Tea: Formosa Jade Oolong

A Jade Oolong from Upton Tea Imports

Picture of Formosa Jade Oolong
Brand:Upton Tea Imports
Style:Jade Oolong
Region:Taiwan / Formosa
Caffeine:Caffeinated
Loose?Loose
# Ratings:1 View All
Product page:Formosa Jade Oolong

Review of Formosa Jade Oolong

AromaFlavorValueTotal
6 of 103 of 52 of 557 of 100
GoodFairOverpriced

Extremely mellow...the aroma is more like that of a floral honey than other teas. Light in color. Sweet, with almost no bitterness, sourness, or astringency. Compared to other Tung Tings I've tried, this tea is less like other oolongs and more like a Pouchong. In my opinion, it's too thin, and it has a bit of a fishy quality like some of the lower grades of Pouchong.

Brewed as instructed, I found this tea to be very thin and bland. But when I used a higher temperature of water, an unpleasant astrigency came out. I settled upon using 180 degree water but letting the tea steep for a very long time: this produced the best results, although brewing this way I only got one infusion out of the leaves. I also found that I needed to use significantly more leaves than recommended, in order to get a strong enough cup for my preferences.

The leaves unfurl to take up a lot of space...make sure to either brew this loose in a teapot (for best results) or to use an open infuser that gives the leaves room to expand.

I found this tea to be overpriced. It's about $15 for 100g, you need to use a lot of leaf, and I was only able to brew the leaves once. That was very disappointing for me. For that price, I expect something top-notch and usable for multiple infusions.

I'm starting to see a pattern, which is that (outside of the Amber oolongs) I think Upton's Chinese oolongs offer a much better value than their Taiwanese ones.

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