Silk Oolong

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a pyramid of this tea to try!

This is an excellent Oolong, but I can’t help but think it would be even better if it were not in the pyramid. The leaves just don’t have much room to expand in there!

It has a very pleasant, buttery/creamy taste to it. Smooth. Yummy!

Oolong with a bit of cocoa prior to infusion. After infusion – oolong and slightly vegetal-sweet. The liquid is light yellow in color and it is sweet in taste and very light – or should I say delicate??? This is nice but pretty pale in flavor. If you’re up for something mild this may be it.

1 pyramid for 250mL water, bare.

So Tea Forte winsthe tea sachet design award. I love the pyramids with the little leaf tag. I try not to think of how wasteful the pyramids, with all their packaging, are. I just got the Tea Forte Sanctuary box (white ginger pear, jasmine green, sencha, silk oolong) as a gift, and I intend to enjoy it.

A very good silk (aka milk) oolong. Not as toasty-creamy as the Quangzhou from DavidsTea, but still very, very nice. Greener and more vegetal — I think I stepped it too long — with a hint of bitterness. Yeah, just have steeped too long. But definitely a buttery silk oolong, and quite silky at that.

Pretty sure that’s full leaf in the pyramid. And dang, those pyramid infusers are handy.

Yeah, IE 9 doesn’t talk to the slider bars below. Hmph. So, 4 minute steep with 87 degree water (estimated), ratng of 88.

This is an enjoyable oolong, actually. It’s got a sweet nuttiness to it that I am enjoying, almost like a marzipan (but more subtle). I’d call this a soft oolong- actually the name seems to fit well. A big mug of this on a chilly day (yes, Houston gets chilly….ish) is really sort of perfect. This is going to sound odd, but the more I drink this the more I think I can taste hints of vanilla in it, and the more I keep thinking this should be marketed as a Christmas oolong.

Tea Forte has the coolest packaging- which seems like a waste to me, and is of course going to ramp up the cost of the tea- but it does make for delightful little gifts. And I love good design, so I am begrudgingly forgiving them. Okay, no more about the design in my future TF reviews.

Second steep- I’ve never steeped a tea bag more than once before so here goes nothing.
Actually, this held up well considering I steeped it too long both times. Oddly enough, the second steeping doesn’t taste that much different from the first- mild, sweet, and nutty. I wonder if I can go for a third. These tea bags are expensive!

This being the first Tea Forte tea that I have tried in quite some time, I decided to go all out. I am using my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, Tea Forte Tea Tray, and the Tea Forte Tea Timer app for iPhone. The instructions, acquired from the application itself, recommend 2-4 minutes of steep time. For a happy medium, I choose three, using just-under-boil filtered water.

I have a decent amount of experience with oolong teas. As this tea is steeping, I cannot help but wonder if the tea is being restricted from expansion by the pyramid in which it rests, as most oolongs like this one do a decent amount of unfurling while steeping.

The colour of the tea is a brownish yellow; the smells wafting from the cup are smooth, mellow, with perhaps a faint hint of spice. After a couple of small sips, I determine to put the pyramid back into the cup for another minute. The strength is okay but not quite as strong as I like. (If you like your oolongs light and mellow, three minutes will probably suffice.) Another minute, and it is back to tasting. Pleasantly, I can still taste the buttery aftertaste of those couple sips, with hints of vegetal flavour. The taste of this tea reminds me a lot of a Ti Kwan Yin.

In my opinion, four minutes was a prime amount of time for this tea. The flavours are much more full-bodied and literally burst in the mouth. There is a bit of vegetal bite on the sides of the tongue, as with a slightly-oversteeped green tea (like a gunpowder), but this is hardly noticeable, and probably due to my long steep time.

Overall I really enjoyed this tea. It was a very pleasant cuppa, and I do not think I have any complaints with it, other than a bit of lacking in the flavour department. I would perhaps be interested to know if this was due to the pyramid or the tea itself. 85/100 is what I would rate this tea on my personal enjoyment scale.

Angrboda and I were discussing oolongs this morning, so I decided to try this one. I obtained a sample of it in a (non-Steepster) tea swap.

I don’t have a lot of experience with oolongs (especially non-flavored oolongs, since my favorites have been Teavana’s jasmine and Lupicia’s mango), but this one is okay. It’s not overwhelmingly oolong, but it’s more delicate and smooth.