doesn’t really come through completely in this tea, and I’d have to agree.

I’m almost not minding that, though, because the tea is waking me up with its clean freshness and assertiveness. For all the citrus, it really is gentle, mild, and coaxing. Nowhere near the aggressiveness of something like bergamot. It’s not even really that sour or tart. No puckering here! Nor is it astringent, which is surprising, because sometimes citrus completely dries my mouth out. I’d have to say that this tea is female.

This is really, really interesting. I don’t think it’d be a daily drinker for me, but it’s fun, fresh, and eye-opening. I’m more awake and wired now than I ever was before, and I did it while drinking an awesome tea from Auggy (who is 3 for 3 with tea sent to me [that rhymed, lawl])!

This smells like Tang. I opened the tin and it was like, “what the heck my tea smells like powdered, sugary drink mix.” I wasn’t really sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but it has some good reviews so I certainly wasn’t going to put off trying it!

This is a really pretty tea, at least half of my tin is jasmine blossoms which are so cute. It looks like potpourri—I want to put it in a little bowl and my house can smell of Tang. It’s a lot less Tang-y smelling once brewed, and the jasmine comes out more. The citrus is even less prominent when you taste it. It’s still there, but pretty soft. I taste a lot more orange than lemon, with tons of floral jasmine in the background. The citrus and floral elements blend together perfectly, and this is a smooth, mellow tea. These are two flavors I really like, but there’s a problem—I can’t taste the oolong base at all! I love oolong, and this really could be listed as a Citrus Jasmine herbal blend and I’d believe it. I’d definitely rate it a lot higher if there was, you know, actual tea flavor. I was a little disappointed when I first drank this, but I think I’ll enjoy it more next time now that I know what to expect.

WHOA. Citrus.
Fruit Loops? Ok…I’ll buy it. This sure is interesting…or should I say striking!? Regardless…it’s different…rare…obscure!?

I think I would like this from time to time, sure…why not!?

Slowly but steadily, I am making my way through the teas I got through tea swaps. This is another Auggy tea, and it fit in rather snugly into my day. Fit my mood very well, and helped me work through some school stuff.

This tea is light in flavor, but that keeps it refreshing instead of cloying. I could see it being that kind of sickly sweet – like canned lemonade concentrate. But it’s on the other end of the spectrum – not at all syrupy. More like…essence of limeade. Eau de lime. I can definitely see what people are saying when they compare the overall taste to Fruity Pebbles, but don’t worry, it’s not like drinking everyone’s favorite Flintstone breakfast cereal. [I’d say Yabba Dabba Yum here, but I can’t make myself say it seriously, so I’ll just mock it by groaning at myself and leaving it in the brackets. GROAN.]

This tea has a fresh scent to it that carries through the taste. It reminds me of that citron green [I think that’s what it’s called] but it doesn’t do a suction vacuum number on my mouth. It also has a lighter hand on the flavoring.

I’d love to say that I could taste the oolong in it, but it eluded me. I’m beginning to think that the flavor of flavored oolongs is just going to always outweigh the oolong taste for me. Or maybe they just blend together too closely and I just can’t separate the flavors. Either way, I enjoy what this tea has going on when considering the whole package, so there’s a good chance I’ll be ordering it when I get around to ordering from Rishi.

It isn’t going to be a comfort tea for me. It’s one of those head-clearing, woo-sah, take a deep breath and begin anew teas. It reminds me of one of the lines in one of my favorite movies, Waitress: “Start fresh.” [Which has probably been said in other movies before it, but Waitress is such a good movie.] Considering all of the tea I drink, I don’t have a ton that slip into that category. And so, for me, this works.

In the world of street drugs there is a term “body buzz”. This cup’s beautiful combination of oolong, citrus, and jasmine produces this feeling. I feel my organs, blood, flesh, etc. buzzing. This oolong is one of many oolongs that cause a religious experience. The flavor of the jasmine and citrus is bold. The flavor is delicious and elegant. One day I drank three pots of this and I felt very good, how a human is supposed to feel. Rich, calming, and stimulating. Hats off to Rishi!

