Another mystery Adagio oolong from my sample set of years ago. There’s a green tea with the same name on Steepster, but I had to scour the internet to find Adagio’s description of the oolong (which I found on Amazon). It’s confusing, made worse by the fact that the pearls look just like the picture given for the green tea version.
I tried it in the gaiwan with short steeps after rinsing.
If you’ve read my notes in the past, you know I love jasmine in tea, and so I was fully expecting to love this one, too.
Steep 1, 15 sec. Pearls are still tightly wound. Aroma is a light jasmine, tea a pale yellow and clear. Aromatic tea, with a cooling sensation on the upper palate and a silky mouthfeel that becomes clean in the aftertaste.
Steep 2, 20 sec. Pearls are beginning to unfurl. Aroma about the same, tea a deeper yellow with a pink tinge. Aroma is a single floral note this time; in the first steep it was harder to pin down. I’m not noticing the silk in the mouthfeel this time, but the cooling remains. The flavor is jasmine, jasmine, jasmine. I’m trying to taste the tea.There’s a sugary, floral smell in the cup once the tea is gone.
Steep 3, 25 sec. Leaves have completely unfurled, filling the gaiwan. They’re a sort of olive green. The aroma is not as strong this time, though the floral note is still paramount. Same with the flavor. The cooling quality is barely there, and the silk is gone from the mouthfeel. There’s a sort of drying effect happening now.
Steep 4, 30 sec. Still floral, but not really evolving in aroma and flavor. More drying. A tiny bit of bitterness in the finish.
Steep 5, 35 sec. It’s done. It was probably done on steep 3.
If it wasn’t for the fact this is jasmine and I love jasmine, I’d consider this average at best. I enjoyed the jasmine, though. Since I didn’t feel the tea gained much through multiple steeps, I expect I’ll sip this down western style — perhaps as a take it to work tea to mix up the greens.
Flavors: Jasmine
