A few months ago I was offered a free sample from a soon to be launched tea retailer called Tea Ave. They are located out of Vancouver, Canada and specialize in oolong tea. They have a brilliant tagline “Discover Oolong, Taste Adventure” As someone who wants to open a tea shop in the future I’m green with envy at such a smart tagline. Well a few days ago a beautiful box arrived with three delicious teas to sample. In addition to the tea I was sent two pretty upscale white boxes containing a white teacup and long narrow smelling cup with a beautiful wood stand engraved with their logo on the bottom. Color me impressed! The samples included a scented Rose Oolong, Oriental Beauty Oolong, and a Wenshan Oolong. All three are from Taiwan and the plastic bags were printed with a lot of information and brewing instructions. Oxidation levels, roasting levels, elevation grown and more! Enough talk though, lets get down to tasting tea.

Rose Oolong

When I think of scented or “flavored” tea I generally think of spices or chocolate being added to a black tea or fruit and jasmine being added to green tea. I’ve even known some puerh to be scented with osmanthus. But oolong? Not so much. So trying this was a real adventure. This tea isn’t like a bouquet or flowers, or of roses for that matter. The rose flavor is pronounced but not overpowering and the oolong rolled whole leaves. The result is a great brew of slightly floral tea that has the creamy body of a good Taiwan oolong. Its good for a few steepings too. The aroma of the wet leaves after is pleasantly sweet and full. I brewed mine western style and got 3 steepings. The oolong flavor lasted a long time but the rose flavor doesn’t last much after the first steeping. This isn’t a defect, all scented teas are like this; flowers don’t have the resteepability that good tea has.

Oriental Beauty Oolong

This must be the creamiest and most mellow oriental beauty I’ve tried so far. It has a rich cream like body that doesn’t quit for several steepings. Unfortunately thats about all this tea does. It has a nice rounded flavor but lacks the distinctive bite of spice that I’ve tasted in other bai hao. This is a good tea, but not great.

Wenshan Baochong Oolong

On the back of this packet Tea Ave wrote that a rich strong fragrance is important in a baochong and they certainly were right. The wet leaf aroma was milky sweet and fresh smelling. Having so little oxidation and roasting it had a taste not to far from green tea but the taste is steered away from grassy notes and toward a fresh mint and floral taste. The best and most surprising aspect was how great the lingering aftertaste became as the steepings went on. It left a cool, mint like feel in my mouth that only a fresh unroasted tieguanyin has done for me thus far. Wenshan Baochong is certainly the winner here.

Thank you so much Tea Ave for your generous sampler! I’ll definitely be picking up more of the Wenshan sometime in the near future. The store opens March 1st.

Currently jamming to the Danish one-woman band Myrkur – Nattens Barn