Caramel Oolong

Sipdown 154/397

I’m not getting any orange or citrus notes from this tea, which I’d say is a good thing since I find orange and caramel a slightly weird flavour combination. I remembered liking this more, but I think I’m confusing it with another tea since I seem to remember chunks of some sort of fudge, but there are none here. The oolong looks roasted from its appearance and the dark colour of the tea, but there’s none of the strong nutty tones I would expect from a good roasted oolong. It’s not a particularly strong tea, even though I overleafed slightly with it being my last cup, with the caramel flavour being stronger than the base though not by much. I had to add a whole teaspoon of sugar to coax out the butteriness of the caramel, which is something I prefer not to do if I can help it. Not a tea I will miss, which I guess is for the best since it’s long since discontinued.

Sample from Janelle ’s Mystery Box.

This was a gift from Plunkybug nearly a year ago – I can’t believe it’s been that long! I can smell the caramel; it’s definitely sweet. It doesn’t really have much flavor, maybe because it is older. There is a strange, out-of-place flavor in each sip as well, almost soapy or perfumy, but it’s not off-putting. It just reminds me of a hotel lobby or home goods store. Like linen fresh. It’s a bit drying too. I won’t be steeping this a second time since my last note said the second steep was somewhat flavorless.

Quite nice. A touch woody and nutty, very roasty. A strong caramel note without actually being sweet.

Thank you to TraceyC!

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #27
These caramel oolongs never seem to get much love. I think the fault is always the low temperature suggested. They don’t seem to taste too badly when I use almost boiling water. After all, if you can use boiling water on a green oolong, why not a roasted oolong? Here the roasty oolong doesn’t have too much oolong flavor to begin with, but at boiling, the oolong can really mingle with whatever caramel is here: the little caramel squares. I like the sweetness and that is all caramel really is anyway. I like it… but I suggest those trying dark oolongs to try the low steep AND just boiled. Also, I do believe I have just tasted all of the DT caramel teas, according to my search for DT ‘caramel’. Jeeze.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp // 15 min after boiling // 2-3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Definitely caramel-y. But nothing really remarkable. Wouldn’t buy this tea. But thanks for the sample, Lariel! (: Now I’ll save my money!

I don’t know much about oolongs, but this one is definitely oxidized – the leaves are extremely dark brown, almost black. They’re large leaves that are rolled into loose pellets and a few of them are unrolled. There are yellow flower petals (I assume for aesthetics) and little baby cubes of some form of caramel solid. This tea smells fantastic! It reminds me of butter rum lifesavers mixed with Werther’s hard candies. Yum yum yum! I want this as a perfume – I would have to beat them away with a stick! The leaves are fairly bulky so I used a very heaping teaspoon for my 8 ounces of water.

The brewed tea smells so buttery, it just melts you from the inside. The sweet, caramely scent is there too, playing second fiddle. This tea tastes fantastic too! The butter hits first, then the sweet caramel and cream flavors. I don’t know anything about oolong, but I feel like this one must be toasted because there’s this amazing rich, roasty toasty nut flavor in the background. It totally makes this tea! It’s like a sweet, flaky, buttery roasted almond tart with caramel and honey drizzled all over the top. Everyone must try this now! Go go! Oh, and I added a little bit of sugar to this one.

A nice mellow and simple tea…it is a dark roast oolong, so more like a lighter black, and the sweet caramel…it is like warm arms wrapping around my taste buds and giving a comfy hug. There is nothing overwhelming with this one…sometimes simple and sweet is all a girl needs. :)

I’m pleased with this one. It’s one of the better ones I have tried from my Della Terra order.

I caved and order three 1 oz teas recently from DTT, this being one of them.

It came this morning, and in my excitement (“new shiny things all for me!!”) I forgot that I said I was going to start my day with Butiki’s White Rhino and I made some of this instead.

I was underwhelmed. It’s a perfectly ok tea, the flavoring isn’t overly sweet or chemical tasting, but the base is also not very strong, so there’s nothing about the cup that really stands out. I was hoping the oolong would be more buttery because I thought that would compliment some caramel flavoring very well.

Unfortunately the base is just kind of there, which makes the tea overall kind of just “meh” for me in general.

May end up in my swap pile.

I may be done with DTT….two more teas to try!
I think I’m just looking for something MORE.

I should have stuck with my decision to start the morning with White Rhino!

This was a sample I received in the LiberTeas box. Thank you for allowing me to try this one.

This has some good flavor, caramel, burnt sugar, but the base is very weak. It seems to be my complaint with all of Della Terra Teas that aren’t Rooibos. I wish I loved these more. This will not be a repurchase for me.

This tea is just not cooperating with me. I’m not getting the dark oolong goodness others are getting, but a light roasted oolong with a golden ochre colour.

I tried first at 185F steeping, and the tea was on the light side, but with a good caramel sweets flavor, with a light nutty roasty oolong background. A little bit of orange flavor, but still good. Overall, light and watery on flavor.

So I went in again, this time with 200F water and a bit more leaf. The caramel flavor is brighter, with the oolong tasting sharper, but still not rich, and with some light to moderate astringency at the end, making the cup not as enjoyable – it lacked that smoothness my last cup had.

I was actually going to review it for Oolong Owl, but yeah, not happy this tea isn’t turning out how others here are getting it.