Pekoe Gold Premium Grade Legend Oriental Beauty Baihao Oolong Tea (N/A temporarily)

This is an OUTSTANDING Oriental Beauty – sweet, deliciously peach-like and honey-esque. Sweet, luscious and wonderfully complex! The peach and honey tones are strong right from the start, and once the palate becomes accustomed to these flavors, it starts exploring the other notes: earth, flower, and a creaminess that melds beautifully with the peach-y tones.

Each infusion is a delight… I’m on my fourth infusion now. By the third infusion, I noticed that the mouthfeel began to lighten and it became slightly less creamy… in fact, the flavors began to meld together and become unified… creating less diversity but a more luscious, enchanting flavor.

I love this tea.

I infused this for twice as long as they suggested – only because I was pre-occupied with something else – Oops! But I will say that is turned out darn tasty even with me over infusing! This has a gentle flavor. It’s hydrating but also a bit creamy tasting on top of buttery and earthy notes. Yes, the taste is great, but I must say I was taken away by the aroma of the dry leaves – right from the beginning! A bit floral, a bit earthy, but I could also pick up on a delightful aroma of dates. It was wonderful!

Thank you FONG MONG TEA for this free sample

Wow-this doesn’t taste like any kind of oolong I’ve ever had! In fact, if you had given me a blind taste test, I could not identify this tea-or even hazard a guess. I might guess an herbal tea. I’ve never had an Oriental Beauty tea before, so I had no idea what to expect here.

The leaves are large and twisted with colors of chocolate brown and rust contrasted sharply by chalky white tips. The dry leaf aroma is a rather generic, mild black tea scent.

The brewed leaf aroma smells much like grapefruit. Liquor is a deep amber hue. Flavor is very unusual and unique. This does not “remind” me of any kind of tea I’ve ever had. I taste notes of grapefruit, apple, and vinegar (apple cider vinegar?). I also taste some sort of woody type spice.

This is all very interesting. Let me try another steep or two to think about the number rating.

The first time I had this, it was too astringent and it didn’t resemble the Oriental Beauty I’d had previously. I didn’t log that one, thinking maybe I’d done something wrong. The second time I had it, which is today, it was quite the opposite. It was quite mild, and pale, and I’d wondered if I’d used enough leaf or let it steep too short. It was tasty for a milk dark oolong, but still wasn’t capturing the essence I’d had with my first Oriental Beauty love. So with the second steep of the second batch, I added the rest of the leaves from the sample pouch, had hotter water, and let it steep a good few minutes, and aahhhhhh!

I’m getting a sweet honey-ish dark oolong, almost a black tea, but milder and not too astringent. THIS is my Oriental Beauty!

Many thanks to FONG MONG for providing this sample!

This is the third and the last sample I got from the great Fong Mong Teas. Thank you once again!

This one is very soft and creamy, but has a nice butter hint to it. It doesn’t surprise with a variety of taste or a wild bouquet of taste nuances. But it is surely a great tea, the smell is very full and rich, especially the one of dry leaves. And the buttery/earthy touch gives a nice warm sensation.

I will consider having this one as a dinner tea or a great tea for eating sweets and snacks!

Another great tea from Fong Mong. The balance between the sweet and sour flavors is just amazing. In fact, drinking this tea has convinced me to add Oriental Beauty permanently to my MUST HAVE list. No wonder Queen Elisabeth fell for it.
I have tried this tea from other vendors and it was a disapointment after disapointment.
But the tea from Fong Mong finally met my expectations. It starts slighly sour, lemony then a sweet flavor of maple candy comes forth followed by roasted chestnuts. The tea keeps its flavor for at least 4 -5 steeps hardly changing in taste. Needs longer brewing time than other oolongs. Superb!

Oriental Beauty is quite an indulgence. The dry aroma is distinct and pleasant, with floating notes of fruit and honey.

