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Formosa Oolong from Tavalon Tea

Steepster Score 2 Ratings Rate This Tea

71/100

Formosa Oolong

Oolong Tea by Tavalon Tea

A wonderful Taiwanese Oolong with sweetness, complexity and strength, often called the Champagne Oolong.

Sommelier’s notes:
8 oz water (212F) | 2 tsp loose tea | steep 3 minutes
the cadillac of oolongs

3 Tasting Notes

Auggy
68
Auggy 2 tasting notes

Our washer is leaking. From somewhere. Don’t know exactly what’s going on. It’s not fun. I need tea to deal. This one looks like a Jade Oolong, which I tend to enjoy, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Though my tea? Looks nothing like the picture here. What’s up with that?

Initially there is a funky almost plastic smell to it but that’s gone now that the tea is no longer quite as hot. I’m starting to think that my slightly stuffy nose is heavily (and detrimentally) impacting my tea-tasting abilities because I’m not tasting a whole lot. Sweetness in a fruity way… and that’s about it. And then a few seconds after I swallow there is a really sweet aftertaste. Almost like… strawberries? I have no clue. It’s really sweet and really there but it’s also really brief.

The body is pretty thin and light. But it’s nice, too. And seems to be getting more taste the cooler it gets. Now that I’ve said strawberry, that’s pretty much all I’m able to taste. And I taste it a lot. With a quick dash of Splenda taste at the end. Eventually a little bit of the typical Jade oolong green taste comes in, too. This tea really seems to benefit from cooling down. I’m actually kind of groovin’ on it. It’s weird, but I like it.

This oolong tends to fall on the more refreshing side of things for me. It doesn’t have a rich, creamy or almost chewy texture some my favorite oolongs do, but I’ve discovered that, brewed a water a little hotter than my green-oolong-norm, this tea is pretty happy for me. Mostly because something in this tea makes me think of strawberries. Not so much that it tastes of actual strawberries but more that there is a sweet, hinting-of-refreshing-and-almost-tart tingle that it puts on my tongue. It feels (not tastes, feels) like that burst of flavor right as I bite into a just-barely-ripe strawberry. So every sip gives me the feeling of eating fresh strawberries on my back porch.

And now that absolutely no one knows what I’m talking about and people are starting to give me is-your-mental-break-a-new-thing looks, I will stop. But basically yeah, not my normal green oolong – not rich enough – but still pleasant, especially on a day that has hint of summer like today.

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takgoti
54

The Axis of Teavil does it again! Love the new update, Overlords. The tabs are wonderful, and I love the way that the little number count pops up on the notices button to let me know there’s been activity on there. I also am so incredibly appreciative that you’ve now included comments in the tea log stream! Saved me SO MUCH TABBING OVER in an effort to avoid losing my place! [Especially on this laptop, because while I love the Apple’s multi-touch, sometimes when I right-click it doesn’t register and then I end up losing my place anyway. But I digress.]

EDIT TO ADD: Jack, [I think it’s you that’s mainly responsible for this] I just want to add that I love the way that this site looks. Clean, uncluttered, minimal, pretty. It’s one of the more aesthetically pleasing sites I’ve had the pleasure of using. Not to discount your counterparts; you’re all pretty swell.

So, Formosa Oolong. After glancing at the description on here it’s clear that I’ve got some experimenting to do, because my label says 180 at five minutes but Sir Jason has copied over here that it should be 212 at three. This could be why this tasted somewhat weak to me. I was surprised to see the 180 water temp, but I usually try the companies’ suggestions first before switching things up.

I’m beginning to redefine my thoughts on formosa oolongs. I’ve now had a good number of them and two of them now [this one and the Silk Oolong Formosa that Auggy sent me] taste of tropical fruits and sunnier climates.

There wasn’t as much of that buttery taste that I’ve grown to love in most of the formosa oolongs I’ve had. The flavors also seemed more separate, like it juuuuuust wasn’t quite coming together. And it was also just a tad watery.

Okay, tea. It seems that you were doing your best impression of that awkward first slow dance – where you’re standing arms length apart and just kind of rocking back and forth. I’m hoping that changing up some stuff on you will result in more of a Viennese Waltz. We shall see.