Tea Tuesday: Osmanthus Oolong

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Osmanthus Oolong

How I found it: A few months ago Tea Ave, a Canadian tea company specializing in all natural Taiwanese oolongs, sent me free samples of my choice of three oolong teas plus special oolong tea cups and an oak tray in honor of their grand opening for my review. They were so generous and the teas were scrumptious. Loved them! 

You can check out the reviews for the teas on their respective links (Rose Oolong, Magnolia Oolong, Ginger Lily Oolong). After this awesome first impression, I had to purchase some oolong from them at least once. They are a bit pricey so I had to wait until they had their free shipping sale this past month, but now I am back with four marvelous blends: Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong, Osmanthus Oolong, Dong Ding Oolong, and Oriental Beauty!

The Tea: For these reviews since I'm not judging them based on their similarity to a respective character I'm going to give the teas' product descriptions. Here we go:

Our Osmanthus Oolong is prepared using the ancient method, in which the tea absorbs the flower fragrance during the baking progress, producing a scented tea that’s aromatic and flavorful without using any additives or chemicals.


The osmanthus flower is a symbol of romance in Taiwanese culture, and Osmanthus Oolong is a traditional wedding tea in Taiwan. With a base of creamy Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong, Osmanthus Oolong is scented with the fragrant osmanthus flower, giving it a floral and fruity flavor. Light and bright, this tea is prized for its mellow, smooth qualities, with a subtle, lingering fruity aftertaste. Romantic indeed.

Though this tea is based in Alishan Jin Xuan, I didn't taste too many elements of that. It's very flowery with an olive oil taste. Not oily, but like as if you sniffed a bottle of olive oil, but not like marinated olives at all. There are tiny petals in the tea itself. It's indeed very light and bright. I didn't taste much of the fruity flavor the description states, unless that's supposed to be the olive oil element. 

Serving Recommendations: One minute with sugar. Because I like living live on the edge I decided to steep it for three minutes. The tea didn't blow up, but it did turn a bit bitter which I fixed with sugar. Watch for that. 

How much is it and where can you get it? You can purchase all of Tea Ave's teas on their website with a flat rate of $15 for shipping. This particular tea is $11.75 USD or 25 grams or 0.88 oz. The tea can be re-steeped multiple times so you can get at least ten servings from this bag if not more. The teas are very high quality and imported so that accounts for the price.

So how good is it? I didn't enjoy this tea as much as the Alishan, but this tea is still quite lovely. Four stars!

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you had any Tea Ave teas?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!