Rou Gui Cinnamon Oolong Tea - Aroma Tea Shop

A characteristic cinnamon aroma tea with a mix of spiced, smokey, sweet, and rocky notes.

Visual Notes

This tea has a dark chocolate color with long twisted tea leaves. The appearance is similar to other heavily oxidized wuyi oolongs. The color is mostly uniform, with some lighter leaves with a color similar to roasted coffee beans. The quality looks good, with no visible stems and very little tea dust.

The color of the tea has a red hue, similar to rusted iron. It is a vibrantly saturated blood orange color with decent clarity.

The second infusion takes on a color more orange/brown. Looking through the tea, there is a feint fogginess to it, with a small sediment falling to the bottom.

Scent Notes

The dry tea leaves give off a sweetness like dried cranberries. The hot tea leaves give off a roasted aroma and smokey notes of a campfire. The tea itself gives off a similar aroma. Overtime, the tea leaf develops a candy red licorice scent, while empowering the tea with a mix of spiced, smokey, sweet, and rocky notes.

Tasting Notes

The initial texture is thin, but the flavor is strong and resonates. Immediately you pick up spiced and roasted notes that spread along the sides of the tongue to fill the entire palate with a spiced aroma. It does not have the same sweetness attributed to cinnamon, but that tree bark like spice flavor is certainly present. There is also a layer of mineral notes characteristic to wuyi oolongs. Low bitterness, a very subtle acidity that is detectable after a few sips, and a resonating cinnamon aroma that encapsulates the finish. The finish on this tea builds rapidly over the first few sips, leaving a warming aroma, similar to a spiced hot apple cider.
The flavors on this tea feel more well rounded. You feel the mineral astringency immediately on the center of the tongue, but the intense spice flavors feel smoothed out and sweetened. The complex flavors dance around the top and sides of the tongue singing a song of spices, rocky oolongs, a mild acidity, and a building astringency.
The color on the third infusion seems to be quite lighter than the previous two. It’s becoming more of a bright tangerine orange. In addition to the color, the flavor also seemed to be dampened, tasting far more watery than before. This flattens out a lot of the richer notes, and leaves a spiced smokiness remaining. It is notably less sweet and more bitter. Despite that, it still has a lingering finish that feels warming to the body.
By the fourth infusion, the tea is past its prime. It hasn’t developed any negative qualities, but it does taste significantly watered down. Looking past the decreased richness of the flavors, it still carries its signature mix of flavors from the prior infusions. The flavor of this tea is not enticing, and is clearly the leftovers from tea leaves that have been spent. While the tea itself doesn’t have any negative attributes, I wouldn’t feel amiss if I stopped here.

Rating: 4.5/5

This tea is the tea that sparked my joy for Rou Gui oolong teas. There are many people, like myself, who love the flavor of cinnamon. It is a spice that combines sweetness, a spicy hotness, and woody notes. The fact that we can identify those elements in a tea unrelated to cinnamon is quite remarkable. If Rou Gui teas are known as the cinnamon oolong teas of the world, this tea was memorable enough to me to want to hunt down more.

There are many great aspects to focus on this tea. The primary one is its unique and distinct cinnamon aroma. While it doesn’t simply taste like you infused cinnamon bark into hot water, it does have a distinct spicy sweet aroma to it along with mineral notes similar to other Wuyi rocky oolongs. The flavor is unique and enticing, and has a luxurious quality knowing that this is an expensive tea. However, it is not overwhelming the senses to feel like this tea can only come out on a special occasion. It has a warming spice that encompasses every quality of the tea, from its scent, flavor, and finish. This is a great tea to warm you up on a rainy morning like today.

Perhaps the biggest downside of this tea is the steep fall in flavor. The first two infusions were distinct and flavorful, but after that it just tasted watered down. For such a tea that I loved so much, I wish it had lasted longer which is where I must ding points. However, in every other regard, it didn’t have many negative qualities. The growth in bitterness was controlled and astringency focused and got along well with the flavor. There was a notable acidity towards the end of each sip which I wasn’t particularly fond of, but is not a new sensation in rocky oolongs.

Overall, I do recommend this tea, and I will always remember it as the tea that opened my eyes to a Rou Gui sub genre.

Tea Seller’s Description

Our Wuy Yi "Rou Gui", which means cinnamon in Chinese, is a very popular and quit sought after Wu Yi tea cultivar. The flavor and aroma of this Wu Yi varietal reminds one of roasted sweet bread, with a spicy cinnamon fragrance, and finishes off with a lingering sweet and toasty Hui Gan aftertaste.

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