I recently reached out to a few tea companies in search of some review products. I probably contacted at least 20 of them. Only one replied. I can't really blame most companies for ignoring me, I'm still a no body in the blogging world. I'm decided also to inquire about creating a custom theme and some more tea-centric graphics. Perhaps this will bring some more appeal to the blog and be more interesting to people as well as companies. So the company that replied is called Tea At Sea, they offer some teas I've never heard of, and I look forward to reviewing their samples.
Now lets talk about today's tea.
From my limited understanding, Maharaja is a Sanskrit title for king, and chai is just a fancy name for tea. Maybe they should have called it King Tea! Anyway, oolong is a tea that has been dried under the sun and curled and twisted. (Realistically it is probably dried in a dryer) I've also heard of fire roasted oolong as well, I'd like to get my hands on that someday.
The Tea
(You can click the photograph and view it larger)(Yes I photographed this)
Its quite nice, smells very strongly of cinnamon, and a hint of cloves, maybe some ginger, too. The tea leafs seem to be far and few, some of the black pieces are not actually leafs. Upon further inspection they look more like raisins, but much harder to the touch, so I think its safe to say there are not raisins. You can definitely see the cinnamon and gloves. I would assume the yellow-y bits are dried ginger. Ginger usually makes a fantastic addition to tea.
(In my awesome Adventure Time mug)
Color/Smell - It brews pretty much the same color as the last tea, however a bit more red-ish. The cinnamon smell carries over and reminds me of the holidays. I want pie now, stuffing, and eggnog. Eh..hem.. Yes it is a wonderful smell.
Taste - When I think of oolong and what oolong is, I'd assume a deep, almost woody roasted flavor. However, I honestly don't taste "tea" at all. I wouldn't even define this as an oolong tea. Its a herbal tea that just happens to have a little bit of oolong tea in it. All I can taste is a mild cinnamon flavor, with a subtle ginger backing, and some light clove notes. Its also unexpectedly sweet. If I brewed this more on terms with it being an herbal tea, it might have more favor, usually herbal teas are brewed a bit longer to get the flavor out of the bits.
Overall - If you're looking for a woods-y oolong tea, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for an herbal time, you'll be quite happy. I really did enjoy this tea, and can see myself drinking it during the holidays, or during the cold months. I would highly recommend brewing it at least 3 more minutes longer then it recommends, actually, if you can, don't even bother removing the tea leafs. Let it steep forever, it'll only grow strong flavors out of the different components.
As an oolong tea:
As an herbal tea:
Can be found here.
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