This is our final sample from Teajay, a neat little tea vendor in the UK. It’s been quite an experience, with more ups than downs. We had saved this tea until the last, since milky oolongs are a rarity in our house. (Before you get too puzzled, a milky oolong has no milk in it but tends to have a smooth feel.) Steeping Mug supervised (and got to wear the supervisory sash) on this tea adventure since I really wanted to have the steeping honors here.
First, my humans took a good long sniff of the aroma of the dry tea leaves, similar in appearance to a Tie Kuan Yin Oolong. The fragrance was cocoa-ish with hints of mango. The directions on the package say to use water heated to about 90 C (about 195 F) and steep for 1-2 minutes. We did 4 steepings of 1 minute, 1.5 minutes, 2 minutes, and 2.5 minutes. With each steeping the leaves opened up further from their compact shape. In doing so, they released more and more flavor.
One of the great things about a multiple steeping tea like this is the change in flavor as you progress. This tea progressed from a liquid that was pale yellow-peachy in color and had strong mango notes to successively darker liquid where the cocoa-ish notes got stronger and the mango notes faded. We stopped at 4 steepings for this reason. A 5th infusion would have had virtually no mango character to it.
Overall, my humans were most pleased and want me to tell you that they don’t want you to buy any of it so they can have it all to themselves (just kidding). Actually, if you’re smart, you will order some right away.
Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.
© 2012 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.
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