Taiwan Osmanthus Oolong Tea

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for this Sample Tea!

I have simpathy for those of you getting ready for Thanksgiving with the latest Winter storm ready to hit. Freezing rain and/or snow!
The West (and Mountains where I am) has had the storm pass by already. Finally we’re coming out of sub-zero temperatures.

What we all have in common, even those who are in the cold Canadian Winter and those of you in Europe…is the comforting glow of a cup of tea which warms us from head to toe.

This Thanksgiving I’ll be with my daughter, son-in-law and 10 children. (One 2 year old is a short stay foster toddler. Another has been with them almost from birth (about a year). The third is three and awaiting adoption into their forever family of 3 bio and 4 adopted children). Grandma Bonnie will be busy in the noisy mix on the farm this Thursday.
Granddaugher Kiah (16) will be butchering the turkey and several chickens. She’s done this before.(sorry vegans, but this is the way this family feeds their brood by raising their own food!)

I’ve been reading my family history. We go back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony…all the way back to those early Pilgrims. My daughter Annalisa laughs…“The African American part of me came over on a slave ship and cooked turkey for others. The British part arrived on a ship as a Pilgrim and my husband (who is part Native American) shared turkey with my Pilgrim ancestors. So there you go,Thanksgiving!”

Whatever our background and story, we can be thankful for many things. I am thankful for my Steepster friends for sure! I’m thankful for so many blessings…too many to count!

This morning, I made a spaghetti squash crusted deep dish pizza with feta and spinich. While it was baking, I made some Taiwanese Osmanthus Oolong Tea.

The instructions say ‘steep 3-8 minutes’. That’s quite a long time! I chose 6 minutes, poured the whole packet of leaves into my larger gaiwan…then added boiling water.

The aroma that wafted up was lovely floral, slightly vegetal…but tasted too strong. 6 minutes was almost bitter, sweet but too much.

The second steep, at 45 seconds, was perfect. Light, sweet with the aroma of sugar cookies. Osmanthus can smell a bit like vanilla.
The Oolong isn’t very vegetal and reminded me of taking a nibble off a skinny stalk of young, fresh uncooked asparagus. (I detected a hint of butter)

Many steepsters love a sweet tea and wouldn’t dream of not adding sugar or sweetener. Adding a little here (just a little) works well.

My favorite time to drink a tea like this one would be when the first bulbs in Spring are coming up, and the ethereal glow of warm sunshine begins to melt the frost. Hope in a cup!

Blessings to everyone this Thanksgiving and to those who are not in this land, Blessings always!

Sipdown, 136. Thanks again to Teavivre for this sample.

I really enjoyed this one today. It was floral and sweet, with thick, rich osmanthus flavor. I also like that it’s not all osmanthus and I can taste the vegetal notes of the base, but the osmanthus is definitely the main even. One of the better osmanthus oolongs I’ve had.

Another first! My first osmanthus tea. I generally like floral teas (violet, rose, lavender, chrysanthemum), so I have high hopes for this one.

Wow, the aroma is strong and pretty thrilling. Very, powerfully floral and maybe a little fruity. It’s sweet, reminiscent of a sort of blend between violet and rose. As far as appearances go, it looks like an ordinary higher-grade oolong. Dark green nuggets with a stem sticking out. However, there are tiny, delicate flowers mixed in. They’re sort of orangish yellow with four petals… and very familiar! Wait, Osmanthus is the same thing as a tea olive tree?!

Long story short: Tea olive blossoms are very special to me in the way that they invoke nostalgia. They grow all over Atlanta, so whenever I smell them, I get flooded with memories of other times I’ve been around them in bloom. Falls and springs.

The brew comes up to a calm yellowish green. There’s the familiar, pungent oolong aroma, as well as the sweet fruity-floral scent. One sip and I’m in love. This tastes exactly like I wanted it to. Gentle oolong flavors with just a hint of nuttiness to base the flowers on. The floral osmanthus taste is right there in the forefront. It’s bright, comforting, and nostalgic. Exactly what I need in the dead of winter. This is going on my shopping list.

I am pretty sure I wrote a note on this one before, but as happened yesterday, that note seems to have disappeared.

