“I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea.” ― Lu T'ung

China Milk Oolong Tea by Green Mountain Tea.

The blurb from the company - This is a special tea that tastes and smells divine. The leaf takes on a milky almost sweet flavour unique to this leaf due to the sudden changes in temperature during the harvest. It has a lovely milky silk texture. The leaves are tightly rolled into tiny pellets. These aromatic leaves produce a fine golden liquor. A tea that will quickly win you over if you are not already a tea lover. It comes from An Xi, Fujian Province, China.

The bit by me - I decided to try a milk oolong because it was one of the highest rated teas on Steepster, which is a 'tea community', an online place where people can compare teas, tell each other what teas they like, rate teas, swap teas. Yep, it's full of excitement, adventure and really wild...things. In a tea sense.

Now, Milk Oolong does not have milk in it. You do not add milk. It is not picked by Chinese cows. The milk refers to the taste, although I have to be honest milk isn't something it reminds me of. It is so lovely though. It's sweet, although not overpoweringly so. It's warming. I have a very large teacup and I drain the first one far too quickly when I make a cup of this, so I always make a full pot and have three cups worth. It's very smooth, with absolutely no bitterness. Not that bitterness is a bad thing, but in this case the lack of it really adds to the experience.

I should mention the colour. It really is a lovely golden liquor (which is what tea drinkers call it, fact fans), and I get a good 2-3 steeps out of it (What us northern people would call 'mashing it', northern fact fans).

This is one of those teas that should be brewed to a specific temperature, about 10 degrees below boiling, but as I don't have a thermometer yet I just have to guess a bit. The thought that I may be able to brew this tea so it tastes even nicer fills me with joy. No, really...

People looking to start off their tea journey could do a lot worse than try this. I know that a lot of people I know who don't drink anything but PG Tips with milk in have the idea that all milk-less tea is very bitter and makes you pull funny faces. This is not that tea.