Asian Tulips | Beautiful Flower For Your Life !

Naivetea is an online company specializing in oolong teas only. About their Osmanthus Oolong they write, “Intense osmanthus aroma with hints of oolong. Light and smooth body with floral sweetness and subtle oolong flavors. Elegant finish with a natural sweet after taste.”

The oolong in this sample is a smaller and more tightly balled oolong than the previous samples I’ve tried from Naivetea. The coloring is a dark green, nearly black, with small bits of osmanthus here and there. The scenting is pleasant. It’s bright and floral but has a hint of something else that I somehow associate with piquant raspberries! No berries are in the mix, but somehow I pick up on this scent anyway. Osmanthus is not a flower that I am often in contact with in my tea drinking, so quite likely I’m just not accustomed to all of osmanthus’ charms. It’s quite nice overall.

Using a tablespoon per 8 ounces of tea, I let this tea steep nearly three minutes. Such a long steeping isn’t actually necessary with this tea and I found I preferred a two minute steep. Naivetea also recommends a lot of leaf and a series of short steeps for this tea (gung fu style) but I didn’t prepare mine this way. The steeping tea exhibits a lovely scent – sweet and honey-ish with a creamy floral character.

The taste of the liquor mimics this scenting nicely, again, I thought it did better taste wise using a two minute as opposed to three minute steep. The creaminess is not pronounced in this tea, but the osmanthus seems very well suited to the oolong base. The oolong is not so mild as some of the other offerings I’ve tried from Naivetea, it has a good sturdiness to it that made it ideal for a late afternoon cup of tea. Perhaps it has something to do also with the mellow but pervasive fragrance of osmanthus being very well balanced with the leaf.

Whatever the case may be, I found this to be a very enjoyable and thoughtfully scented tea.

Naivetea begins with high altitude-grown oolong processed into thick dark green twisted nuggets and infuses with tiny osmanthus blossoms, a tiny flower that somewhat similiar to jasmine in both appearance and fragrance. These are visible as tiny brown petals mixed in with the tea itself. The fragrance is light and sweet.

I brewed a generous teaspoonful in a cup of 180F water for a little over three minutes. The resulting liquor was a pale jade with a rich floral fragrance resulting from the mingling of oolong and flowers. The flavor was mouth filling, but just on the edge of bitter, with a touch of astringency, rather than the sweetness I expected, although it did leave a strong fragrance in my mouth.

I infused the second cup for four minutes, with identical results. Nowhere was there a hint of the natural sweetness I was looking for, or the promised sweetness of the osmanthus flowers. The tea left a very nice fragrance in my mouth once again, but the flavor was a let down.

Still hopeful, I infused the leaves one more time for four minutes, but the results were the same. It has staying power, I’ll give it that. I’ve liked other scented/flavored teas from this company, but this one left me wanting.

— To purchase Naivetea Osmanthus Oolong, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer’s web site.