A good tea that resembled Darjeeling first flush teas and probably would have convinced me it was a "black" tea if it had not been labeled as an oolong. It's more like a Himalayan black tea that had something different or unusual about it. Not what I expected; it was nothing like Chinese oolongs, nor like Darjeeling oolongs I've tried in the past. Thank you to Simpson & Vail for the sample!

The dry leaf neither smells nor looks like an oolong, although it admittedly smells a little different from Nepalese or other Himalayan tea I've tried. It has a sweet, bready and malty aroma, like baked goods. It reminds me more of some high-end Chinese teas. The leaf looks like a black tea: dark and fairly delicate. Nothing about it seems oolong-like and I would not think to classify it as such if I were presented with the leaf and told nothing about it.

Brewing this tea doesn't change my impression...the taste is a lot like a Darjeeling, a strong grape-like fruitiness, light body but some astringency, skunky and vegetal undertones. The aroma, the mouthfeel, the overall experience is not at all oolong-like. Oolongs tend to feel softer and smoother than black teas, on average, like they've had the edge taken off, and they also tend to feel rich and full-bodied relative to how smooth they are.

This tea, on the other hand, has a strong, sharp astringency that I think is bolder than typical for a black tea, yet is thick bodied.

There are none of the typical aromatic notes either that I expect in an oolong, no floral notes, no herbaceous notes, no roast. Just muscatel and malt.

It's a good tea, but I wonder why it is labeled as an oolong. I've tried Darjeeling oolongs that tasted more like oolong, but this just tastes like a black tea, and not a super interesting one at all.

I wasn't crazy about how I felt after drinking this. It seemed very caffeinated, but in a way that made me feel a bit jittery or on edge.

Seems heavily affected by even subtle differences in brewing temperature. A lower temperature greatly reduced the astringency, and brought out the vegetal notes...making it a little more oolong-like...but it still tasted more like a Darjeeling black tea than any type of oolong.

Resteeps well, but not as well as oolongs usually do; I got a good second steep out of it but the leaves were pretty much spent then. The second steep tasted ever-so-slightly more oolong like, with more of those sort of herbaceous notes that some oolongs have.

Interesting...and I'd try more teas from this garden, but if you're expecting an oolong, I'd caution you about this one -- it's not remotely like Chinese oolongs and not even much like Darjeeling oolongs.

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