Ginger's Oolong

I ordered this sample quite a while ago and have been saving it for a special day, and today is that day! Twenty-five years ago today I drove to South Carolina to give a young man a pound cake. I came home engaged! (Must have been a really good pound cake, or he was a starving college student!) This morning, I awaken to find….the Teavana Dragonfly tetsubin and warmer on my tea table! EEEEEE! He had driven out of town yesterday to get it, calling my youngest to make sure it was the right one! I had to make a really special oolong in it.

And this is it! A really special oolong! I thought I was using too few leaves since it was a sample and this is the large pot, but this is full of flavor. The oolong base is dark, which is my favorite kind of oolong, and the ginger is just right – not too strong, not too biting. I agree that it tastes like candied ginger because it is so sweet, and I am not really getting a bite as some described, unless perhaps I just don’t know what that is! I find it smooth, naturally sweet, and warm with ginger flavor. If I order another whole tin of oolong, I think it will be this one. Even hubby liked it sans additions, and he really only drinks a couple of teas, and those with milk and a LOT of sugar, or iced and Southern sweet!

And the last tea we tried tonight. I have a confession: some day I will be a crazy cat lady. I love my two cats and completely spoil them. One of them is named Ginger, and I thought it was adorable that this tea is called “Ginger’s Oolong”. Yep, I’m a dork. I got a sample.

I was a bit surprised at first because most of it looks like very small leaves, almost as if it was made with a CTC oolong. I thought, who would make CTC oolong? Then I remembered I’ve drank tea bag oolong before, the beloved yamamotoyama, and while it’s nothing special it’s not awful either.

Brewed up this tastes lightly floral and fruity with a nice bite of ginger, almost like drinking a not very strong herbal ginger infusion. But unlike the Adagio supposedly-ginseng-but-really-ginger tea I had recently, this is good. Nice ginger flavor without being overpowering or drying out my throat and mouth. I think this works well with the oolong as a balancing act.

Edit, a couple of classic Ginger photos:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lubrvgPgJa1r581hyo1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzkeizxv0j1r581hyo1_500.jpg

Harney makes a terrific formosa oolong and I love ginger so I had higher hopes for this one. Smells weird in the package and even weirder as a tea. I don’t have much else to say about it except I’m glad it’s only a sample. I will try steeping maybe with less time and see if I can improve upon my icky feelings.

I love this tea. I ordered a sample size of it and now I am thinking I’ll have to order a tin. It’s dark oolong, if that’s your thing (and it happens to be the kind of oolong that I like). It has a nice mellow ginger flavor in the background; more of a candied ginger flavor than a fresh ginger. It’s cold and dreary here today and this tea is perfect for the day. It reminds me of something…

That soft, buttery oolong taste with just a mild zing of ginger. I foresee an empty tea tin in my near future, as I will probably be drinking a lot of this.

Not much ginger in there.
Don’t like it, but then don’t hate it either. Just boring overall.

Wow. What lovely flavors in this tea. It’s aroma first — slightly chocolate-ie, slightly ginger-ie. Then the flavor is a mellow maltiness and then a slight bite of ginger. Its texture is supple, as well. I’m a fan.

The dry leaves smell strongly of ginger and tea, but oddly enough I thought I smelled coffee notes when it was brewed up. The aroma is mostly ginger, but the tea smell is also very strong. The coffee aroma went away once the tea cooled down a bit, which was kind of wierd to me. I don’t have alot of experience with oolongs, but to me this tastes like a milder black tea, with absolutly no bitterness whatsoever, which I love. I’m a ginger fanatic and the smell of ginger is not as strong as the taste, so the next time I brew this up I think I will toss a couple slices of fresh ginger in the water first to kick it up a notch. Overall tasty and well balanced, with both the tea and ginger coming through roughly equally, but personally I would prefer a stronger, spicier flavor.

I was really craving a flavored tea after dinner tonight. Unfortunately my cupboard is pretty bare in the flavored department these days. I rooted through my ever-growing stash of samples and found this one hanging out in the bottom of the pile. Brewed at about 200/195ºF for 4 minutes with a nice sized teaspoon.
Verdict… it’s okay. Just okay. I got this as a free sample with my last order and am pretty glad I didn’t pay for it. It’s not awful, but just too bland for a ginger tea. There’s a bit of sweetness and apricot in there, I’m assuming that’s the Formosa base, but the ginger is terribly muted. Where’s the spice? Where’s the bite? How can ginger be bland? I’m pretty disappointed this wasn’t better since I absolutely love ginger. And sadly it didn’t satisfy my craving.

I did not like this tea at the first and the second time I steeped it. I thought it was too sweet, and lacks the spice of ginger. But then I have increased the steeping time and have liked more. I have steeped since then for about 5 minutes, water at 90°C, and the sweetness have go down, and I can taste the soft taste of the oolong.
But still lacks something that reminds me of ginger. And the smell of the infusion is weird (mainly when i do a second steep of the leaves).