Makaibari Estate Oolong Tea - Organic - Fair Trade
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Commercial Description
...The medium- to dark-green leaves and sliver buds of this oolong produce a light amber infusion with a punchy astringency that diminishes quickly. It also exhibits slight lemony, vegetal and earthy qualities akin to other Darjeeling teas, while maintaining a classic oolong finish...
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
57 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Sylvia (215 reviews) on Jun. 14th, 2013
This tea has a very sweet aroma. It tastes kind of bitter and watery, although it has an interesting crisp, fresh flavor. It tastes like black tea, which I like. It has a lingering bitter aftertaste that I don't like so much. I have mixed feelings about it. I added cream and sugar.
100 Aroma: 10/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5Alex Zorach (1448 reviews) on Jun. 4th, 2013
This is one weird but I love it!
This is my favorite Darjeeling oolong yet...but it really smells and tastes more like first flush (black tea) to me, but has a buttery mouthfeel like a good Taiwanese jade oolong.
Dry leaf is mostly broken, into pieces of different sizes, and has a strong aroma, suggestive of wintergreen and sweet rice. Unlike any other Darjeeling oolongs I've sampled, but much more similar to the greener Darjeeling first flushes, including ones from Makaibari estate.
I tried brewing this more like I would a Darjeeling oolong (longer steepings, lower water temperature) and I didn't like the results. I found it worked better with boiling water. It worked best with very brief steepings, as it infuses quickly, but it did okay with longer steepings the way I typically steep black tea.
Aroma is mostly of wintergreen and sweet rice, with a strong muscat grape quality, and some herbaceous and skunky tones as well. Aroma is not subtle--there's a lot going on and it kind of hits me in the face. There isn't much about the aroma that I'd describe as oolong-like, but the sensations on the palate do remind me a bit of some jade oolong...the aroma is more like a typical Darjeeling first flush, but the cup has a much more buttery mouthfeel...like a good Dong Ding, and unlike any black tea.
I thought this tea was top notch. As in, the best tea I sampled from Arbor Teas, and also bargain priced for a tea of this quality. Yeah! This tea is amazing. I think I am giving this tea a perfect score. I also noted that relatively little leaf is needed to produce a very flavorful cup.
Just don't be fooled and please use boiling water! If I had only brewed this tea with lower-temperature water I would have never realized how amazing it is!
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
More Oolong Tea from from Arbor Teas
Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea
| Style: | Oriental Beauty |
| Region: | Anhui, China |
| Caffeine: | Caffeinated |
| Leaf: | Loose |
2 Ratings
