Vanilla Orchid Oolong Tea

At around 7pm today I wound up at the tea store with twenty dollars in my pocket. A few moments later, I come out with a fiver left and a couple of teas in hand. I headed home immediately afterwards, eager for a taste. Before I begin discussing my tasting ventures, however, it is important that you know I am not a professional tea taster. I do, also, have a penchant for smooth floral tasting teas. However, I will try to remain as impartial as possible while discussing the tea and all that it has to offer. 






Allow me, now, to continue. Upon my arrival back home I set the kettle to boil and shook out a tablespoon and a quarter of what is called Vanilla Orchid Oolong Tea (a premium Huang Jin Gui with hints of vanilla). It is a curled, full-leaf tea with a smooth scent of floral vanilla that results, once steeped, in a beautiful amber liquor. It has an incredibly smooth, creamy taste with hints of floral undertone. I can assure you that the taste of this tea lingers reminiscently on the tongue urging you to have another cup.

The tea's pre-steeped form is as you see to the left of the paragraph, it smells wondrous. Its aroma is nothing like the harsh scent you may associate with vanilla extract. To the right is the image of the post-steeping of the tea leaves. Unfurled, these tea leaves have soaked in boiling water for approximately 7 minutes in order to produce the gorgeous amber liquid I have previously mentioned (I advise any tea drinker to use a tight mesh steeper if you'd rather not swallow pieces of tea leaf). I, personally, make use of a double glass walled mug and infuser duo to make my tea. The wall of the infuser is made of tight mesh in order to prevent large leaf particles from collecting at the bottom of the cup. The lid of this mug doubles as a coaster in order to take out the used tea leaves. It's very convenient. I'm sure, if you're interested, that you could find one at any local tea store (nowadays). 

If you're interested in getting to know a bit more: a brief history of the Oolong Tea:

Oolong Tea as we know it today is the result of a long evolution, originating during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907)  in the Beiyun region of Phoenix Mountain (Fenghuanshang) in Fujian Province. It was first known as Beiyun Tea and because of its fine quality and unique flavour, it was the first tea to be made a tribute tea, in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In the tribute custom, tea regions were selected by the Emperor to produce tea to be offered as a gift to the royal court, which was a great honour and good for business.
In time, government officials, monks and scholars began visiting and emigrating to the Fujian area and were surprised with the strong “earth-stone” taste of the teas from the Wuyi Mountain region, so different from the un-fermented Green Tea which was the only tea that existed in China to that point. These teas came to be known as Wuyi or Cliff Tea. Hearing of this wonderful new tea, the Emperor sent a sample of an un-fermented compressed Green Tea cake to Wuyi and asked for tribute tea. What he received was Dragon Phoenix Compressed Tea which was made from a mold which imprinted the tea cake with the design of a dragon and a phoenix. This tea became very famous as a result.
The fame of Wuyi teas spread far and wide and continued to be designated as a tribute tea throughout the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644 - 1911).
In 1725, tea producers in the Anxi region of Fujian adapted the methods of making   traditional Wuyi Tea and improved the technology to develop a new tea - Oolong. In 1796, Oolong Tea was introduced to the Northern Fujian region and to Taiwan, where today, each region is well known for their distinctive Oolong Teas. 

In case you're still curious, you can find more interesting information about the Oolong Tea (how it's made, health benefits, etc.) at The Chinese Tea Shop.