Anxi Benshan Oolong

I must thank Azz for this fine little sample. I say little, but it appears from the website to be what they send in a sampler. It comes in one of those cute little tins that you can get about a full pot out of and she never even opened it. I can only assume she had drank it somewhere before.
I like this tea alot! There’s one definitive destinction as to why that is for me. It has the perfect balance and delivers the vegetive crispness, yet without crossing the threshold and becoming astringent or bitter. It has the nutty notes I love, yet is still somewhat buttery in the mouthfeel. It’s light and airy with a slight to moderate sweet note as well.
As it cools I find the vegetive notes begin to outweigh the roasty ones, which turns out not to be unpleasant to a roasty prefering drinker such as myself. I steeped this one four times. The latter two steepings the vegetive and roastiness was toned down and what was left was a buttery sweet gulper. I don’t like for my cup to cool, but sometimes you get distracted queing up the next song, which leads me to my musical pairing.
tunes-Im back on a Mumford&Sons kick=White Blank Page/Thistle and Weeds/Dust Bowl Dance/I Gave You All/Sigh No More/To Darkness-Kripa.
Alas I have yet to get the new album, but the portions you can play from the website lets me see I want it.

I wasn’t feeling like a black tea this morning, so I decided to give this a try. I think last time I made it I used my gaiwan, but this time, in my perfect mug, it was… well, rather perfect for the moment!

My school house tea-making is rather lax in general, so I think this steeped for something like 10 minutes while I made copies. I was kind of on autopilot, so I added sugar like it was a black – I never do that for greens, but in this case it worked out well.

A very generous sample from Enjoying Tea.com. I bought a couple Gaiwan and and this tin came along. For some unknown reason, my oolong collection is almost exclusively made up of Taiwan oolongs. I think I went through a phase of trying to decipher the subtleties of high quality, lightly oxidized Taiwan high mountain teas. Undoubtedly, these Taiwan teas are light, bright, fresh, fragrant and subtle. It seems, probably because my palate lacks sophistication, that I prefer a more robust, assertive flavor profile.

This Fujian oolong displays a fairly strong, tobacco-y dry leaf scent. Quite strong, but once rinsed and heated transforms into a pleasant roasty nuttiness. Obviously, this tea has undergone a modest amount of oxidation producing a yellowish – lt. brown liquor that is pleasing to the eye.

I had to experiment a little to get the my desired water-to-leaf-to-flavor ratio. The first steep was fine, but I thought this tea had better potential. I added a bit more leaf and steeped a bit longer and was impressed with how much deeper the flavor evolved. I was able to coax out a hearty, nutty swallow. As my cup cools, maybe a little leathery hint arises. Unlike Taiwan oolongs I’ve tried, this tea almost entirely lacks any floral aroma. On the upside, this tea has better endurance than most Taiwan teas.

Overall, this is not a great oolong, but it is a pleasant cup. Worthy to be served to company as long as the company isn’t too fancy.

Backlog from yesterday.

I got this in a mystery swap from Shelley_Lorraine. Thanks! This is a very smooth oolong. nothing too exciting about it. I think when it comes to oolongs I like them either really buttery or roasty, otherwise they’re kind of boring. But it was still a nice cup.

Got a sample of this from LiberTeas and I’ve enjoyed it today, but nothing’s stood out. It’s a nice oolong. Not very creamy, but it does taste a little thicker than plain water. No stand-out flavor notes. Just a nice, basic oolong.

This Oolong (Wulong) is a bit darker than a green Oolong, but not quite as dark as some of the darker (more oxidized) Oolongs… somewhere in between.

The longer oxidation results in a roasted nutty taste that I find quite alluring. It is smooth and has a pleasant mouthfeel, although it is not as thick or creamy a mouthfeel as a very green Oolong might possess.

There is a vegetative back note to this and it leaves an interesting effect on the tongue in the aftertaste – on the very back of my tongue I can feel a slight tickle/tingle that was not there before I started sipping this tea. It’s different and unusual, but not unpleasant.

This smells like grass but tastes like a grassy/nutty mix or combo. The ending is sweeter as the product description says. As it cools a bit I am liking it a alittle more.

I’m totally loving this oolong. Very generous free sample when I bought a teapot from Enjoying Tea. It smells vegetal in the bag, but very roasty after brewing. I don’t like a strong roasted flavor (not a fan of dark-roast oolong or genmaicha), but the flavor of this is wonderful. It’s sweet and mildly roasty (I do like a pinch of roastiness).

Finished this one off tonight, it was very good I will for be buying it again.

This is a good oolong! It’s toasty sweet. That’s what I’ve decided the term is for that distinct flavor- toasty but not really roasty, sweet but not honey sweet. Toasty sweet. It’s also nutty; not really buttery or creamy. Every once in a while I think I taste some floral but it disappears pretty quickly. I like!
I’m running a bit of an experiment. I’ve had tummy troubles for several months now and my husband is blaming it on how much tea I drink. It’s the only thing ive changed in the last few months! So I am paying strict attention to how I feel during or after drinking tea. Here’s hoping its not the tea. :’(