Formosa Oolong No. 8

I love this tea first thing in the morning. It’s got such a great, deep color and aroma and the slightly sweet taste really gets me going and focused.

delicious, perfect, daily oolong. Definitely my favorite Adagio purchase so far.

As I was taught by a wonderful eccentric tea lady in my hometown, I usually steep oolongs for about a 1 min for the first time and make sure to take the tea out, then resteep at 1.30-2min for the second, 2.30-3min for the third, and you can definitely do that with this tea as well. One solid serving of loose-lease keeps me going for most of my evening. And definitely no milk or sweeteners needed!

Today’s mildly more exciting than yesterday, at least inasmuch as I bought office-appropriate linen trousers from M&S and I’ve decided to phase out wheat and processed sweeties in order to try and get my inflammation in check a bit, given that my ankles now hurt to stand on. Tomorrow, I’ll invest in some pineapple. Pineapple’s an anti-inflammatory.

So something moved me today, before dashing to submit a few job applications before their noon o’clock deadlines, to do a few steeps of this oolong. It’s not the most remarkable tea in the world, and it’s not something I crave very often if at all, but sometimes it’s a good, simple I-don’t-know-what-I-feel-like-drinking-so-I’ll-just-have-this choice, and it fulfilled it well. Still as autumn-leafy as ever, at once light and wholesome, with toasty granola notes and traces of dry earth. Ho hum.

In the pouch: Definitely a smoky thing going on, and woody. Make sure to take it out of the packaging and give it a good sniff because it’s subtle and you can mistake the smell of the package for the smell of the tea if you’re not careful.

In the cup: Smells like oolong, pretty much.

Taste: First steep, subtle and smoky, with added honey bringing out a floral note (that I hope was not just the honey flavor). Second steep, much more woody flavor coming out, a little more smoke. I agree with the reviewer who said it was like cinnamon stick with more emphasis on the stick.

On my tea tasting afternoon with Mrawlins2, we sampled this oolong. Good smell in the tin. Just ok taste in my cup. I think I now understand why alot of oolongs are flavored.

Not what I expect from an Oolong. Not bad, but very different.

This tea is extremely woody. I get cinnamon stick—less cinnamon and much more stick. Another taster noted cigar ash, and I can only agree. It’s not strong, it’s just woody—did I say that?

I suspect this would be very good iced and with some sort of BBQ. The wood just begs for BBQ.

The dark color and cigar-ash nose lead the drinker into believing he or she in for a more intense flavor experience as the impression left on the tongue is quite easy, albeit rather interesting.

What we taste is akin to light black tea with a very subtle pepperiness, muscatel sweetness and, yes, a cigar-ash smokiness threaded through the flavor profile in a not at all imposing or unpleasant way though, unlike most oolongs, I’ve found this to be good for only one steep.

I, for one, enjoy a good cigar in my tea.

Simple oolong. <3

At first I didn’t like this. Too woodsey, grassey. I resteeped it 3 times and enjoyed each infusion a little more. Not sure this will become part of my cupboard.

Surprisingly mellow flavor for how dark the color is and how strong the aroma is.