Vahdam Tea Advent Calendar: Day 4 - High Mountain Oolong Tea

 

Today's offering is another high altitude selection - again from the Himalayas.  I am most used to Chinese Oolong, so I am curious to taste the difference.

The aromatics on the nose of the dry leaf is... not what I expected.  It's warm and inviting but has a hint of.... chocolate? on the end note.  I am concerned.  Chocolate is not what I want from my tea flavours.

Steeping gives me a darker color than I'm expecting, but that's not a bad thing.  I am partial to a dark black tea after all.  The aroma of the actual tea hasn't changed much from when it was dry... except that the worrying chocolate end note is gone.  Instead, there is something.... not quite floral.  It reminds me of herbs... I think.

Taste:  It almost tastes... closed?  I think I might want to put a bit of honey, which feels wrong for an oolong but.... I still find myself seriously considering it.  Alone, it's a nice quality serviceable oolong - and I enjoy it.... but it's nothing special.  If I'm honest, it feels as though it's somehow lacking - though I can't figure out what it needs.  Though, Mum and I both taste a citrus note at the end on the finish.  I said orange peel - Mum doesn't quite agree and she might be right - it does taste a bit more bitter than orange peel.  Grapefruit maybe?

Near the end of the cup I add some honey - but my mother and I both agree that I chose poorly in my honey selection and also added too much.  It was rosemary honey, I thought it would bring out that not quite floral part of the aroma into the taste - but instead I just muddled the flavours and the rosemary in my honey has become the dominant and overpowering part of the flavor.  It does, however, make me realize that what I was smelling in the tea isn't herbs - but trees.  I swear, it smells like high altitude trees.  It reminds me of how the tea I had in a nice restaurant in Chicago years ago was served with alpine honey that literally only needed a drop to open the tea like a scotch with a drop of water.  I think I need to pull out the alpine honey for the next cup of this I make.  I need to see if it does the same.

Final thoughts:  I need to experiment more with this because alone off the steep, it's not my favorite oolong.  I don't enjoy the unfinished feel of it - even if it is nice and tasty.