T By Daniel’s Guangzhou Milk Oolong | Tea Review

Milk oolongs have a fond spot in my heart because it was one of the first oolongs I tried when I started on my tea journey!

Description: “Rolled by hand and, this smooth & creamy milk oolong will leave you wondering how it is not flavoured! […] To get the beautiful silky taste this tea offers, the fresh leafs are processed by steaming them over cauldrons of milk.”

Instructions: 1 teaspoon* | 3 minutes | 80°C  

* It was not listed on the packaging to use one teaspoon, however, I confirmed with the company.

Review: As a preface, it should be noted that this specific milk oolong is no longer being sold by T by Daniel, however, the company is selling one from another supplier. That being said, let’s try a tea!

The dry leaves were small and pellet sized. It had a dark emerald forest green colour with a minty, herbal, and faint milky smell. After a 3 minutes infusion, most of the leaves had fully unfurled. The small broken leaves were dark olive green in colour with a grassy, vegetal, and faint milky smell.

The liquor was a clear dark amber colour with specs of the broken leaves at the bottom of the cup. It had a floral and milky smell. Taste-wise, the tea started off vegetal, then shifted into floral, and ended with a faint sweet milky buttery note. Depending on the sip, some mouthfuls were more floral, and others were more vegetal. When cooled, the taste was more floral with some astringency in the back of the mouth.

Overall, since this tea is not flavoured, it does not have the strong “milk” taste that some milk oolongs with additives have. However, the description mentions that it was “steamed over cauldrons of milk” which is new to me because from my understanding, “milk oolong” is normally from the Jin Xuan cultivar which is where the milky buttery taste and smell is naturally derived from, not any additives or special processing method. This may be a processing method to make milk oolongs without additives? Always something new to learn and ponder with tea (3/5 rating)!

The question of the post: What do you know about milk oolongs and how it is grown and processed?