foojoy

Thanks so much TeaEqualsBliss for including this one in our swap. I think I’ve reviewed most of the teas you’ve sent me — a few more to go!

I had a Verdant oolong the other day that I really wanted to steep right. Thankfully, I looked on their site how to steep and was surprised that it only needed 25-35 seconds. I know I would have ruined it with a steep time of around 3 or 4 minutes if I didn’t look. The flavor was heavenly with just seconds — I’m shocked with so much flavor so quick. Anyway, I’m worried I’ve been steeping my oolongs for too long now. Should most oolongs be steeped for seconds or does it depend on the tea? I guess I could just taste test them as they are steeping. I’ll play it safe from now on.

This one is special.
First steep – 48 seconds – The leaves are very black, long and twisty. I don’t think I’ve had an oolong like this one before. The infused leaves are green now, barely unraveled and they have an amazing scent, much different from the tea flavor. The flavor starts with a lovely peach, my favorite. Then a tiny hint of grassiness and I could have swore some spice. This one has a nice creme flavor to it. A full flavor. Absolutely delicious.

Second steep – 60 seconds I think this one steeped too hot or too long. It’s kind of bitter. That’s too bad — the first cup was so good.

Third steep – 60 seconds The water is cooler so it tastes sweet again, but it’s missing the peachiness and the creaminess the first cup had. The first cup was the best one, which is unusual for oolongs I’ve tried, but that was probably my fault for the way it was brewed.

With my oolong flavor rating where one is the lightest and most floral and five is the stronger flavor, I’d give this on a three. Probably a favorite oolong of mine, but there are so many of them and they are so different! I will treasure the few cups of this I have left. Sadly, I don’t see it on the FooJoy site, but I don’t think you can buy any teas from their site anyway. How did I possibly survive before tea?

I almost forgot I had this one! Having a mini cuppa. Sending the rest to the Replace Box B and Azzrian

I have a large tin of this and am sending half of it to my Sororitea Sister LiberTeas very soon!

I have been trying to think of what this aroma reminds me of and I think I finally can put my finger on it! LILY OF THE VALLEY!!!!!

The flavor is that of a very warming and comforting floral oolong with a mouth-watering end sip.

The more I sip the more I like this! I’m shocked this wasn’t already listed in the Steepster Database, tho!

It’s dandy!

This is a nice floral oolong that is somewhat reminiscent of a slightly grassy green type tea with hints of nuttiness to it. There is a surprising malt-likeness trying to get thru but it all comes back to the floral oolong. A trip from start to finish!

Coworker gave me a few bags of this tea. It has a green paper wrapper. The wrapper says it is a refreshing Sencha tea with a natural “Green” aroma and color.
I like it, as green teas taste great in the afternoon.
If the smell of surburbian green grass is your thing, this is your tea.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this Oolong.

It’s a really nice Wuyi, sweet with hints of smokiness. Toasty! Nice peachy undertones. Overall a very pleasing cup of tea.

This tea is a great value. It is very rich and full-bodied, but also very dusty. The dust gives it a smoky, slightly astringent flavor that I haven’t encountered in puer before. If you are not a fan of this flavor, rinsing the tea before steeping diminishes the dust problem.

This tea is much sweeter and less dusty than the box labeled “Aged Yunnan Puer Cake Tea” by Foojoy. Very mellow, no hint of astringency. Lacks some of the rich character found in more expensive Puer teas, but a great value!

I have been making daily brew of this for quite some time and enjoying the amber coloring of this tea with it robustness in flavor. I like inhaling the smokiness as it is boiling or steeping and I can honestly say I prefer this Classic Oolong by Foojoy above all else to date.

I have also sampled my Vintage Wuyi Wulong and this is not as good in flavor. It is mild and not at all robust like Foojoy’s Classic Oolong. It holds none of that roasted scent as does the Foojoy.

What I have been able to do is to diffuse the strength found in the Foojoy’s Oolong by adding one bag of the Wuyi Wulong, making this classic oolong less smoky in flavoring. Mind you I prefer the smokiness since it reminds me of the smell of coffee.

I am saying and encouraging coffee lovers wishing to switch to drinking tea to try Foojoy’s Classic Oolong.

I finally opened this China Classic Oolong tea and it is most pleasant in the cup.

Color is a light amber, but with two tea bags it is dark amber with slight toasty note. Mildly fragrant and makes me think of green tea with each cup. I cannot say why but each sip is like I am drinking green tea.

This Oolong will continue to be a regular cup for me in that I can consume it daily, no jitters.

I’m not sure if this tea is the freshest or not and quite honestly I only have it because it was thrown in for free with an order from an online Chinese grocery store I placed. Not sure if this tea is the freshest as it has a light floral taste that is not overwhelming like most floral oolongs that I’ve had before. If anything this tea even when brewed gongfu in a gaiwan has a bit of a washed out taste (for a green oolong) to it and even longer brews just make it bitter. So while it is not really bad to say I definitively will not be picking it up again unless it is given to me for free again as it is not worth the $7.50 they were charging for me. Like most cheap and not so good oolongs this one will follow suit in being sent through my ice tea maker as a semi-don’t care ice tea oolong, although unlike others this is not a cheap oolong that I would buy for the sake of sending through my ice tea maker.

So I am going out the door this morning and I notice my wife has a box of International Delights Almond Joy non-dairy coffee creamer cups sitting on the counter. Well who doesn’t like Almond Joy? So I grabbed one and tried to decide what tea will go with this. I started to use puerh and I still may have to try that one next week. I settled on this wuyi oolong thinking the roastiness would work well. I poured the whole container in the cup and it turned this dark tea almost white. This is obviously coconut but not really milk chocolate and only a little almond. I’m a bit disappointed not to get those flavors. I do think half the creamer would have been better. Still it was a fun way to start my work day.

