Oct 31
Vanessa’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "Following Naivetea's guidelines, I found the cup to be not even quite medium-bodied, rather weak in flavor, and lacking any "oomph". However, the tea was still tasty and it was clear to me that had I prepared this in a different way, the results may have been much better. "
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Imperial Beauty Oolong is a Taiwanese oolong which, according to Naivetea, is "produced by a very small high altitude artisan tea farm that follows traditional and organic farming practices". Visually, the tea seems of high quality and looks just about the same as all of their fragrance-infused varieties that I have sampled. The tea is described with some pretty definitive words, including "intense", "full and smooth", and "strong". However, I have to say that I disagreed almost entirely with these assessments. I brewed this tea following Naivetea's guidelines (20 second steeping with ~ boiling water), which vary substantially from my normal oolong approach (2-3 minutes using just under boiling water). Following Naivetea's guidelines, I found the cup to be not even quite medium-bodied, rather weak in flavor, and lacking any "oomph". Even with these less-than-favorable characteristics, however, the tea was still tasty and it was clear to me that had I prepared this in a different way, the results may have been much better. The tea was smooth, as described, and had both fruity and earthy elements to it. I infused the same leaves for a second time with a longer steep time. However, since this was a second infusion, even the longer infusion time couldn't make the tea be full-bodied and intense. So in the end, I guess I was a little disappointed with this tea, although much of that may be due to the preparation method and not necessarily a reflection of the tea being less-than-satisfactory. As I said earlier, what flavor I could garnish out of this tea was worth drinking and was a nice blend of different flavor profiles (primarily fruity and earthy, although also some floral and nutty notes). Naivetea does advocate experimenting with leaf volume, water temperature, and infusion time to find what best suits you, but unfortunately my sample size did not allow me to do this. So in the end, I rated this tea a 6.8 because it certainly wasn't my favorite oolong, but I still did appreciate the complex flavors of the weak-bodied infusion, and I could tell that if I had infused it for longer, I probably would have really liked this tea
— To purchase Naivetea Imperial Beauty 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.
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