oolong suggestions
Hi all! SO, to the topic. Im REALLY interested in oolongs, based on what i have read about them from many sources. Everyone seems to love them. I would like to be a sheeple and fit in too XD just kidding lol. But i would like to try to find an oolong that i can drink, so i can have some variety in my teas and i have less of a risk of getting burnt out on the few i have found i like.
The teas i am finding i like are Chinese red/blacks. My absolute favorites of all are Black Dragon Pearl, and Jin Jun Mei (Golden Eyebrow). I love the strong, bold taste, the sweetness in the aftertaste, and the nice taste of chocolate, malt, and honey they have. My go-to tea when i want a lighter tea to relax and unwind with is Silver Needle, though i dont drink this as often as i prefer a more bold taste.
I have tried a dark roast oolong and an unscented milk oolong, and find i dont care much for either. The dark oolong just tasted like seaweed in a bad way to me, and the milk oolong had that taste to me, but was tolerable. I found the taste to be too light for me, and i would rather drink silver needle over this.
So based on this rather limited list (sorry) is there an oolong that you guys think i might enjoy? Lol or ANY tea for that matter (im a little intimidated to try pu erh, not sure why >.>
I don’t know that much about oolong. I haven’t tried a milk oolong — mainly medium and dark roast oolongs so far. Right now, my favorite is Tea Setter’s Wild Arbor Oriental Beauty Oolong. I don’t taste any seaweed or vegetables, which I don’t much like. I find it naturally sweet and similar to black tea, but without any bitterness.
Thanks! :) that sounds perfect. I will have to find some online and pick up a sample once i save up some money :)
It’s here: http://www.teasetter.com/shop-tea/wild-arbor-oriental-beauty-oolong
It’s $6/oz. I started with 1 oz, which turns out to be more than I realized.
LOL i think i am seeing a common link to all the teas i like… Yunnan. maybe i should just start trying anything from there >.>
So I’m pretty sure this will mean I never get more of this tea ever again, but… Sadly, I just heard from Matt from Tea Setter. I’d emailed to ask how much of this tea he has left. He said he has about 10 ounces left and just — in general, it sounds like he has no immediate plans to keep selling tea online once his current inventory is gone. So if you want more of this oriental beauty, get it now.
There are other oriental beauty teas, but I’ve only had this one. It’s the best oolong I’ve tried in general. And I’m not sure if anyone else sells this particular version of the tea — if they do, I’m not aware of it.
Thanks for the heads up on Tea Setter…I needed to get more of my three favorites there, STAT. Given Butiki’s closure…I think half or more of my favorite teas in my stash (that even live in a different place than most of my tea) are officially now teas I can never get more of. Such sad times. Such sad times for my wallet the past two months.
What are your other 2 favorites from there, just out of curiosity? I was thinking of trying the wild purple black tea.
Ethical Agriculture’s Wild Grown Puerh and Iron Goddess High Grade Oolong. I got the sampler set last year when it was so popular and while I enjoyed all of his teas…those (along with the oolong we are now discussing) are my favorites.
Ah, so he’s out of the sample packs (That’s what I tried to order about a week ago.). I didn’t realize he was closing until today. But last week when I was trying to make a purchase, he also said he was out of Sweet Frangrance Pu’erh. So if nothing has changed since then, I assume he’ll have everything else. That’s the other I was considering — the Iron Goddess High Grade — is it really all that different from the lower grade? Or maybe I’ll let that one go — not sure if I’d like it anyway, since I don’t like most greens.
I liked the medium grade a lot, but really loved the high grade. I went back to look at my tasting notes about each, and I said in my medium grade note how I wished I had not had the high grade first because it was markedly better. That said, I love oolong, and the medium had great flavor too. I just made an order so I hope he has that and the Wild Grown Puerh still…otherwise I will be rather sad.
I’d say if you don’t like most greens, maybe skip it.
Yeah, I"m gonna skip it. I’m considering the jasmine pearls, though, because I do like those. And I’m really intrigued by the purple black, but I’d like to find more detail on it. Is it at all naturally sweet?
