Mandarin Silk

Azzrian, you’ve officially earned the title of the person who sent me the tastiest samples. I haven’t been let down yet. Nice oolong flavor with a light citrus flavor and a truly silky vanilla cream flavor. Awesome.

Thanks to Azzrian for the sample.

I just got a new ingenuiTEA and I was excited to try this tea, since now the leaves have plenty of room to expand!

This is a very nice oolong. I’m getting a little bit of flavor, but it’s not as overpowering as I thought it would be. I can taste the hints on citrus and vanilla, and it’s a nice compliment to it. I don’t know if I’m blown away by it, but I’ll certainly give it a few more steeps and see what happens.

Second infusion: The flavor is still kicking. I’m impressed at how well it holds up in the second infusion. Not bad.

This is really quite lovely. So smooth and delightful. Not overly done with any flavor, it allows the natural flavors of the pouchong to really sing and the pouchong seems to be perfectly matched with the flavors of lemon-y citrus and vanilla. Sweet, silky and really wonderful. Nice to sip after a long day.

This has been a very depressing day. I started this tea cold brewing when I left the house today. I didn’t realize it was an oolong. For some reason I thought this was a green. Well the leaves expanded way more than expected for that reason and my cup is pretty strong on flavor. Dilute it was cold water and it tastes just about perfect. It’s a very soothing cup of chilled tea for a tough day. The vanilla is comfortingly creamy and sweet and the lemon keeps it fresh.

This reminds me quite s bit of David’s Tea’s Vanilla Oolong. I’d be curious to try them side by side to compare.

Thank you, Azzrian for sharing this delicious blend with me.

My first Persimmon Tree tea taste and I’m in total nirvana! This is like liquid gold, or if dreams were fluid…

Sense I not make. This is because of the tea! ;)

I love the flavor palette – vanilla, and lemon myrtle, which you may not think can roll together. But these get along well. So utterly delicious and smooth…

Smells divine as well… This will be a Keen Tea Thyme cupboard staple!

1.5 tablespoons for 375 ml of water

Milky floral oolong aroma in the brewed tea scent. Hints of soft vanilla sweetness and orange-y citrus; reminding me of orange creamsicle.

Creamy vanilla pudding flavour. Very mild citrus. Grapefruit astringency close to the end of the sip mixed with floral hints. Mouth-feel is a little thin for the flavour

Second infusion at 4 minutes. Muted creaminess. Citrus-y flavour comes through more. The grapefruit note is toned down but still present near the end of the sip into the aftertaste. Vanilla-like sweetness present but not as strong as in the first infusion.

Many thanks to Sil for sharing this with me!

I forgot I had a whole bunch of open Persimmon Tree samples I never finished! They were all in a small tin that got jammed in the back. This tea I had 2 of! I should really finish all these samples.

My MIL thought the vanilla here was kinda weird. For this run, I made it iced with 2 sliced cuties oranges on the bottom with a little honey. Pretty good, it’s like nice sweet orange juice with vanilla curbing all tart. I dunno, I find the vanilla adds interest.

I assume this is now called Mandarin Creme as the ingredients are the same.

Except my tin states “pouchong”, and both descriptions under the two names of this tea say it’s oolong. I don’t know what pouchong is but rest assured I’m going to google it once I’m done this review!

Soooo my Persimmon Tree order arrived today. I had posted a comment on their Facebook wall complaining (politely of course) that their crappy shipping options for Canada meant that for 1 oz of tea (added to my cart to determine shipping fees) it would be $28 at the CHEAPEST to ship to me.

Anyway they responded immediately, apologized, gave me a free shipping code and added a new shipping option for $15 to Canada which is totally reasonable as their teas come in tins!

Yay! So I ordered three teas and a sample of a fourth. I had to share the story because good customer service should not go unacknowledged. And I am pleased to report that the teas I ordered are awesome! Thank you, Persimmon!

This was so good. It’s creamy and flavorful yet light, and the tea base is also noticeable, delicate and delicious! I ordered the smallest tin of this and am thinking perhaps I should have got the larger size! Soooo good. It’s flavoured but not overwhelmingly so, and there’s no unnatural taste whatsoever. That is all. Yum.

180 degrees for 2-3 min, as I wasn’t sure what pouchong was, haha.

-Dry leaves feature large dense twisted leaves with yellow petals and broken pieces of lemon myrtle. Wet leaves float to the top during steeping and reveal large full leaves.
-Dry blend smells creamy and sweet with a faint hint of citrus. Tea liquor’s aroma is of vanilla and citrus.
-Tea liquor is a bright medium yellow.
-Grassy undertone with a slight lemony finish. Creamy and smooth mouthfeel.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Nicely fragrant with a smooth, velvety flavor.

As you know, I get very excited over tea.. especially over blends that I’ve been dying to try. Mandarin Silk Oolong is just one of those teas that has been on my shopping list forever. The scent is gorgeous, just as I imagined it would be. It’s smooth, a little bit creamy and sweet. I have noticed that I sometimes get the silky mouthfeel with this tea, but not with every cup. The mandarin flavor comes out as an almost undetected tartness towards the end of the sip. I very much like this tea, but realized that it took me a few cups to reach this conclusion. My first few cups left me unimpressed, but changing the water temperature (from around 190-185 to about 175) helps the creamy and sweet notes come out. I am not sure how this compares to Art of Tea’s Mandarin Silk. I would be interested in trying and comparing both!