Loose Leaf Formosa Oolong

Form: Loose Leaf from the local Tea Emporium

Oolong is a tea which I have been wanting to try for some time now, being very intrigued since I first read about it being a middle ground between green and black tea. It is semi-fermented, compared to the fermented black and unfermented green teas, and has a very unique aroma and taste. The tea leaves are only harvested in the spring and winter months of Taiwan and China and are totally hand processed, so it is little surprise that this is regarded as a speciality (read: expensive) tea. Needless to say, upon dishing up the slightly raised price, I had high hopes for this tea.
Totally fulfilled. That is how I would describe my hopes for this tea upon first sip. I cannot, in so few words, sum up the taste of this Formosa Oolong tea than to simply say that it is a middle ground between black and green tea. The tea, consistently from start to finish, had the light flavour and delicate texture of a superb green tea whilst also having the robust and full flavour of a high quality blended black tea such as English Breakfast. This may seem to not make sense, and the fact that the Tea is such a weak brownish-green colour would not help, but I stress that this tea is truly terrific. Also, and I digress slightly but I feel it needs to be mentioned, actually watching this tea infuse was a real treat. The small balls of tea in the pot started off quite small (I actually thought my partner and I had been short tea'd), yet as the minutes ticked by, the balls opened up into quite a healthy amount of tea. It was a real tease, watching the balls split and open up into much larger almost flower-like leaves, smelling the unique and almost nutty aroma and being in such anticipation of this tea. As I said before however, this was a delicious tea which truly delivered what I was hoping for and more. I had it with slightly less sugar than I usually would as I found this to draw out the flavour more, yet it was also fine with no sugar. Milk is a big no-no with this tea; treat it like green in that respect. Overall, a really great tea which I have already purchased a second time… I'll be very interested to see if other Oolong blends (and branded, box and bagged varieties) hold the same appeal.

"If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you." – William Gladstone, British Prime Minister