Drink The Leaf's Jade Oolong (review)

Name: Drink The Leaf ‘s Jade Oolong

Type: Oolong

Form: Loose Leaf

Cost: $15 for 2 ounces, $26 for 4 ounces

Review: This may be the best tea that I have ever tasted. (I know that it is the best oolong that I have ever tasted.)

First of all, this tea is impeccably fresh.  I have noticed this quality in other Drink the Leaf teas.  I don’t know what they are doing at Drink the Leaf to source such fresh teas, but I encourage them to keep it up.

The dry leaves themselves are tightly rolled and, when I stuck my nose in the bag for a sniff, I breathed in the scent of a dense forest.  I anticipated being in for something good, so I happily measured the leaves into my teapot and poured water upon them.

The liquor of the first steep infuses to a yellow/gold/green that does indeed resemble jade. The Drink the Leaf website suggests that this tea has a scent of lilacs throughout: This is true. But the forest scent remains. To fully understand what I mean by forest, close your eyes and envision this:

• You are in a forest.
• In the evening.
• In earliest summer.
• It has been an uncharacteristically hot day.
• The temperature is cooling, so some moisture is evaporating off the dense leaves: The scent is of the thick, but still young and healthy, green plants and trees. No decay yet, just thick, green, lush vegetation and wood.

This is how Drink the Leaf’s Jade Oolong tastes and smells in its first and second infusions.

(This lush green/wood/floral nose and flavor is complimented by a sturdy mouthfeel, which hovers between whole milk and half-and-half.  Rich, but not overpowering.)

As I mentioned, the leaves of this tea are very tightly rolled, and it takes a couple of infusions just to get them to open completely. Once they do (and this is so much fun to watch), they form a thick tangle of dark green leaves with a few stems attached ( quite in keeping with the forest-theme ). It is crucial that you keep resteeping this tea: These leaves have a lot of life in them and you want to drink it all!

After the first and second infusions, a wonderful change takes place: The steamy summer forest turns into honey.  The third and forth infusions revealed honey, some floral, but also some fruit (apricot?).  The liquor itself turned to a honey gold, and the leaves remained as gorgeous as ever.  I have done a fifth infusion with this tea, and still enjoyed it. Would be interesting to see just how many infusions I could get out of it.

Recommendation: As I have said, this may be the best tea I have ever tasted. Granted, I am no tea master, but I do strongly encourage my readers to at least try this superb oolong and judge for themselves.  The tea is very, very strong, and oversteeping or using too much dry leaf can bring out an undesirable bitterness in the woody notes, so I suggest the following:

• Watch how much tea you use: You may need to experiment a bit, but using too little is better than using too much.
• Do not oversteep, and watch the time carefully.

Since this is a fairly intense tea, it may be too much for novice tea drinkers, but anyone who appreciates deep, complex flavors ought to like this tea very much.

(Um, yes, I recommend it.)

Affiliate Links In this Post?: No

Tagged as: drink the leaf, jade oolong, oolong, tea, tea reviews