Ginger Lily Oolong

Some of you Steepsterers had been lamenting the loss of Tea Ave in recent tasting notes and lo and behold I have a couple Tea Ave teas I haven’t written a note for yet. From Meowster! Thank you! I’m very glad I only used one teaspoon for this session, as the steeps were perfect. Now I can enjoy one more steep session. Call me a plant novice but I had never heard of the ginger lily plant before. The flavor was always sweet and silky smooth. Interestingly, I was tasting hints of gardenia which googling tells me is what a ginger lily smells like (among other flowers). The taste seems full of minerals and I’m reminded of a clear waterfall while sipping this. Overall, I can’t express the tasty levels of this oolong. I have had this a couple times before, but this was the perfect steep session.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 1 min
Steep #3 // 9 minutes after boiling // 1 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 2 min

I believe this was a sample from Lion.

This was one of the better light roasted/green oolongs I’ve had in a while. I’m not getting much ginger or anything specific but it is fairly smooth and creamy.

That’s about all I have for this one. I’m tired. Haha.

Because I’ve come to enjoy scented teas so much I find myself seeking out unique and unfamiliar pairings, which is how I originally stumbled across this tea. What is interesting about it is that it doesn’t actually contain ginger, but is instead scented with Ginger Lily, a type of tropical flower. Even more interesting is that it gives the tea a faint spicy flavor that isn’t far off from real ginger. It pairs well with the more earthy high mountain oolong used as a base, but the overall flavor of the tea is very mild. This makes it a good choice for those of you who want to steer clear of the more floral oolongs and it’s an excellent choice to serve along with a meal when you don’t want the flavor of your tea to overpower the food.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2016/7/19/tuesday-tea-ginger-lily-oolong-tea-ave

If I could sum up this tea in one word, it would be bland. The flavor is neither bad nor good it’s just missing. Seriously, it tastes like you’re drinking hot water. I tried brewing it western style and gong fu to no avail. Western style does however gives a glimpse of what this tea wants to be. There is a faint gingerbread-y, cinnamon-y flavor that reminds me of speculoos cookies. I just wish this flavor were stronger. There isn’t much actual ginger flavor though, nor does the jin xuan come through. Pretty forgettable and my least favorite tea of the TeaAve samplers.

Got this tea in the postal teas subscription box. Love that I was able to try three different oolongs from Tea Ave. My favorite out of the three was the magnolia oolong but this one is a close second. I love ginger so I was excited to try this one. It has a very subtle gingersnap flavor to it. Very pleasant and smooth. I have really enjoyed all the oolongs I have sampled from Tea Ave so far. I will definitely purchase from them in the future.

A lovely tea with a floral and buttery aroma, that tastes creamy and sweet with a subtle hint of warm spiciness. Very gentle and warming. Will brew the leftover leaves in the fridge overnight as I usually do, and expect it will be delicious cold as well.

Oolong for breakfast today as I go through Amazon and look at future apartment items and what not… let’s just say I can browse up to 1000 items every 30 minutes and find it enjoyable.

Today I found out that ‘rape blossoms’ are a real thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed
Which means I could make a ‘Rape Blossom’ tea, but wouldn’t that sound sketchy ;p

Anyways, this is a rather smooth liquid with some nice sweetness to it. I’m not sure if I should have detected some ginger taste as I did not, but the leaf is beautiful and the liquid taste rather good so I have no complaints wit this tea except it probably isn’t a morning cup. I should have drank this outside later in the day, this is my error.

Number three on the gong fu marathon with Dinosara!
No rinse, 5 second first steep +5 seconds for each subsequent steep.
First steep: In the aroma cup, the smell is that of fresh gingersnaps! The scent translated into the flavor, I even tasted cinnamon and brown sugar sweetness coming through when it cooled!
Second steep: A more baked/toastier ginger cookie!
Third steep: Toastier, yet again, but less cinnamon this time. I have decide that the ginger flavor is not a fresh ginger root, but dried ginger powder, with none of the ginger spice.
Fourth steep: The floral flavors of, I think, the base are coming through, now. There is less ginger.
Fifth steep: Ginger is faint. The aroma cup contains a much more floral scent, but the tea is weak.
Overall an interesting flavor. I was not actually that big of a fan of the ginger flavoring, but the cookie in the beginning was really nice! I’m not sure where the lily came in, but if you like ginger, just not the spice, than this one may be for you!

As I mentioned in the other note, this was one of several teas Equusfell and I had today at our gongfu session. I’m not going to write notes for the others just now, to keep interruptions to my cupboard sip-through to a minimum, but since this is the only time I will likely have this one a note is in an order.

Anyway, this is totally like drinking gingersnaps. Definitely baked ginger cookie flavor going on here. It became a bit more floral as the steeps went on, but overall I definitely got a gentle, not spicy, ginger flavor, with even a hint of cinnamon. Very tasty; it would be interesting to try it as a western brew too.

Alright, I’m excited to try this since this tea seems to be exclusive to Tea Ave… that is I haven’t seen any other companies in America who have tea scented with ginger lilies.

Sticking my nose into the pouch, the dry leaves smell like EGGNOG. Oh man, how I love eggnog. I’m excited. The dry leaves in the warm gaiwan smell like honey and toasted sesame. Yum. The wet leaves after the first infusion have the classic high mountain oolong aroma with a hint of gingerbread in the background. It’s faint.

The first infusion is a pale green-yellow. I’m using Taiwanese aroma cups to drink this. The aroma cup isn’t holding much scent on this infusion, and the aroma coming off the tea is very faint as well. The tea definitely has a soft hint of ginger taste. I’ve been so curious about this tea, wondering, will it just taste like ginger? Will it taste like some kind of flowery ginger? I’d say it tastes like a subtle, creamy ginger, and I do mean subtle. Though, I will say the ginger is the dominant flavor over the oolong leaves. So far the whole thing is subtle. It reminds me of banana bread a little bit, or ginger cookies.

Second infusion, the leaves still smell like high mountain oolong, mostly, with a subtle ginger hint. Again, the aroma is so subtle I’m hardly getting anything from the aroma cup. Just the faintest hint of ginger. This tea seems to be more of a flavor tea than an aromatic one, so I think from here on I’ll do slower pours, aerate it less and try to get a thicker liquor and longer aftertaste.

The second infusion tastes again rather light, but the ginger flavor emerges more, there’s an earthy quality as well, substantially less creamy taste than the other scented oolongs Tea Ave has used this Alishan Jin Xuan cultivar for, making me wonder if a lot of the creamy taste of those were coming from their respective flowers. There’s a subtle warmth to this tea like the warmth of eating ginger, but really diminished.

Alright, third infusion, still not aromatic, and still quite a subdued, delicate taste. I like it, but boy is this tea ever light. I could have probably used a larger amount of tea leaves than I usually do with this one. To be fair though, a subtle tea is not a bad thing. This tea is relaxing and has a very unique character. It’s a comfort tea, for sure.

Compared to tea that has fresh ginger added, the flavor of this is much more mellow and calm. It’s nice in that way, with a warming touch, rather than a spicy and invigorating one.

I won’t shout from the rooftops about this one. It’s good, but not particularly complex, not very dynamic from one infusion to the next. It feels a bit lacking for a high mountain oolong. On the other hand, it has an earthy, herby, very root-like flavor that isn’t terribly common in tea. I can even sense a little similarity between this taste and radish.

Good stuff. I probably won’t buy more from what I have purchased in this order, but I do enjoy it.