99% Oxidized Purple Oolong

Welcome to the dark side.

The leaves of this oolong are some of the darkest I’ve seen. And so is the brew, a beautiful deep amber.

This type of leaf opens a little but never really unfurls. It’s good for a multitude of steeps!

This is as roasty as it gets!

There’s a lot of charcoal in this cup, no smoke though, for me it’s a huge distinction.

It’s musky and spicy, hints of cinnamon and clove.

Strong burnt and sweet caramel, bitter chocolate all in one sip. Like many heavy roasted oolong, there’s a lot going one here.

The fourth steep is spectacular, it’s loosing some of the bitterness and the sweetness has intensified. The chocolate is very persistent.

I’m a fan…decadent, a dessert tea.

I got this back in Feb and forgot to even try it. So this tea is a very complex tea. Let me try to describe it. It’s kind of like a black or a pu’erh and yet not like them. I can smell charcoal from the tea. It brews up dark. I can taste the oolong along with a charcoal taste and a deep sweetness like a plum or molasses. It says there are cinnamon, musk and amber notes in it on the package but I’m not really picking up any cinnamon. I am holding off rating this tea for now until I’ve had a few more cups of this. I steeped for 3 minutes so I will try some different steep times and see what I like.

I am playing catch up from a week of lots of packages coming and not enough writing of tasting notes so sorry for the flood of notes:) I received a very generous sample of this from bluebelle.

Roasty oolongs are becoming my favorite evening wind down tea. Something about them makes me just want to cuddle up in my pj’s with my book and stay that way for a really long time. When I saw this tea in the mix of sample I got pretty excited, but the perfect time to try this kept escaping me over the past few weeks. I finally got to it this week. This was roasty, and more sweet than some of the other roasty oolongs I have had. As the sip lingered in your mouth it was almost like eating chocolate. I still got the oolong flavor, but it was mixed with a chocolaty after taste. I am not sure about this one just yet. It was enjoyable, yes, but something I crave and would buy again, I am still not sure.

To me it tastes a bit like a mix from Pu-erh and chocolate,with a smoky note.Very delicious and exotic.