Another Oolong Week tea! Go OOLONG WEEK!
Milk Oolong is a high-end Taiwanese oolong from Mandala Tea.
Milk oolong is yet another tea type that I’ve had a couple times and wasn’t super impressed or blown away with. The first milk oolong I tried was bland. The other milk oolongs I tried after that were okay and slightly creamy.
I was looking around Steepster and noticed Mandala Tea‘s Milk Oolong was on the first page of being the “best tea” and one of the top rated Oolong teas. The reviews of Milk Oolong looked fantastic, so an ounce slipped into my Mandala Tea order.
DRY LEAF: Looking at the dry leaf, the appearance is nice wads of bundled up green oolong leaf with the odd stem sticking out.
The smell. OMG THE SMELL! YOU ALL MUST SMELL THIS TEA! I can’t believe how good this tea smells!!!!
I’m sure I could blind fold random people at the mall, have them smell Milk Oolong and none of them would think its tea and try to eat the leaf! Milk Oolong smells spun sugar sweet, creamy buttery caramel popcorn! OMG! This Milk Oolong smells is so delicious, I’d break my diet on.. err.. if this tea had calories.
Oh geeze, the photobomb owl crew has arrived! Oh boy, Owly needs more badges on his owl-scouts sash, he looks really silly.
Steeping instructions: Mandala Tea suggests Milk Oolong to have a rinse, then 15-20 second infusions, increasing by 10-20 seconds after the first couple infusions – all using 195F water. I’ll be following those instructions, but at 190F (due to kettle limitations, blasted thing does 190F!)
Rinse: Heck yes I’m drinking the rinse! This tea smells sooo good! Light, sweet, creamy caramel yummy!
First Infusion: Lovely golden cup of tea that smells slightly creamy sweet!
Smoooooth! Very slick, creamy tea! The flavor isn’t too light, but not overpowering either. First sip, the tea floats in on a cloud of cream. The cloud is made of thick notes of sweet caramel and buttery peas. The tea ends on a sweet crisp note. The sweetness is at the perfect level and not too sweet, but enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. I chugged the rinse and my cup very quick – it was like eating candy!
Second Infusion: The flavor is very similar to the first infusion, but the creamy texture has gotten much stronger! The creamy sensation sticks to my lips, yummmm! It’s like I’m drinking vanilla buttercream icing! Creamy sensation in teas are always nice, it’s like having ice cream all over your face, but without the appearance!
The leaves looking like they went through a crimping iron.
Third, Fourth Infusion: The creamy cloud is breaking up, giving me spots of sunny vegetal notes and slight citrusy floral notes. However, the creamy caramel milk cloud is still thick and dominate.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh Infusion: It’s like the sun is shining through the clouds! Very balanced creamy caramel toffee notes, but mixed in with sunny floral (3/10 on the Floral-o-meter). Bit more fresh grassy notes too with a clean sweet aftertaste. Very amazing!
HOLY COW, lookit the size of this leaf!
Eighth, Ninth Infusion: Milk Oolong is now mostly citrus sweet, floral 5/10 on the Floral-o-meter. End of sip, the tea hits a sweet mango-like fruityness with a lingering creamy fleshy mango aftertaste. OH MY THIS IS GOOD! The whole tea trip to this steeping was amazing, but these steepings are incredible!
The gaiwan, she’s full! I probably didn’t help it when I was pulling out leaves to see how big they were!
Tenth, Eleventh Infusion: The creamyness is 90% gone – just a little aftertaste of creamy caramel. The tea is all floral and grassy oolong. The gaiwan is bursting, I swore I didn’t overleaf! The leaves are just huge!
Big leaf! WHOA!
COLD STEEPED: I cold steeped this tea for… 20 hours or so, and the leaf is still not fully opened. The flavor is a moderate intensity with shimmers of toffee sweet cream with a floral sweet aftertaste, finishing off with a lingering creamy sensation. Overall, not bad, but I think to fully enjoy this oolong, it should be made hot.
COMMENTS: Mandala Tea’s Milk Oolong is simply luxury! This isn’t your ordinary milk oolong – this tea is excellent quality with the milk flavoring taken to the next level – ULTIMATE CREAMY! The magic is how naturally creamy Milk Oolong tastes – I’ve had vanilla and coconut oolongs, but Milk Oolong does it the best!
Creamy tea lovers, this tea is a MUST TRY! Doing an Mandala Tea order? Sneak Milk Oolong in, you won’t regret it! This tea is on my Oolong Owl Favorites list!
BONUS PIC!