I brewed a cup of this bagged tea with 5 chocolate mint leaves. The result was very good. The oolong is a dark wuyi oolong and is roasty. The mint is a light peppermint taste with a hint of chocolate. The combination really worked for me this morning.

I think I usually use boiling water. Today I used cooler water and a 3 minute steep. Cooler water makes this tea. The roastiness is milder and the sip is milky. Delicious. Upping the rating.

I keep a couple different $2 boxes of bagged oolong around for the convenience of when I am too lazy to use the press. Measuring out the tea would add a whole 5 seconds to the process. As cheap as they are, the bags aren’t really a bargain, when you consider how many times loose leaf can be resteeped, unless you are a steep once and throw out kind of person. I digress. Here I am, bag in hand. On the black end of the oolong scale. This is roasty and toasty. You can almost taste campfire in the sip. One of these days I will try a loose version and never look back. I’m pretty sure I am missing a big chunk of the flavor this type tea is capable of delivering. For now, this was a good choice to begin my day. Better than I remembered.

I bought this because it was $2 a box. It is bagged tea. I also bought it because it claims on the box it can be steeped 2 – 3 times, something very few bag teas would even attempt to claim. The bags are sealed in paper envelopes :( The bag smells of generic black tea. Steeped for 3 minutes. The brew is very dark. I like the aroma but my friends who hate all oolongs tell me it stinks. First sip is similar to Yamamotoyama Oolong but has a more earthy quality. It won’t blow your socks off, still this isn’t bad. I use a 10-12 oz mug and I did get a second cup out of the bag. It was lighter in flavor but it was possible. That pretty much makes this tea a bargain at a nickel a cup.

I wasn’t expecting too terribly much from this tea since the international grocery store I go to can be a hit or miss when it comes to tea (and this was a lot of tea for the price)…but I was still kind of disappointed with this one. The overall flavor is really weak, and the cups I have had so far have either been tasteless or bitter. I really want to give this tea the benefit of the doubt so I should probably try it at home to better control the steeping conditions. I got this to be an “at work” tea since I didn’t have any Chinese greens at work, so I’m not too picky about it, but it could be a lot better. While steeping, it smelled a little like the Bi Lo Chun I have, but the taste just isn’t there…it’s kind of like the ghost of a good green tea.

I was pleasantly surprised from this tea. It reminded me at first sip of an Earl Grey (I must admit, I DO NOT like Bergamot oil), so Earl Greys are my least favorite teas. However, upon finishing my cuppa, I really enjoyed drinking this tea and can’t wait until my next mug.

The aroma is of a nice, mild black tea with a soothing, sweet fruity character.

The taste profile, is as the aroma describes; it is a nice mild black tea which is complimented discernibly by the lichee/lychee/litchi fruit; neither taste facet overwhelms the other, the lichee/lychee/litchi fruit nicely compliments the black tea and the black tea is not too strong as to overtake the palate. Foojoy never mentions what type or blend of black tea(s) they use for this offering but it is exemplary and delicious!

The aftertaste is not much. There is no lingering of any kind, just a sweet whisper of the fruit and a mild reminder of the tea. There is no mouth feel, tartness or bitterness that is leftover.

Since venturing into lichee tea and pleasantly surprised by it, I will be trying this brand’s loose leaf version as well as other brand’s version of lichee tea(s).

I highly recommend this tea…a fun, delicious finding!

Having a cup of this before sending the rest to Azz.
I forgot how much I enjoyed this!

I LOVE the color of this cup! A lovely bronze/orange/brown! The pre-infusion aroma is woodsy and charcoal but post infusion more of a sweet wood. The taste is a very sweet-woodsy yet strong and sturdy oolong! This is VERY nice!!!!

I am quite surprised at how good this tea is. I picked up a 7 ounce tin at a local store for 8 dollars and wasn’t expecting much. Tastes just as good as more expensive versions I’ve tried and at a fraction of the cost. It has the usual caramel and fig undertones this type of tea offers and re-steeps well. In a gaiwan the 2nd infusion is the best (the 3rd if you count the rinse).

All I can say is that for 4 dollars this is some flipping amazing Pu-erh. The liquor is dark like coffee. Smooth. Earthy. Almost cacao like. If you combine this with a carmel rooibos it is heavenly.!

As you can see it is a beautiful orange color that is not too far off from the color of the table we have in the living room. Warm and inviting, the Ti Kuan Yin is somewhere between a green tea and and a black tea.

It smells brisk and strong with musky undertones. After the tea has been poured out of the aroma cup the cup still smells kind of bitter. I’m a little worried I may let it brew a little too long. As the bitter smell quickly fades away, a fruit smell replaces it. If I close my eyes I can see myself in the middle of a fruit orchard. There are green apples, pears, red grapes and it smells like there might also be lychee. Coming back to it one more time, the smells have once more dissipated and changed and the aroma cup now smells like fresh baked apple pie, with lots of butter and no cinnamon or other spices to muss up the taste of the pie. I could probably keep this up all night on the one brew, so I am going to stop here and move on to the actual tea, but remember when drinking this to regularly check in on the smell of the tea as the smells in the cup will change.

The tea is rather brisk and sharp, but not necessarily in an unpleasant way. Next time I will let it brew for a little less time. This tea has a distinct taste of baked red apples. If anyone has ever done this before, some of the apple caramelizes as it bakes and makes it a little sweeter than normal, there are definitely caramel undertones to this tea. Taking a large mouthful gives a slightly different taste. It has a rich, nutty taste.

For the full review go to my blog: http://teasnobbery.com/2010/07/23/tea-review-foojoy-monkey-picked-ti-kuan-yin/