Jasmine Oolong Tea

Sipdown! (27)

I love a jasmine tea for the evening, it’s just such a relaxing flavor…

I will say, because the jasmine is quite strong, I’m not sure there’s a big difference between this and a regular jasmine pearl green tea. The mouthfeel is maybe a little silkier? And there’s another light floral coming from the oolong base.

But otherwise, since the jasmine dominates anyway, I wouldn’t see a reason to order this over a jasmine pearl. The jasmine is delicious though, sweet and creamy and luscious!

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #18

Gongfu!

Trying to try a selection of traditional teas from the TTB and not just flavoured tea. There’s nothing wrong with flavoured tea, but y’all know I like variety in my life and if I focus on TTB blends the next week or so and only drinking flavoured teas then there’s gonna be a Gongfu shape hole in my heart…

I’ve had so many teas from Teavivre over the year that it’s almost hard to believe I haven’t had this one!! This was a nice late morning session; the oolong was so smooth and forgiving with my sloppier brewing today and the jasmine leaned quite sweet and sticky on the palate! Aside from the fragrant florals, the tea also had notes of green grapes, fresh linens, and fresh cut summer grass! Six steeps total.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCyds-1gE3s/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uEKJg1WHS0

Another sample I bought around a year ago. sigh. So this is the 2018 harvest. I haven’t tried this one yet, but I love Teavivre’s jasmine so much that I’m up for trying ALL their jasmine teas. Somehow this one isn’t as amazing as their other jasmine teas. Even upon opening the pouch, rather than the essence of jasmine, there is really only a hint of sweetness. That is also true with the flavor. I don’t think this is best quality oolong and the leaves looked a little broken in the infuser. But the flavor of the oolong is decent enough to pair with jasmine. Sweet, bright, buttery, a bit creamy. If I had approached anywhere near a two minute steep time, I think this would have been astringent. So I possibly should only use one teaspoon of leaves in the future. Though the third steep with a hot temperature and long steep time was fairly smooth and sweet anyway. Many of Teavivre’s other jasmine teas have much more jasmine flavor and seem better quality with the leaf. Teavivre is my must-go-to shop for jasmine teas, but I won’t need to buy this one. I like FULL jasmine flavor. Again, I’m happy to try all of Teavivre’s jasmine teas anyway. I’m GLAD I don’t love ALL of them.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 8 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
Harvest: 2018

Since I had to create a template for this tea I guess it is a pretty new offering. It is a jasmine tea with Tieguanyin base. The jasmine is not overboard and this is a plus. However, it does not seem to blend well with its oolong base.

The Tieguanyin in question is quite green and low-oxidation, with a rather herbaceous and floral taste. To my surprise the directions indicated that the water should be 212 degrees and when I followed it the tea came out predictably bitter and sour.

After much of trial I established that if you use water around 180-190 degrees and very short steeps you get yourself a somewhat balanced if not particularly complex drink. And oh, its taste went downhill fast for consequent steepings.

In short, this tea requires you to do a song and dance as if you were calming down a petulant baby. And when you finally succeed and get everything just right your reward is not that awesome. I will not be ordering this tea again.