Oolong Tie Guan Yin

Bought for the wife who likes this sort of thing. She seems to be enjoying it so that's good enough for me.

I'm not a tea drinker, so my wife tried this. I gave up counting when she'd said "this is REALLY nice" for the sixth time. Intrigued, I took a sip. I have to say, it was actually alright. And I really don't like tea. So this is more of a green tea, taken without milk or sugar. It has a pleasant taste and I can see that it would be really refreshing. Unlike most leaf tea (the cheaper versions of which are almost like dust), the leaves here are entire leaves, dried and curled up. After steeping they unfurl, so you need to allow a bit of room in your pot for them. Whilst not cheap, you don't need much of this tea. A teaspoonful of leaves in the pot is easily enough for 2 - 3 cups; AND you can make a second pot with the same leaves, with very little reduction in tea strength. I wouldn't go so far as my wife, but yes, I actually like this tea.

Terrible quality tea, there is no fragrance to it what so ever. It's very bog standard and shouldn't be described as 'premium'. If you get the good stuff from Asia it will normally be in vac packed foil to preserve freshness and perfume.

This has that earthy flavour that you might expect from Oolong but it does have a pronounced bitter note to it too. For somebody just stepping into the world of Tea, this was good but not as good as some of the other Oolongs I have now tried.

This loose leaf Oolong tea from Fuijan, China is a kind of cross between a green tea and a black tea. It's recommended to be drunk without milk - but of course, the choice is yours. I had it without milk. It has a pleasant, subtle floral aroma. The product arrives in a resealable pouch and for 100g, in my view it's decent value for money. The pack I received has a Best Before date of 28.02.2025.

I was a bit worried when I read that Oolong is like a mix between green and black tea, but I needn't have worried, this is a lot more like green tea than black. I really don't like how strong black tea can be, but this is just the right level of tannin for a morning brew. It's funny how much space the little pearls of tea take up once they're soaked, normally my tea strainer is half full of wet green tea leaves, but it was overflowing once I strained the Oolong!

The description implies that this tea occupies a ground between green and black tea, which seems like a fair description. Personally I find green tea without added flavourings (such a jasmine) just a bit dull, and full on black tea too harsh, though I like a nice delicate black tea like a Darjeeling. Although arguably closer to green tea than to even one of those delicate black teas, it has enough of a character to it to rescue it from the blandness I find with green tea.

Nice