Oriental Beauty

A sample from the lovely Courtney.

I feel terrible that it took me this long to try this tea. I usually shy away from straight teas, preferring blends, but I really like this one. It reminds me of the tea they serve in Chinese restaurants but richer and completely lacking in astringency. Bonus, this was the perfect accompianment to some blueberry white chocolate oatmeal cookies (had after shoveling snow, so the calories don’t count, right?).

I really enjoyed this and may have to seek out some unflavored oolongs in the future. Thank you, Courtney!

I love a rainy Sunday, especially on a holiday weekend and even more so when the house is quiet. I wanted to choose something special for the occasion, before my solitude is shattered by the return of my 14-yr old stepdaughter. I’ll be honest, I’m much more suited to Cool Aunt, a role which I have relished for 25+ years for eleven wonderful children that are not mine. Stepmom is still a role I’m getting used to. Stepmom is a different kettle of fish entirely.

So here I am with about an hour to enjoy. I nearly went to tea I knew I would like, but instead I forced myself to drink one of the hundreds of untried teas I have amassed over the past several months due to multiple swaps and unfettered spending. This tea was generously provided by Liquid Proust in a recent swap. I had wanted to try Oriental Beauty for awhile; I mean, with a name like that, who wouldn’t? The aroma is lovely. Seriously, I would like an Oriental Beauty air freshener to spray all over my house. And it’s gorgeous to look at. Flavors: very floral upfront, slightly fruity, honey but not sweet, woodsy, a tad nutty, with a cooling aftertaste. There is something about this tea that is reminiscent of White2Tea’s Clover Patch. I think I might brew them side by side and see if there’s anything to that, or if I’m just mistaken and/or nuts.

Lovely cup of tea. Definitely get the raisin thing.

It was a nice and light, medium strength flavours and aroma with a slightly astringent aftertaste. I quite like the fact could taste the water, felt like a pure drink.

Reminded me a bit of rooibos in a great way, but with that wonderful OB almost-cinnamon thing going on.

Thanks LiquidProust for the sample!

While I have no clue what this should taste like… I am going to explain it how it taste to me.

As I drink this and listen to Of Monsters and Men, I imagine tea being grown in a public pool that nobody pees in. This tea was plucked from that area ,dried out, and processed as an oolong to be sold to consumers such as I to be drank. Many people will drink this and not taste what I taste, but I taste some sort of clean pool tea nectar.

Frickin’ weird experience… how does one rate this? I assume that any pool that has me continually drinking from its produce must be pretty dang amazing so, yeah…

p.s. I am not insane…

I enjoy this – it is very sweet from the honey notes, and I can definitely taste a competing mix of warmth and fresh fruitiness. It isn’t the end all be all of oolong for me, but I will very much enjoy every last cup.

Oriental Beauty served with pumpkin and pecan pie while I watch Gothum. Basically everything is simply perfect!

Raw leaf smells of musty maple.
Steeping:
Leaf – 5g
Water – 90C
Method – Gaiwan 200ml

In flavour this is light, sweet, wooden and nutty. Also getting a hint of spice and plum. Very clean tasting and the sweetness is wonderful. Has a light dry and nutty after taste.

I think this has been the best Oriental Beauty I have tried. :)

Not surprisingly, this is a wonderful oolong tea! It has that familiar floral aroma I find so soothing in an oolong, but with a strong honey note to it. (Because of the leafhoppers?) As for the taste, it has very prominent honey notes, possibly the strongest that I’ve noticed in a tea so far. The first steep also had a floral note that reminded me of lilacs, and a hint of something fruity, possibly plum. There was a soft roasted aftertaste, with a little bit of dryness (which I love!). I wouldn’t call it astringency— just a slight powdery dryness that lingered pleasantly on the tongue.

This is a lovely tea, great for multiple steeps. I’ll have to try it gongfu style sometime!

This tea was good. The brewed tea had a beautiful golden color. There was only a touch of bitterness in the early steepings then none. There were definite notes of plums and honey.

I really liked this tea, a lot. I will eventually want to order it but not right away.

I brewed this tea five times in a 180ml teapot with 6g leaf and 190 degree water. I steeped it for 15 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. There were probably three more steepings to this tea, it wasn’t played out but I am at my caffeine limit for the night.

Round, gently sweet sip. Refreshing aftertaste, almost minty. My dad threw out my leaf after two steeps and before I could take any substantive notes. This is one of my pricier teas at over $1 per cup, so I was not super happy about this. It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it was annoying. Proper tasting note to follow at some point.

Yay, another Butiki sample from Sarsonator! I’ve become very curious about oxidized oolongs since trying the Eastern Beauty from Green Terrace, and anything from Butiki is sure to be good. :D The leaves look very similar to the Eastern Beauty – they’re very dark brown/purple with some silvery spots. They seem so fragile, and are very lightweight. I found that this tea has almost no dry scent, just a little bit of hay and autumn leaves. I followed the instructions on Butiki’s website: 2 teaspoons at 195 degrees for 4 minutes.

The brewed aroma is very floral, which surprised me! There’s also some fruity sweetness, and a strong honey note. This actually tastes quite different from the Eastern Beauty that I had before. It’s much more floral, which is not generally my favorite note, but it’s not terrible here. There’s a fruit taste which I would identify as tart but sweet plums along with a deeper raisin-like flavor. The background is all autumn leaves and hay, with a richness that reminds me of molasses. And obviously there’s that honeyed sweetness (this is a leafhopper tea, after all), but honestly I was expecting it to be stronger based on the aroma.

Very good, both similar and different from the one I had previously tried! Thanks Sars!