The caramel sure packs a punch when this is hot. I let the water cool down quite a bit (no thermometer but I imagine I let it cool even lower than the 90°C it suggests) and let it steep for around 2.5 minutes to avoid any bitterness. This strategy seemed to work, initially. That caramel sure was present, all right, like hot caramel out of the pot.
It’s a good thing I got distracted with reading blogs and let this cool down even further, slowly taking my time sipping, because as time goes on, this is less than impressive. The oolong doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s bitter like roasted-oolong-bitter, yet vegetal like a green oolong. But more so the former. At the end of the day, it’s taking away from the caramel. You still get that sweetness in the background but at this stage, it’s quite mottled. I split my sample in half for my Perfect Mug so I’m actually kind of sad that this technically isn’t a sipdown yet.
