J.E. Oolong Milky

Backlog from December 30th sitting on the front porch with my bro for any remaining sunlight for the short day. We listened to a Mythunderstood Podcast about Janus and Ragnarok: Derk, you nailed the rice and paper thing and it’s very heavy in the kettle corn popcorn flavor for me.

I am still not decided on this one. I still lean towards the Mandala, and this one is personally more vegetal, vanilla, spinachy and bordering cakey than I like. Not getting caramel personally, but I do get caramel stickiness. I am also not convinced its Jin Xuan in the body since it’s got more florals like a fan styled Chinese oolong, or even a Tie Guan Yin…but who knows, I’m probably wrong. I’ve gotten through more of it and gifted a friend a decent amount as I work through.

I personally don’t see why this one is rated so highly, but enjoy it . I’m still indebted to Kawaii.

Thanks so much for sharing some of this, Kawaii433! I appreciate it. I always love a good milk oolong. flavored or not. This one is divine. Buttery, thick, creamy on a fantastic oolong base. The butter hits the mouth first, then the flavors of the oolong base really lingers. The first two steeps were the same, the third lost a little of that creaminess which was a shame. More of the oolong peeked through that delicious flavor. I really liked how I steeped this one (though it might not need that extra 1/3 teaspoon anyway… I didn’t want to leave too much for the next steep session). It didn’t get to be too much, but it also wasn’t too weak tasting. I would like to try cooler water on the next steep session though. This is a very good milk oolong.
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 10 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 6 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // 3 minutes after boiling // 2 min

A really lovely oolong!

I finally got my package. Our post office is the worst. The nightmare was worse than usual. The past two weeks it was an egg hunt but not particularly fun lol. For one, the post office who had it all along kept the phone off the hook. On the site they said they shipped it back a long time ago so I couldn’t pick it up. Had to talk to Thedor and well they couldn’t really do anything either. Finally, on the umpteeth trip, my package magically appears at the off-the-hook post office. Hallelujah.

So the tea, it’s everything everyone claimed it was. It is an unbelievable unflavored (yet so flavorable) milk oolong. The cream, the butter, the vanilla, everything was what I hoped for. Could it have been that I was just so frickin’ happy I finally found it? I don’t think so. It’s extremely smooth and a buttery mouthfeel but not oily, I tried it gongfu cha and western brew. It’s excellent. Having said that, TeaVivre’s is a little more vegetal and Mandala’s has a lovely coconut & brown sugar notes. Depending on my mood, I’ll happily cycle through them.

To get free shipping and the ungodly VAT charge removed, I had to buy a LOT. So it was a gamble but I love Jin Xuan so if it was 80-ish rating, I’d still eventually drink it. If any of you just can’t afford the shipping/VAT and don’t want to spend tons of money to try it, I’m more than willing to send you a sample of it. Since I’m relatively new, just give me a P.O. Box or something. I don’t blame anyone. It’s the net. :)

1700th tasting note!

And for this nice round number, I wanted to taste something special. Since I have started down today’s path with an oolong, I’m going to continue in that vein and catch up to where I was supposed to be at the end of yesterday but got distracted by my Thanksgiving turkey cooking endeavor.

This tea has received very high marks on Steepster, so I’m looking forward to it. The last milky oolong I had, which was also my first, wasn’t a favorite. Maybe this will change my mind.

First tasting in the gaiwan at 190F (because Zo is stuck there for whatever reason) after rinse, 15 second increments.

Just sniffing the tea in the tin is enough to start getting me excited. Wow, what a great smell. It smells exactly like very buttery white rice, the world’s best hangover food.

The tea is a light yellow color with a hint of gold. After steeping, I smell more of the buttery rice smell. The tea is mild and slightly sweet with a slight vanilla note and a definitely milky note in the flavor. The flavor is much more interesting — maybe less heavy, maybe more suggestive of complexity — than the milk oolong I had a little while back. I keep wanting to say there is something floral here, but honestly, I’m not getting that.

I decided to have something sweet with the second steep because of Jillian’s note, so I heated up a lovely Nutrisystem cinnamon roll (it’s really pretty good, and after yesterday’s meal I really need to get back on program). The second steep is a deeper golden color and smells like sweet milk. I’m not sure that the sweet food pairing is doing much for my experience of this tea. It’s just incredibly pleasant, mild, sweet, with a milk note that doesn’t bother me and that I even love though I’m not a milk drinker.

The third steep yields a tea that is darker still. It’s taking on the color of clarified butter. The flavor hasn’t changed much, though it is keeping its smooth mouth feel — none of that hard water effect that I tend to notice on about the third steep of a greener oolong. The leaves have doubled in volume after unfurling,

Even though the flavor hasn’t really changed in steep four either, the tea is is still unique and lovely. If someone asked me to recommend a milk oolong that I’d enjoyed, I’d have no trouble recommending this.

Now, having had exactly two that I know of, can I say this is the best? Or even a typical, exceptionally strong representative of its type?

No, no I can’t. But I can say that even compared to other teas this is up there with my experience of as good as it gets.

Beautiful plain oolong tea. Incredibly smooth, creamy and so elegant. Refined to the max. Not a hint of any unpleasantness at all.

Good golly, it has been too long since I had this. Eldest daughter Superanna gave me my first tin of this tea. She later placed another The O Dor order for me as a gift and tried the sample of this that came with the order and she was hooked. I gave her some of the tea she had gifted me, and when we ran out I bought a milk oolong for another company and it did not even compare. Superanna said no, thank you.

Then Kawaii was kind enough to send us some of hers! It is just delectable and when it runs out we will simply have to order from The O Dor again.

I made a big pot of it to go with veggie lomein and potstickers for supper last night. The aroma coming from the pot was so thick and creamy that it made me think of those really rich green tea lattes from shops. This is completely unsweetened but smells SO creamy that I almost felt like I was sniffing a green tea ice cream like the….Haagen Dazs? Godiva?….matcha ice cream I bought a long time ago.

This is somewhat reminiscent of Premium Silky Green by Bird Pick, which is sold as a green tea but which is clearly a milk oolong, and almost certainly a flavored milk oolong.

I shouldn’t have had so much caffeine so late, but I didn’t care. It was too good to leave any so we downed the whole tetsubin and fortunately I slept well.

Thank you, again, Kawaii!

Cata con MGW.

Amazing, beutiful and tasty. So diffrent than standard teas. Loved it from first drink :) when I worked in teashop.

I ’ve tested so much milky oolong that I can not count them. I was looking for these milky notes so often described…
With this one I find what I want !

The taste is so good: buttery notes (maybe like a taste of vanilla too ) . It ’ s a sweet tea.

I’m always suprised when I drink it. A real smooth …………….