

Oriental Beauty is a type of oolong that I am aware of, but until today have not tried. I cannot say that I know terribly much about it, so I am going in blind here. I purchased a sample the last time I was ordering from What-Cha.

The bag it came in recommends 185F, but my water boiler doing either 175F or 195F. At the risk of astringency and over steeping I chose 195F. It was also less time that I had to wait for the water to cool down and, well, Daddy needed his medicine dammit!

This is a tea with a mild flavor and incredible softness. Out of the all the Taiwanese oolongs I have had this year, around half a dozen or so, this is by far the softest. Is this a common characteristic of Oriental Beauty?

Parameters

Water temp.: 195F (185F suggested)

8 grams tea / 155ml gaiwan

Tasting Notes

1st Steep. On the nose there is a heavy acrid smell with notes of citrus rind and some early maltiness. On the mouth is faint citrus, but already out of the gate the mouthfeel is noteworthy. Smooth and creamy and thick.

2nd Steep. The leaves still smell quite a bit acrid, but the liquor smells soft and faintly floral. The flavor has intensified and the mouth is still full bodied. It is almost like the mouthfeel starts out 100% because there is not much difference in that from the 1st steep.

3rd Steep. The leaves are finally beginning to mellow out a bit. Notes of honey are creeping in on the nose. The mouth feel has not changed much. It is still like warm butter coating your mouth.

4th Steep. Leaves on the nose finally hit a balance. The color and flavor are vibrant. The mouth feel is ever so slightly beginning its descent.

5th Steep. D’oh! My camera died. But the drinking must go on! In my dispair, though, I accidently oversteeped by about 5-10 seconds, although to no immediate ill effects. No astringency whatever despite the higher than suggested water temperature. Flavor, aroma, and mouth feel are starting to decrease though.

D’oh! My camera died. But the drinking must go on! In my dispair, though, I accidently oversteeped by about 5-10 seconds, although to no immediate ill effects. No astringency whatever despite the higher than suggested water temperature. Flavor, aroma, and mouth feel are starting to decrease though. 6th Steep. Curiosity now has the better of me, so I purposefully oversteep this one by 10 seconds. Still no astingency. Despite the decline in the last two steeps it isn’t until now that I would say this tea is starting to feel thin in my mouth.

Curiosity now has the better of me, so I purposefully oversteep this one by 10 seconds. Still no astingency. Despite the decline in the last two steeps it isn’t until now that I would say this tea is starting to feel thin in my mouth. 7th Steep. I think my over steeping experiment took things a little too far. Everything has fallen off quite sharply. I would suspect were I to have been a better behaved steeper of tea I could have had 8 satisfying cups of this tea. But as it is now it has given up the ghost.