Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Formosa’

This is the second tea blend I have tried with Formosan and Indian teas. I am wondering about Formosa teas are. They are from Taiwan. From what I can gather, Formosa teas are oolongs. So, I am supposing that the one in this particular blend is on the black side of things. This does explain the flavor profile. I was not expecting an oolong to be in this tea. I think a shorter infusion in my smallest teapot would be a better brewing method for this tea.

I was right, less leaf and a different brewing vessel improved this tea. I treated the leaves as I would if I were brewing on oolong: less leaves, cooler water, small tea pot.

Ok, now to the review of this tea.

Amber colored liquid poured from my teapot to my cup. First smell is of a traditional tea smell. No fancy additives taking away from the tea leaves. The sip revealed an earthiness that is hard for me to pinpoint. If you could taste water running over smooth stones, that would be this tea. It is simple tea with many layers of flavor.

The astringency is there, but I expected that with this blend. All the teas are bold in their own right and then to have here all together in one blend, this is one tea that definitely says Good Morning in a BIG way.

This will have to be a weekend tea for me. Time is a factor for me during the week, this tea will cause you to ponder the story of the tea leaves and solve the problems of the world. With each new infusion, another dimension unfolds. The second infusion is milder. I don’t see this going over two infusions and still being viable. I suppose the reason for this is the other two black teas as I rarely think that black teas taste good after two infusions.

All in all, this tea is good. If you are curious about oolongs, this may be a good starting place. It tastes like an oolong but has all the characteristics of black tea.

You can purchase the Winey Keeman English Breakfast directly from the Grace Tea Company website.

Oolongs come from primarily 3 regions Fujian & Guandong provinces PRC, and Tiawan. The mainland oolongs tend to have a savoriness to them – some describe this as a buttery feel. The Taiwan produced Oolongs, tend to be more delicate, and have a sweetness to them. Oolongs are teas that undergo a fermentation step during their processing. This process converts between 10% and 80% of the available sugars in the leaf, which produce the unique flavor and aroma characteristics of oolongs. These are some of the most complex, most inviting teas produced anywhere.

This Formosa Oolong Finest from Teafrog is a great example of a Taiwanese Oolong. Short reddish-black leaves with a faintly sweet aroma, with some broken leaf.

1St Steep: 3g (2tsp) tea in 6oz of 190F water, in my for Oolong Xing teapot for 4 minutes. Bright brown in cup, with a pleasantly strong spicy/perfume nose expected from Taiwanese Oolong. Spice with a bit of citrus sourness to the taste, with a nice smooth mouthfeel. The astringency is balanced and the dry aftertaste lingers.

Wet leaf shows good leaf shape, short leaf with a brown green color, and a musky smell.

2nd Steep (190F for 4.5 min) – Still a good spicy aroma, flavor much more balanced, and a slight sweetness to it. There is a bit more dryness to the aftertaste. This is a refreshing cup.

This is an excellent, every day Oolong. If you are looking for a Oolong to try, this is a good one to start with.

You can purchase the Formosa Oolong Finest directly from the TeaFrog website.

I love Tea Forte. Every single tea that I have tried to date has been flavourful, without being overwhelming. I also quite enjoy Oolong Tea. To date, I have mostly focused on the darker, more oxidized Formosa Oolongs, and enjoy the robust flavours that they produce. With that in mind, I reached for the Tea Forte Silk Oolong this morning to give it a try.

First of all, Tea Forte has packaging nailed. The Chest that was sent to us contains the teas nicely, and the pyramid tea bags and wrapping are minimalist enough to let you focus on the tea, while giving you the impression that, even tho this is a teabag, you are about to embark on a high quality tea experience. In the past, I found for the most part the bags give enough room for the teas to expand, so I was not too worried about this here, even tho it is an Oolong that should expand enough to release all the flavours.

I have to say, that this is the first Tea Forte that has disappointed me. Perhaps my expectations were too high going into it. First of all, clearly there was not enough room for the tea to expand in the tea bag. After brewing it at about 195 deg F for about 3 minutes, the tea leaves were straining the confines of the bag. Usually, you can get a nice scent of the tea through the bag, and certainly once it has hit the water, but here, I found the scent to be very muted and almost undetectable.

The tea it’s self is nothing to write home about. It is very light, bordering on almost tasteless. It is certainly smooth as the name “Silk Oolong” implies, but has no interesting aftertaste that lingers, and is overall, unmemorable. Perhaps being used to stronger Oolong infusions I was prepared for a stronger tea, but this certainly is not that. It leaves me feeling indifferent enough to it that I am not even going to bother with a second or third infusion.

Maybe if you steeped it for much longer, you could coax more flavour out of it, or even cutting the leaves out of the bag, buy why do that when you receive it in a bag? You can purchase the loose leaves from Tea Forte directly, but for the price (Tea Forte teas can tend to the expensive side), I don’t see the value on this tea.

Overall, Tea Forte is a fantastic company producing fantastic teas, but in this case, it is one tea that I would remove from the lineup, as it does not seem to fit into the flavourful, memorable teas that I have come to know Tea Forte for.

You can purchase Tea Forte Silk Oolong directly from their website.