Thailand 'Red Tiger' Oolong Tea

Look and taste like tieguanyin with less sourness. Heavier roasted Oolong. Pleasant aftertaste and aroma; roasted nut palate.

This is the second note on this and it’s a sipdown but I just have to buy more. It’s one of my favorites. I had mentioned the banana nut bread taste and instead of using a gaiwan as I did the first time, I made a 18 oz pot with 15g of it with several infusions, starting with 1 minutes infusion and working up. That wonderful banana bread taste is stronger brewing it this way. The baked cherry aroma and notes are so yummy too. I’ve been drinking a lot of black tea and pu’erh lately and boom… Just like that my fickle tea self, fell back in love with a good roasted Jin Xuan. I upped the rating more to remind myself, this has got to be on my shelf.

Now I need to compare Vietnam Medium-Roast Jin Xuan Red Oolong Tea. That was my other favorite What-Cha tea (plus the sticky rice one, of course).

Received as a generous sample from the proprietor.

Filtered Santa Monica tap water just off the boil throughout. Poured from a pear-shaped purple clay tea-pot into a glass cha hai, and served in a porcelain (“peony”) cup.

8 infusions (no wash), most around 45 seconds – the first was my favorite:

Saffron to Fulvous liquor; Biscuity/faintly-floral aroma with notes of hay and popcorn; Very low roast grain on the palate with meringue/custard and rice pudding elements as well. Medium finish with residual honey, fleeting malt, and faint apricot notes. Longer infusions/higher temperatures seem to flatten out (or better integrate, if I’m being generous) the flavors – although I also get a faint vegetal note suggesting weakly stewed morning glory or water spinach along with a hint of corn when the tea is pushed. Medium-light bodied; Good longevity.

Reminds me of the bug-bitten oolongs I’ve sampled from Taiwan, with similar levels of oxidation and roast (modest but perceptible). An enjoyable not-quite-medium roast tea, fairly responsive to infusion time/temperature, though not finnicky to brew.

Here is another review from way back. I finished a couple of 10g sample pouches of this tea around the first week of May, but totally forgot to post a review for this tea when I was focusing on clearing out the backlog for May. It seems that What-Cha always manages to offer a number of Jin Xuans from Southeast Asia, and this was yet another of them. I found it to be a more or less excellent and incredibly approachable roasted Jin Xuan. It may not be the sort of tea that will blow all fans of roasted oolongs away, but I found it to be very enjoyable.

I prepared this tea gongfu style, although I did not push it all that hard. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of honey, black cherry, peach, and blood orange. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of baked bread and malt along with a stronger overall black cherry scent. The first infusion introduced milder aromas of cream, banana, vanilla, plum. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered mild notes of cream, malt, vanilla, baked bread, honey, and black cherry balanced by hints of banana and blood orange. Subsequent infusions saw wood, cinnamon, and cocoa aromas appear along with a stronger scent of banana. New notes of wood, cinnamon, apricot, minerals, butter, red apple, raisin, brown sugar, rose, and pear appeared in the mouth with belatedly emerging notes of peach and plum. The final infusions offered notes of minerals, baked bread, wood, cream, and butter that were underscored by hints of vanilla, stone fruits, and pear.

I am so glad that I took detailed notes of my review sessions for this tea because I would otherwise have been forced to not log this one. As mentioned above, this was a very nice roasted Jin Xuan. It seems that countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia are producing numerous quality Jin Xuan oolongs these days. If you are a fan of sweeter, fruitier roasted oolongs, I would be willing to bet that you would enjoy this tea.

This is a sweet and medium bodied tea, whose smell reminds me of baked figs and honey a bit. There are some notes of cocoa and also melon in the aftertaste. The taste is balanced with a good depth.

Overall, Red Tiger is a great fruity oolong that is also very affordable. Highly recommended!

Scent of the dry leaves is roasted and floral. Scent of the wet leaves after infusing is rich, honeyed, and reminds me of cooked cherries (I think I saw this in the product description too, so if so, then that is spot on). Taste is a nice warm, roasted honey-floral with a bit of tartness and hints of cooked cherry. Later infusions have a nice camphor note. Mouthfeel is fairly drying.

I brewed this Gongfu Cha style. To me it was a fairly enjoyable everyday drinking kind of tea, with not a lot of variance from one infusion to the next.

I am going to try brewing this differently and may update the review if it turns out too different. I thought this tea was highly roasted but it turns out it’s just highly oxidized so I’m going to try more leaf and lower temperature water per my usual handling of less roasted oolong and see if that makes a big difference.

EDIT: It did make a difference, with most infusions tasting more sweet and honeyed and less tart. It does still have some of that drying mouthfeel though.

Sipdown
round flavor – no real finish, but lingering flavor. fruity, soft, hint of sweetness.
honey
better at a higher temperature 200F instead of 195F

With my hair, I am wash and go. For most days, with my tea, I am brew and go. My job at the time I wouldn’t have time to even brew tea on the premise, so I would need make a huge thermos. No time or place for gong fu.

At first with this tea, I brewed it western style. I wasn’t a fan of the tea, the flavor profile many were writing about was muddled. The next day I made time to try it gong fu. It was like a whole new tea! I tasted everything. The honey, the warmth, slightly sweet. I guess I got into a pattern of just always brewing my tea western, and always feeling rushed to do so. I try to always have oolong around the house to force me to gong fu.

I preferred this oolong to the Red Buffalo from What-cha. But gong fu all the way, no western brewing for this.

So, I woke up today thinking oolong.

I am just starting with the first steep and I have honeyed malt—a bit like honey black— against a floral backdrop. Interesting. Unusual. Nice.

Now, as much as I’d like to continue lounging around in my flannel pjs drinking tea on this massively foggy day, I am revving myself up to go participate in some movement. Part of my inspiration is that yesterday I left one of my travel mugs in my locker at the gym and I need it for my multiple steepings in the coming days. So I may as well go have a workout. You guys can be my witnesses as I get into motion. Getting up now….

Thank you, Crowkettle. A lovely entry into the selection you so generously shared with me.

The steeps will continue. Stay tuned.

Well, I drank this until the steeps gave up almost nothing. So, yay! Deliciousness!

And it’s a sip down! I’d happily order this one the next time What-Cha hears from me.

1st steeps 15 sec plus 5 seconds per steep. Nice roasted smell with bread coming from the wet leaf. The steep brewed up with not a ton of flavor but with a really nice sweetness. The sweetness coming at the end tastes like pure sugar. A nice soft maltiness, not too much like in some assamicas. Some wonderful fruitiness coming in the front like baked bananas and roasted apples. Very nice filling tea.