Ripe Mango Oolong

I freakin love oolong because the LEAVES. They’re freakin gorgeous okay and I absolutely LOVE seeing them unravel!
This was a surprise from my parents :) They went to DAVIDs last weekend and took a wee little detour to Lupicia (well, it’s just two floors up so it’s not too bad haha) and they picked this tea up for me!

Oh wow. The smell of this tea dry is so good! I kinda.. started inhaling it deeply and don’t do that. You’ll get dizzy. But just take a small whiff and it smells like mango!! Green mango though. Personally, I prefer the taste of the yellow mango more since it’s more sweet and green mango is bitter but yeah THIS TEA SMELLS LIKE HOME.
I was actually surprised to read on the package that this steeps in boiling water though since I never use boiling for oolongs. Ahh well. I followed the package instructions and some leaves were a bit scorched, but not all.
This tea is like super freakin good though. Like SO GOOD. I love the mango so much. I’m starting to love ALL the Lupicia flavoured teas! This has the nice flavours of green mango, but not the bitterness.
Definitely a great tea :)

Sweet juicy mangos! Delicious!

A friend bought this tea and found it too floral for her liking, so she kindly passed the leftovers on to me. And I’m very glad she did – as an admitted fan of floral teas, I think this is delicious.

It doesn’t taste all that much like mango – the tea is much crisper and, as mentioned above, significantly more floral. I associate fresh mango and mango juice with a sort of heavy sweetness that’s absent here, and I don’t find mango particularly floral. If I’d tasted this tea without knowing what flavor it was meant to be, I probably would’ve guessed lychee (which is another flavor I really like, so no problem there).

The oolong base is quite delicate. It doesn’t really hold its own against the fruity/floral flavoring, but said flavoring is done so well I don’t mind. I drank this hot (and plain) today, but I bet it would be amazing iced.

I bought the bagged version because it was cheaper than the tin and they were out of just the regular loose tea. I have to admit, when I opened up the packaging I was disappointed. Whereas the loose oolongs I have bought from Lupicia in the past had tightly-rolled leaves that unfurled huge and beautifully, the contents of the bag were mostly small pieces of leaves and dust! I don’t know, maybe the package accidentally got crushed at the store or something.

Despite the absolutely LOVELY, strong, juicy mango smell (which is what convinced me to buy it), my expectations were lowered by the appearance, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the brewed tea tasted delicious. The mango taste was definitely there, both when steaming hot and slightly cooled down. With a small spoonful of sugar, it was perfectly juicy without being cloying. Very refreshing. I can only imagine that the loose leaf tastes even better!