Citrus Sunshine Oolong

This is the tea that made me place my Steep City order. Ginger, berry, citrus and oolong? These are all things that I love, and while I usually like to buy in small sample sizes from a new company I was willing to take the 2 ounce plunge for a blend that sounds this good.

Before I talk about the tea, I am so impressed with Steep City Tea’s packaging! Sleek white with a really beautiful logo, and I love the little check boxes for size/type/temperature and time. Very creative! And this is a BIG two ounces, it’s a nice fluffy blend. I was worried it would be dense because of the berries and dried orange peel, but there’s a whole lot of this blend in my bag. Hooray!

Uhnf, this tea… this tea is heaven. There’s so much going on and it works together perfectly. The berry is subdued and not jammy or overly sweet, just a nice fruity undertone. The ginger adds a hint of spice and heat, and pairs perfectly with the nice pop of citrus. And of course there’s the base, which is really the main reason I got this. I love oolong blends when they’re done well, which means you can actually taste the base. And here you can, oh yes! Floral, buttery, a hit grassy, everything I want in a nice green oolong.

I’ve had this tea about 3 times since I got it a week ago, and I seriously think it’s already a cupboard staple. Perfect hot, iced, lukewarm, with a hint of sugar or left alone. I’m in love!

Sipdown, 188. I was originally planning that my sample of this would make me two cups (since my black tea sample did), but after scooping out the tea for this cup and looking at what was left I decided to make it one cup. There are a lot of big pieces of orange and hibiscus leaves in this that take up a fair amount of room, so I think tea-wise there are probably the right number of oolong leaves for this serving. Just to be safe I am steeping this for 2 minutes.

It immediately started smelling like citrus and ginger, and after it was done it was a deep pinkish-maroon color which I was honestly not expecting. I mean, it has hibiscus so I guess I should have, but it was still surprising. It smells fairly hibiscusy along with the citrus and ginger notes.

The flavor is interesting and not entirely what I was expecting. My cup was pretty hibiscusy and tart, but with a decent helping of citrus and a bit of spicy ginger. There was also something giving it a lingering sweetness (nice to counteract the tartness of the hibiscus) that might be the ginger. Unfortunately I couldn’t taste the oolong base at all in my cup. I see now that there is also supposed to be berries (cranberries, blueberries), but I didn’t really taste them as distinct either. I could see this as a refreshing herbal tea but this one it’s quite for me. Maybe if I plucked out the hibsicus leaves!

This tea is sooooo good.
Dry the tea smells very, very, did I mention very citrusy(lemon/Lime), but delicious.
Once steeped it seems like the citrus flavor mellows perfecty and you can really taste the sweetness of the berries and a perfect amount of tart/sour.
This tea smells amazing, looks amazing dry, and the tea liquor looks great once steeped. This is a tea I will have to order(when money will allow)!! Great tea, Great people…..thanks steep city for the sample!!!!

I enjoyed this blend, although it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought I’d get mostly orange and oolong flavors, but in reality the dominant notes were definitely ginger followed by hibiscus, with citrus as a fairly distant third. The oolong base hardly came through – but it’s quite possible I underleafed my cup, and that could have a lot to do with it. I didn’t notice any berry flavors, but then those are often overwhelmed by hibiscus. This tasted more like a tisane than a tea, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ginger + hibiscus isn’t a combination I’ve tasted before, but I thought it worked quite nicely. Thanks to Steep City Teas for the sample!