Name: Oolong Tea
Brand: Rare Tea Company
Type: Oolong
Form: Loose leaf
Cost: £6.50 for 50 grams (UK pounds), quantity discounts available
Review: Ooh la la oolong! Let me count the ways in which I love thee!
The Rare Tea Company is a British firm that offers a small selection of high quality teas: They engage in direct trade with tea farmers, and carefully package their tea to ensure freshness. This is their only oolong offering.
The dry leaf is rolled into tight, dark green/brown balls with a sweet, almost candy-like nose (freshly torched creme brulee?). It infuses to a lovely yellow/green liquor with a more subdued nose of baked bread pudding with a hint of hot, wet rocks and a smidgen of lilac.
This is good stuff, for the following reasons:
1. It is very, very fresh: It does the “freshness dance” on the back of my mouth. Yummy.
2. It is well-balanced, showcasing several flavors: Floral (lilac), with some wood and roasted notes. Sight minerality, but this is somewhat overshadowed by a full mouthfeel that carries a hint of butter.
3. It makes a remarkable iced tea: Fresh, floral, crisp, and tastes/smells of lilacs, while remaining full-bodied and buttery. A wonderful treat.
Tips: This is a strong tea, so watch the amount of leaf/water that you use. I found that 3 grams of leaf in a 150 ml gaiwan produced a tea that was too strong unless decanted after a fairly short infusion. On the other hand, 2 grams of leaf in the same gaiwan produced a lovely “sipping tea” that did not need to be decanted.
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High praise for an Oolong that’s believable because it’s so detailed and specific. I’d like to taste a tea this complex but personally the floral flavor to me would be more of an occasional enjoyment than anything I could stick with for long. This might be a more feminine tea than I want much of. But it does say something for the company that only offers one Oolong–fresh. They did better with a limited offering than with a wide but neglected range.