OLD VERSION - 2012-2013 - Golden Lily

Tea #35 from Another Traveling Tea Box

This tea is creamy and buttery with flavors of almond milk, peaches and freshly steamed broccoli and spinach popping up. It’s less floral and more green tasting than I was expecting. There’s also a lovely dry wine feeling to drinking it.

What surprised me most is that (at least when Western steeping) the first steep was the most pleasant. The quality held up for about four steeps, but the first one was easily the creamiest and sweetest. The veggie taste started taking over in 2 & 3.

It’s a very pleasant milk oolong, and honestly on that first steep (which was pretty much perfection), I was having a really hard time figuring out if it was going back in the box or not. But the following steeps made me realise I have others I prefer to this one. I’m still really glad I got to try it!

Steeped according to package directions.

Yummy is the word for this. I think this is the first milk oolong I’ve had – at least that I knew what it was. I had wondered why the “milk” and to be honest, the idea of milk already being in dry tea was kind of a turn off. I realize that isn’t what it means, but the associations weren’t good. :)

It’s creamy, smooth and buttery. Two infusions so far and so good.

Second tea on the roster today. My first milk oolong and I’m on the fence about it.
1st infusion – The brew has a smell of cooked veggies, spinach-y greenness and it tastes the same as it smells. Normally I don’t care too much for such a taste, but this is one that I keep sipping at. Lol. I don’t get the peaches taste that the desc describes, but maybe that’s why I keep sipping it. To try and find that. Maybe on the next infusion I’ll get it a bit better.
But it is pretty smooth and I only get a smidge of astringency out of it. No sugar added to this. I don’t think it would go well with the veggie taste. Sweet cooked spinach. Ugh. Lol.

2nd infusion – Same temp/4 min – Definitely getting better. The veggie smell/taste is toned way down for which I appreciate. It’s gotten sweeter and I might be getting a hint of peaches or something similar. Not too bad. Again, no sugar added to it.

I’m not sure I’d reorder this one, but it was a good one to try and I always enjoy something different.
When I get around to doing gongfu style brewings this might be a good candidate for it. I’d be interested to see what sort of flavors come out of it.

This tastes… odd. I wonder if this was contaminated with some of the other stuff I ordered. The dried tea smells minty, which it should not, so I wonder if the bags aren’t as air-tight as they should have been. If I concentrate, I can taste the milk oolong but there is definitely a spearmint flavor that is mingling in and I’m not sure I like it.

My final sample from Cameron B.! Thanks for all of these. This is another discontinued tea from WP, as the name so clearly indicates.

When this was first brewed and still really hot, there was definitely an overcooked spinach off note to it. Not really pleasant. I didn’t think I would be drinking any of it, but I left it to cool dramatically and came back for a tenative sip later and found that the off flavor had faded and instead there was a definitely creamy floral note to it. It still doesn’t have a great flavor blend, but it’s not as bad as initially feared. Not the best golden lily I’ve had but no one is in danger of buying it, so it’s not really an issue.

Lewis & Clark Traveling Teabox – Tea #9
This isn’t the highest rated oolong… maybe it doesn’t deliver what it promises. It isn’t so much a milk oolong to me as it is very savory: kind of salty and a bit tough. Kind of seaweed/marine like. It’s so brothy and buttery it could be used as a soup. Again it could be a problem with too many leaves/steep time. But the instructions did say to use boiling water for this one. I’m glad I didn’t. I didn’t even use a rinse this time for some reason. Savory oolongs are very nice on their own and I can appreciate the different flavors once in a while but they don’t seem to be for me.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsps. // 12 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min
Steep #2 // 12 min after boiling // 3 min

I purchased this from a stash sale quite a few weeks ago (I don’t remember whose sale it was). Not sure what I was thinking, since I haven’t really liked milk oolong or green oolong in general in the past. So it’s been sitting around, taking up one of my tins for some time now. I decided I might as well try it before I automatically move it to the rehoming box. The leaves are tightly rolled and in a variety of sizes, and the color is somewhere in the green/yellow/brown spectrum. Dry scent is grassy and vegetal with sweetened condensed milk and peaches. I brewed about 1.5 teaspoons of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The brewed aroma is pretty much what I’d expect from this type of oolong – buttery vegetal green with cream and some peach notes. And the taste is pretty much along those lines, too. I do appreciate that there’s not really much floral here, even in the aftertaste. It is definitely too light in flavor for my tastes. I will say that this tea tastes creamier and more milky than any other milk oolong I’ve tried, so that’s nice. But it’s still a “no” for me. :)