Orange and Sweet Almond Tea 2013

This one was high on my list to pick up at Fauchon, and even though the matching confiture was sold out, the tea was still around. I love almond, orange is pretty great, and it’s an oolong.

They had a small jar of the dry leaf sitting out at the store and it looked kind of like a traditional tieguanyin base… hand curled leaf balls, but dark, olive green color. Turns out I was correct. There was also some unexplained large-diameter stick in my infuser, but whatever. I am normally not huge on traditional (roasted) TGY, but I think it can work really well in some blends, and this seems to be one.

The roasty flavor is a nice complement to the sweet almond. I wouldn’t call this particularly citrusy, but the orange adds a slight brightness and slight sweetness to the blend I think. It’s kind of like a slightly orangey almond cookie, complete with oven-baking. Oh, maybe even more like orange blossom almond cookies, which I love. Anyway, the afteraste is awesome, as it is very almondy, like I just drank some amaretto. I am happy with this one for sure.

OK….honestly, I probably shouldn’t be sampling this right now.
I can’t smell anything. My taste buds aren’t really working very good, but I really wanted to try for something that might be sweet & here it is. This was recieved in a trade from NofarS. There is enough left for me to try it agian, so hopefully I’ll give a better review later.

Appearance-wise, it is a chocolate colored tea, in small clumps that kind of resembles shu. There are pieces of almond & orange peel mixed in as well. And I added stevia, because I couldn’t taste anything.
And it helped…a little. I have a little bit of a sweet taste in my mouth, with the sensation of Shu, overlaid with the bright sensation of orange juice. In between sips these things swell up just a little, so that I’m either slightly tasting them, or imagining it based on the sensations.

sipdown on this one (225) i don’t like it. pretty sure it’s the oolong base that just ruins it for me. it’s not one of those tasty oolongs i am ok with..instead it’s got this weird ick factor going on when mixed with the orange and almond. yep..oh well, glad i got to try it since this is one i would have expected to have liked!

Thanks again for the lovely package of teas, Stephanie! I’m finished with teas to review, so I should be trying more of the teas you sent more often. :D This oolong looks much darker than a jade green, more roasted than the usual green oolong. I also see occasional tangerine piece or almond in this pretty tin. The tangerine flavor is definitely there through the steeps — a tasty sweet tangerine. I was hoping there was more almond. The oolong itself seems buttery, not as roasty as I was expecting, possibly fruity to blend in with the tangerine. The second steep is even better — very thirst quenching. The third steeps loses a bit of the tastiness of the second steep. I don’t think I overleafed at all! I really like this one – just more almond would have been amazing.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // few minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2-3 min

This one surprised me – it wasn’t super orangey or almondy. I found the oolong base to be the prominent flavor, and the orange just made it zingier and the almond made things a hair dessert-y. It is alright, but unremarkable.

The fist time I brewed this one up (yesterday) I didn’t realize it was an oolong. I thought it was a black tea. Had I looked at the leaves more closely I would have realized that right away. I wondered why it brewed up so pale. I didn’t realize until I cleaned out the infuser and saw the leaves…oops.

So today I was when I did the sipdown, I was more prepared about it being an oolong. To me this is till more nutty than citrus. Yesterday it was a vague nutty flavour, but today I found the almond flavour. The citrus peeped through occasionally.

A pleasant cup for a dreary afternoon. Thanks for the sample Cameron B!

I really tried to like this tea. I like all the flavors (almond, orange blossom, orange peel and oolong) in this blend, and all seemed to be complimenting each other in my head, so I thought I could not not like it, but it was really hard to do so. Every time I brew it, it came out too bitter and sharp, it just wasn’t the flavor I was expecting.

Pass the Stash TTB v2.0

The packaging smells like soap. Well the whole box smells like soap- I reckon that it’s that packet of lavender at the bottom. Thankfully this baggie was sealed fairly well and the tea smelt orangey.

I would not have picked this out as an oolong just by looking at it, which goes to show you how well I can identify things on sight (not very well). It feels weird brewing up a flavored tea after pretty much a week of straight teas. I sent the Butiki TTB2 back to Marzipan after work yesterday.

Despite the dry leaves having smelt orangey it was not very apparent in the brewed liquor. The brew was mostly oolong with a touch of orange candy. Not a very strong flavor. I got none of the almond flavor. I think this should be renamed ‘sweet orange oolong’. =) Even then I would say that the flavoring is very light, or maybe very faded.

The oolong base was of medium…? The place were it’s definately not green but I hesitate to call it anything resembling mature. It seems only partially oxidized and brews out with a touch of astringency. It wasn’t exceptional, nor was it the worse thing ever.

This is from the TTTTB 2.0. I’ve had a lot of caffeine this a.m. and decided I needed to back off a little. This is an oolong so there is some caffeine but not as much as Chocolate Rocket and My Morning Mate (This mornings caffeine of choice). I’ve got most of my ‘chores’ and exercising done ( walked 4.5 miles).

The tea has a mild orange and almond flavor. It’s quite soothing. It’s not one I personally would buy but I certainly would enjoy a cup of this occasionally. I’m enjoying drinking it while the kitchen floor dries and watching the most recent Doctor Who episode.

2nd orange oolong sample of the day! Interesting to compare this one to the Verdant I sampled earlier.

This one has a lot more orange going on, but nuttiness instead of spice. I think this would be great iced with a little sugar. Thanks for the sample Cameron B!