According to Naivetea, this tea is produced by a very small high altitude artisan tea farm that follows traditional and organic farming practices. As someone who consumes large quantities of tea on a regular basis, that is important to me. Who wants a side of pesticides with their tea? The dry leaves resembled a typical rolled oolong appearance and smell. I brewed this tea using a gaiwan. The first steeping was 30 seconds and each subsequent steeping was given an additional 10 seconds. The resulting tea was a bright green color and had a slightly fruity aroma. After steeping, the leaves slowly unfurled to reveal large leaves that were mostly whole. The majority of the leaves were still attached to their stems in groups of three or four.
I’ve never had a tea quite like this and I struggled to describe it. It was quite milky tasting and had a thicker mouth feel than I had ever experienced in an oolong. Naivetea describes it as having a hint of pineapple. That is the closest I could come to a description for the flavor. This tea definitely stood up to multiple steepings. I completed seven before I could drink no more. I was very excited to try this selection because it is my first foray into the seemingly trendy world of “milk” oolongs. There is a lot of misinformation circulating the web about these teas. A true milk oolong does not have anything needed, it is the altitude and processing methods that produce the unique milky flavor. Needless to say I was not disappointed and would definitely recommend this tea.
Alovely set up – glad you had the time to do it and the Oolong sounded really good, too.
Isn't that tea wonderful! It was my first 'milk' oolong and I fell in love