My tasting note on that one was super uninformative, but I did really like it. That being said, I LOVE when any tea is naturally sweet. I know I would have mentioned it in my note if it were particularly sweet or juicy, and I did not. But I did really enjoy it, and rated it well.
I asked Matt about it too, and he said it was the most difficult of all his teas to describe. And there aren’t really any descriptive notes on it at all — it must be true.
If the roasted oolong you tried tasted like seaweed, it was probably poor quality. I’d recommend a da hong pao or shui jin gui from a reputable source. Yunnansourcing.com or yunnansourcing.us would be a great source. shopmandalatea.com also has high quality oolongs.
If you weren’t into the milk oolong, you might not like the lighter oolongs. Try a tie guan yin from somewhere and see if you like it. Something in the middle like a phoenix dan cong oolong might suit you as well. Anyhow, there are tons of options out there. Pick a couple samples from a good source and just see what you like! JKteashop.com has a nice sample pack of 6 different oolongs of good quality. This might be a good place to start.
http://www.jkteashop.com/jk-oolong-teas-premium-quality-beginning-tasting-pack-6-types-p-206.html
thanks for the note about poor quality. I have been starting to worry that maybe all oolongs would taste like this to me, like a standard flavor, such as greens usually have that sort of grassy taste. But i will keep that in mind and keep slowly trying out more oolongs :) i will definitely click that link sometime in the future whenever i am buying
Oh, I also got some good, very inexpensive oolong samples from lifeinteacup.com. There’s a $1 sample of the month, which I think is a pu’erh at least until, well, tomorrow… But then you can get 3 free oolong samples om top of that.
hmmm, I never had an oolong that tasted like seaweed. Most are either floral, nutty, buttery, creamy, fruity.
You can try a pearl oolong or oriental beauty. Those tend to be more oxidized and will have similar traits to black tea because they are kind of like black teas being more oxidized.
Also Amber oolong is roasted but is very coffee like. There is a bitterness/astringency but behind rich, sweet, molasses.
Mandala has some good Oolongs, I particularly liked their Milk Oolong and their Gaba Oolong was good. Dragon Tea House is a great value for Oolongs but beware of buying their cheapest, they are not consistently good. Starting with their second tier of Oolongs I have found some that I quite liked. Also, Berylleb King Tea on EBay has some good Oolongs too.
I generally lean toward full-bodied black teas too, though I’m definitey warming up to lighter teas as well. Here are some I’ve tried that you might like:
Flavoured:
http://steepster.com/teas/tiesta-tea/43010-flap-jack-oolong – I think this is a dark, slightly roasted oolong mixed with walnuts and maple syrup for extra nuttiness and sweetness
http://steepster.com/teas/tao-tea-leaf/25652-coconut-oolong-organic – definitely a green oolong, but with coconut flavouring and very delicious :)
http://steepster.com/teas/tealux/33362-milk-oolong-jin-xuan – I’m convinced this one is flavoured, but I still think it’s a great example of a standard milk oolong – sweet and creamy
Unflavoured:
http://steepster.com/teas/the-mountain-tea-co/32517-black-pearl – very oxidized but not roasted, tastes like a sweet fruity black tea
http://steepster.com/teas/tealux/36804-wenshan-bao-zhong-reserve – another green oolong, unflavoured but smells amazingly like lilacs!
http://steepster.com/teas/tealux/36557-20-years-aged-roasted-oolong – a lovely roasted oolong, definitely no seaweed :)
You can also try enjoyingtea oolong sampler. It Comes with 8 different oolongs, I think. Here is the link if you want to check them out.
Thanks all! I appreciate the feedback and i will definitely check these out when i have money and cabinet space.
All very good suggestions above. But if you want to keep it simple, I would suggest starting off with a good quality tie guan yin. This is a classic oolong tea and IMO has the most balanced flavor profile, with both the floral flavors from lighter oolongs and roasted flavor of the darker ones.
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