Repost from last night: some of what I wrote was missing, even though it showed up when I tried to edit it.
And finally, we have the last of the flavoured oolong teas that I ordered in my sample pack from Teavivre!
I tried to brew this gong-fu style: a 20-second rinse with hot water to wake the leaves up, then 4 steeps of 1 tsp with 8 oz of leaf in ~85°C water. The first steep was under 1 minute, steeps 2 and 3 were about 1 minute, and steep 4 was 2 minutes. Even after 4 steeps, the leaves hadn’t completely unfurled, which I think is pretty remarkable – it speaks to how many steeps are actually possible with this tea.
I’ve never had ginseng, so I didn’t know what to expect from this tea. The leaves were tightly curled into nuggets and looked like they were coated in a fine dusting of dark green powder – I assume this was the ginseng flavouring.
All four times, the tea was strongly nutty, and had a musty, earthy flavour which I assume was the ginseng. It was distinctive, I’ll give it that. The earthy flavour wasn’t quite vegetal or bright in the way that green teas are, but there was a taste to it that reminded me of cooked spinach – or rather, I had a spinach and feta pastry for dinner tonight, and the mix of the two flavours reminded me of the tea. Something very deep green like that.
It’s not a bad oolong tea, but I don’t think it’s right for me. I can see why others would appreciate it though. Of the 4 flavoured oolongs in my sampler pack, I think I prefer the osmanthus oolong first, then the flavoured milk oolong after that, both of which I would prefer over this variety.
That said: would anyone here like to receive the remaining sample of this tea that I have available? Feel free to comment or send me a private message.
