Formosa Fancy Oolong Organic

I received this during a holiday swap! I found it tucked away in the back of my tea cupboard! I am not sure if this has gone stale, but it wasn’t as flavorful as other Formosa oolongs that I’ve tried. The smell of the dried leaves was fantastic, just like other formosa oolongs! The leaves look like dry, dead leaves. Very pretty. I steeped it in my gaiwan for 30 seconds and water at 190 degrees, and I got nothing special… It tasted like slightly flavored water. :/ I am trying it again with a whole new set of leaves but steeping it for 3 minutes instead. Ok still nothing special. There is more astringency in this steep. Otherwise, it may be stale.

this tea is quite good, but i’ve tasted definitely much better oolongs, the smell is very flower like and calm. edit: the oolong kwai flower changed my mind about this one. I am not into oolongs anyhow, but kwai flower tastes much better.

I’m really enjoying this cup. I didn’t used to think very highly of this tea, but it’s tasting really good today. Very toasty, sort of like a hojicha with an obviously high amount of oxidation. Used 4 level tsp in my 14oz Yixing pot. Water just off boiling, went for 2 1/2, and I’ll try again for around 3 minutes.

I just realized the smell memory that a lot of these Oolongs evoke. When I used to do oil painting there was some common aroma among the linseed oil, turpentine and paints that I find in this tea too.