I’m still on the quest for an Oriental Beauty oolong that knocks my boots off and so far it has been a delicious tea quest!
Today’s oolong is Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Asian Beauty Oolong. This Taiwanese oolong is from XinZhu (North Central Taiwan) harvested the Summer of 2013.
Dry Leaf
Asian Beauty Oolong’s tea leaves has a soft roasty scent. As with most Asian Beauty oolongs, the dry leaf is gorgeous. Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Asian Beauty Oolong looks like a rainbow of tea with silver tipped, gold accented, reddish brown and dark leaves.
Steeping Instructions
I decided to steep this Asian Beauty Oolong gongfu style in a gaiwan. I used 200F water and a quick rinse.
When I did the rinse, wow super fragrant! This is going to be an awesome oolong session!
Tasting of Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Asian Beauty Oolong
First Infusion: I started with a 30 second infusion. Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Asian Beauty Oolong came out a beautiful golden cup of tea that smells roasty and peachy.
First sip, Asian Beauty Oolong is so soft! There is a thick silky texture with a lovely floral peach taste. First steepings are always light but this one feels like a nice warm up snuggle.
Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: Asian Beauty Oolong is a soft, thick peach blanket of honey suckle flowers but now has a woodsy cinnamon finish. The spice adds a nice complexity to the tea but my favorite part is the floral after taste that lingers, providing a refreshing feeling. Each infusion getting sweeter and peachy. I’d say the floral level is on a light to moderate level, 3/10 on the Floral Meter. All the notes are delicate as if carried on a fluffy cloud.
Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Infusion: The best steepings though I was battling steep times, so all these are each adding 10, 15 and 30 seconds to the previous steep time. The teas notes have melded together creating a nice smoothness. Asian Beauty Oolong is sweet honeysuckle floral with a woodsy earth depth, kind of bready with a long floral after taste. After each sip I’m getting a little dryness in the back of the teeth, 1/10 on the Astringency Meter, that sticks that peachy longer.
Eighth and Ninth Infusion: Asian Beauty Oolong is now very light and sweet. With each infusion is getting dryer topping at a 5/10 drying the tongue and roof of mouth.
After my tea session I checked out the leaves. Nice looking tea leaf with milk chocolate and red tipped colored leaf and dainty.
Most look in perfect shape with little tears or holes.
Comments
With all the Asian/Oriental Beauty Oolongs I’ve tried, it seems like there is a big range of flavors. I’ve had ones that were more woodsy, more peachy, less floral, more dry. Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Asian Beauty Oolong is a lighter, more delicate and sweeter variety. This Asian Beauty Oolong is for someone looking for something more dainty, sweet and floral – indeed a sophisticated feel of a tea to sip on a early Autumn afternoon.
Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company also sells sample sizes so you can test drive their teas. With a low free shipping threshold of $15 (USA shipping), it is easy to sneak in an order an try a bunch of high quality teas. So many oolongs!
(tea provided for review)