I had never heard of osmanthus until a few years ago when I ordered an osmanthus puerh. It was very good but I had nothing to compare it to so that I could really separate the flavor. I have since had a couple of teas with osmanthus and I think I can recognize it better now. It isn’t nearly as sweet or as strong as jasmine to me, nor does it have the thick mouthfeel that rose can have.

The oolong here is not a dark roasted one, and it combines beautifully with the floral. I believe that this tea would have been rather floral on its own, and the addition of osmanthus just sweetens it a bit more. This was a lovely oolong for a late night treat, lasting about six infusions and really could probably have kept going for more.

Sipdown #69, another Oolong from KS. Thanks!

I all I really have to say here is that although I’m sure the quality of this tea is high, as are all of Teavivre’s teas, I don’t think I care much for Osmanthus. I don’t hate it, but it leaves a lingering flavor of orange baby aspirins in my mouth & sinuses. The oolong has a green vegetal taste to it, and although this tea was interesting to try, and I’d drink it again, it isn’t something I’d strive to keep in my collection.

Another green oolong. Still not my favorite, but I am enjoying the osmanthus flavoring. It’s floral in more of a rose petal way as opposed to the base oolong, which has that green honeysuckle semi-vegetal thing going on. I far prefer the former type of floral to the latter, and I’m finding that the combination of the two makes this far more palatable for me than your usual (straight) green oolong. I’m not sure it’s something I’d feel the need to purchase, but I wouldn’t be averse to drinking it again. I don’t think I’ve ever had osmanthus anything before, and I’m glad to have had the chance to try a new flavor. Thanks to Nicole_Martin for the sample.

Mmmm… one sniff of the leaves was enough to remind me why I used to love green oolongs from Taiwan so much. When did I stop drinking them?

I’m not sure what osmanthus is like, but if it’s what I"m tasting, then I like it. It’s the sweet syrupy aroma that some flowers have. Blending in with that is the lovely vegetal green oolong. Fresh and summery. Oolongs always taste like seasons to me. Young plants, scented flowers…I can almost hear the bees buzzing around and feel the sunshine on my face. Lovely. :)

Thank you, Angel, for this sample.

this is a nice tea… almost a revamped version of a jasmine blossom tea. if you are inclined to add cream (as i usually am) resist the urge, really. with cream it somehow goes from a nice, light floral to a honeysuckle/bull kelp. (i kid you not)

it doesn’t possess an overpowering floral, very reminiscent of walking in a spring garden and once you’ve passed the flowering shrub the scent stops. it reminds me more of a green oolong than a black. no astringency, a small amount of caffeine stick but it’s not at all unpleasant.

there are a few ‘problems’ that aren’t exactly problems and they are these:

- i started with a tea that i wound up adoring yesterday, the milk oolong, and i just don’t like this one as much.

- something about it makes me think i would only ever want to drink it in spring or summer. wrong flavours for fall and winter.

- this last one comes from my wife after she sniffed it: ’it’s a smell i would wear, but not one i would drink’. not so much one i would wear, but i see her point.

a floral jasminesque that james’s wife would prefer to wear than drink.

and one last time: you really don’t want to add milk!

I wasn’t sure what osmanthus was before opening this. As soon as I cut open the sample I had a pretty good idea. The bag scent was strongly floral to the point of almost perfumey. The scent reminds me of lavender, at least that is the closest comparison I can muster.

Despite the initial scent shock, the cup is much lighter in strength and flavor. It is osmanthus first and then the fresh green oolong quickly moves in to share the sip. Very sweet, coming from one with a sweet tooth. No bitterness. No rough edges.

This is very easy to sip. I had some doubts and apprehension at first but found the cup emptied in record time. For fun I did add sweetener later in the cup. It was almost too much even for me but the floral turned more into grape candy.

This is an interesting tea that I am going to resteep a few more times.

Thank you to Angel at Teavivre for this sample
I wasn’t sure what osmanthus was but I imagined it being something like jasmine. Well, it isn’t. It is sweeter but also more bitter at the same time. I don’t know if I am the only one getting that note.
The oolong is very green an vegetal.
Resteep 5 minutes
I enjoyed this sample, but I think I will keep jasmine as my number one floral choice.