As of writing this I’ve tried this tea on two separate occasions with slight method differences, but using a gaiwan both times. The first time, I used cooler water and relatively short infusion times. This brings out a much lighter and delicate flavour, similar to a first flush Darjeeling. I began using 3 grams of tea per 90ml of water, and a 30 second steep time, increasing by another 30 seconds with each infusion. The result was light, fruity sweet with honey. There was no bitterness at all in this tea, and it has a lovely smooth mouthfeel. With this method I stopped at eight infusions, having enjoyed it very much, but also eager to see what hotter water and longer steep times would draw out of this tea.

For my second tasting, I used water just under a boil and longer infusion times, beginning with two minutes. Once again I used 3 grams of tea and 90ml of water. The above picture is from the first infusion of that second tasting. Right from the start there was a much deeper color to the liquor, like amber honey, where the first tasting began quite pale. The flavour using this method was much more rich and bold, but maintained that distinct honey and fruit flavour. Simply delightful!

A noted correction, this is top grade.

Thanks to Fong Mong for this sample. Up today for tasting we have pekoe gold oriental beauty. First thing I noticed is the leaves are alot of different colors. Almost looking like a white tea with all the color in the leaf. I also got a slight smell of honey before even heating the pot. Heating the pot with about 200 degree water and putting the leaves in, I got a strong scent of honey arising from the leaves.

For my first steep, I went with about 30 seconds and got a really nice honey, sweet, white wine, white grape and maybe honeysuckle flavor. The liquor is clear, light and pale moderately thick. The leaves are so dark after steeping, its quite impressive actually. The flavors and aroma’s in this tea are quite effemoral and hard to pin down, though the feeling of grapes, wine and honey is quite apparent, there might be some other spice and fruit notes I cant quite pick out.

The second steep I went about a minute, and I got a much darker color liquor , a medium honey color now and the flavor and aroma are quite a bit stronger. Grapes, wine and honey are still the predominant flavors at this point, but maybe flowers, or peaches. There is definitely something else there but Im not sure what it is. The taste of wine sans alcohol is so much more pronounced now, that really is an unusual flavor. There might be a bit of malt flavor too. Its really interesting what happens when the bugs bite the tea..

Third steeping, I went for about 2 minutes, seeing if I can push this tea a little. The color got slightly darker, but the aroma is about the same. Still wine flavor, but maybe a bit darker now, very interesting. This tea has been wonderful, Ill steep it out a few more times. Sunday I will be tasting the bug bitten oolong and comparing.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes tea with honey aroma!

Flavors: Honey, Honeysuckle, Sweet, White Grapes, White Wine

It looks like this tea hasn’t been reviewed in five years, so I hope this is the right listing. This is one of my all-time favourite bai hao. I bought it in 2015 and I liked it so much that I took advantage of a sale to buy two more bags this year. This is the end of the 2015 package, and I think the flavour is starting to mellow.

I put about 5 grams of the beautiful multi-coloured leaves in an 85 ml porcelain teapot, which I tend not to use because the pour is so slow. However, this just seems to make bai hao even better. The aroma of the leaves in the teapot is almost nonexistent, though some hints of sandalwood and spice come through. I used 195F water and steeps of 30, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 180 seconds, followed by steeps of 3, 6, and 9 minutes.

The first steep comes in with citrus, wood, honey, and pear, with some sandalwood in the background. There’s no bitterness and a lingering aftertaste. Hints of grape and other fruit show up in the second steep, though they’re somewhat faint. I then upped the temperature to 200F to try and get more fruity flavours, but other than possibly making it a bit sweeter, it didn’t make a difference.

That sandalwood/spice note is the best part of this tea. It kind of tingles on the tongue in some steeps. It also makes the tea seem quite complex, even though I can pin down relatively few flavours. The fourth, fifth, and sixth infusions were the best and most well integrated, suggesting that this bai hao might benefit from longer steeps.

It’s difficult to judge bai hao objectively because I haven’t had too many and I love the flavour profile, which probably skews my ratings too far upwards. Nonetheless, this is excellent and I’m glad I have a stash of it.

I really like this tea but it gives me a stomach ache every time I have it. Can you be allergic to Oolong while no reaction to other teas?