I bought this tea in a beautiful tin this afternoon at La Grande Épicerie in Paris.
Compagnie Coloniale is one of the oldest tea company in France. They are using a special method to flavour teas : a vapour method (or steam method, no idea which word is most adapted for tea flavouring in English !)
Of course I bought it because it is an Oolong…and because caramel beurre salé is really an appealing ingredient…isn’t it ?
The dry leaf smells incredibly good, caramelly and salted caramel…so noticeable.
Unfortunately the taste of the liquor is less noticeable. This is a light caramel, not an in your face one and this is really ok, a subtle caramel.
But I was expecting more Oolong notes and this Oolong base is a little too much discrete for my taste. This is a buttery Oolong, mellow but too much subtle for my pleasure to be complete.
I’ll play around temperature to see if it changes something for me.
What does “grandpa style” mean?
You keep the leaf in the cup while you drink and ratio it with water as you go. Generally it’s better to top it with water before you drink three quarter of it to keep a more consistent and stronger flavour profile. It works with greens, many oolongs, and white Teas but I have drunk milder black’s and even Sheng Teas this way.