Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I honestly can’t believe that we are in march already, February really did go by in a flash compared to January which felt like it was about 6 months long. I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Shanchai’s – Oriental Beauty Oolong. This is another review that I had planned to do during 2019 but couldn’t do because of health issues so I wanted to make sure that I did it as early as I could in 2020 and I’ve finally been able to fit this review into my posting schedule.

The only positive I suppose from having to push this back and wait until now to review it is the fact that I have now almost finished all caddy of tea I was sent and I can now give you a much more well rounded review. You all know just how much I love oolong so as much as I would have liked to wait and try this for the first time for this review I just couldn’t wait and I had to try it straight away.

Here’s what Shanchai themselves have to say about this tea over on their website: ”In Taiwan, this tea goes by many names but is most commonly known as Oriental Beauty. No Tea has been more worthy of it’s name. This tea grows at an altitude of 300m and only the top buds with the ripest leaves are hand picked and packed into this box. The secret to it’s taste is lies in a natural marvel – the leaves are bitten by a leafhopper insect which causes a chemical reaction in the leaves, enhancing the photosynthesis process and ultimately the flavour.

For this reason pesticides are never used on our Oriental Beauty farms making this tea 100% organic. Rest assured there are no insects in our teas. This medium oxidised tea has an intense fragrance and an explosion of taste that will leave you mesmerised for hours, complimenting the flavours in a stunning red colour , this oolong is a treasure to behold.

Ingredients:  100% Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea | 65%-70%

Tea Tasting Notes

As I am sure you all know by now I love oolong especially an Oxidised Oolong so I know you won’t be surprised to hear that I absolutely loved this. This honestly impressed me from the very first sip and I’m so thankful that I was given the chance to try it. It’s rich, bold, slightly smokey, but also sweet. It’s got a nice smooth flavour that is almost fruit like and a honey like sweet note as well. Honestly I’ve had a few Oriental Beauty oolongs since I started drinking loose leaf tea but this is deffinelty one of the best that I’ve had because the flavour profile has so much depth to it. I Steeped for three minutes and there wasn’t an ounce of bitterness at all and the natural sweetness meant that I didn’t have to add any honey either which is always a bonus.

Nice got a nice thick mouthfeel and it’s Smoky but not too much so that it triggers my migraines like Lapsang does. Compared to some lower quality Oolongs I have had this is much more flavourful and rich and It held up to around 4 steeps western style which I was expecting at all. Normally I would steep a tea like this in my gaiwan and do multiple short steeps but lately I’ve just not been well enough to take the time to do that so I steeped this western style instead as it’s just much easier for me to do without draining myself.

As the steeps when on it did get lighter but that’s only to be expected, the sweetness didn’t waver throughout any of the steeps though and I could deffinelty pick out tat natural honey like sweetness throughout all of the steeps. The subtle smokiness was gone around the second steep but it allowed for a subtle stone fruit bottom note to come through and I was deffinelty happy with that switch. I would deffinelty say that oolongs like this are much more my cup of tea probably because they are much closer to black teas which you all know are my favourite. I find this to be a very calming cup of tea, it’s mellow flavour begs you to slow down and relax a bit so you can enjoy sipping it slowly.

I really have enjoyed every cup I have had of, both hot and cold (it works brilliantly for well for both but I do prefer it just a little bit more hot on it’s own). This tea also makes an for and excellent base for a boba milk tea, but be careful that you don’t put too much milk, honey, sugar, etc. in because this is a bit lighter than you would expect and I could see it getting overpowered quite easily. I would deffinelty purchase this oolong time and time again.

Overall Teacup Rating 5/5

If you want to find out more about Shanchai and Purchase some of this oolong for yourself (once orders open up) you can do both here. As always if you any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll do my best to answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley

*The tea featured in this post was gifted to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and have not been paid for*