I was kind of in a Fruity Pebbles type of mood tonight, so I decided to give this one another go. I added a bit of Forever Spring oolong in there to see if I could get some actual tea taste in there with the citrus. Don’t think it really worked. I think green oolong has too delicate of a flavor to come through this strong citrus taste.

That being said, since I was expecting and in the mood for an insane sweet citrus smell and taste experience, I’m enjoying this tea tonight. This is certainly something I have to be in the mood for but eh, sometimes you need those types of teas, right?

Thanks for letting me try this tea Lena, this is the first Rishi tea I’ve been able to get my hands on and it’s a fun one!

When I opened the little tuperware container the sample came in I was instantly hit with a wave of sweet orange. It smelled very much like fresh orange juice, or maybe orange Froot Loops, like some people have suggested, lol. It’s interesting that the most prominent component of the dry tea seem to be jasmine blossoms, but yet they don’t seem to add very much to the scent.

When I added the water however the odor changed to more of a lemon scent. The curled-up oolong leaves, which when dry looked rather disapointingly small, unfurled and took up a surpring amount of space in the strainer.

The taste is like orangy-lemongrass with the oolong coming in rather subtly. As the tea cooled it got sweeter too, almost like some sugar had been added to it. Or, you know, if it was secretly made out of Froot Loops. ;)

I’m feeling a little sickly today, so I thought a touch of citrus might do me good. I can’t really taste the oolong due to the overpowering citrus, but I like it. Citron Oolong smells very clean and lemon-y. The taste is like a mild Fruit Loops/Fruity Pebbles kind of thing. Both wet and dry, the leaves and the flowers in the tea are very pretty to look at.
I’m a big oolong drinker, and I wish the oolong stood out a bit more…but this one is still a keeper.

Great crisp and refreshing taste, It’s a great summer morning tea it go’s well with some nice hot toast. Or it is also a fantastic cold tea, with an almost lemonade taste it is great after a long day in the garden or yard work! It’s also fairly cheap at Whole Foods!

Nice clean taste, not soapy but floral and fresh. The citrus smell is stronger than the citrus taste though. The blossoms add floral notes in the finish.

This is a tea to smell and drink at the same time. It gives a great throat coat on these cold icky days.

This is my first Oolong other than your typical Chinese restaurant tea. It kind of has the aftertaste of hour old fruity gum-First tasting notes are floral light citrus-I guess the Oolong are the little darker clumps—I think mine was pretty light on the Oolong, so I probably mostly just got the herbal part of this one-I think this will be a great refreshing tea to chill and put in a bottle for summer drinking. No additives, just straight tea-Very pleased—Although side note I am not sure if this is the Rishi brand, I got it from my local tea merchant and it was called Organic Citrus Oolong, he sells by the ounce, but this is the most similar tea I could find and from the pic, it looks the same

It’s a good smooth oolong but the lemon is a little distracting from the smoothness.

I was really excited about this one because flavored oolongs are rare and even taboo w/ some tea drinkers, but was disappointed. Instead of normally measuring it by weight (2.25g/6 fl. oz) I decided to put one teaspoon in because of the flavorings. I steeped it at 195 degrees F for 5 min in 6oz purified water. I personally like at least a 1:1, but preferably a 2:1 ratio of flavoring to true tea tast. Unfortunately the taste of the oolong was completely masked by the lemon. This would be good in TheraFlu or a hot toddy during the flu season with a lil honey and whiskey. I rated it a thumbs down because I personally do not like herbal teas alone, but if you don’t mind that you can’t taste the oolong tea it’s a very good tea.

Excellent Oolong for the price (i buy it at Whole Foods). Especially to new oolong drinkers, but I never get tired of it.

This one is all about the citrus scent. The flavor is light and barely there. If you warmed up a glass of water with a lemon wedge, I imagine it would taste like this.

Very citrus nose, but the taste is rather flat in comparison.