Oolong can you wait?

Well, I got a response from my tea gurus...and the response was something to the effect of "We cannot comment on this tea because we do not sell it. Ask the people who sold it to you."

I appreciate that my gurus took the time to respond, and I also appreciate that there are so many types of tea that one can't possibly know all the answers. I guess I had just hoped that there might be a suggestion of where I could research it, besides the one who sold it to me. It left a little taste in my mouth that was slightly astringent, and not the nice Darjeeling-type of astringent. I am demoting my gurus to just good authors! I'm sure they won't mind.

So, my research continues...fortunately I do have a "bite" from another tea blogger, who appears very knowledgeable and willing to help. And of course, I'll be talking to one of the tea vendors who sold me the mysterious Oolong.

You see, the problem is with the "milk" part of the Oolong. Apparently China does not have its own milk industry, and therefore a question is whether the milk flavour is real or artificial. And does this matter? It could matter. So, as I've said before, stay tuned! We'll see what I turn up.

On another note, my daily masala chai experiments are becoming quite fun and enlightening. Today I tried simmering my spices for 30 minutes before adding the tea. I love the way this concoction makes the house smell. I'd almost do it just for the scent alone. I also added the golden brown sugar sooner so that it would become a little syrupy before adding the tea. It would have worked very well, however I ended up steeping the tea a little too long for my taste, and unfortunately the tea grains (this is an assam that is grainy - more on that another time) were small enough to pass through my strainer, and so it was difficult to eliminate the grit factor...not a quality I wish for my cup of chai. Lesson learned.

Soon I am going to learn how to make some special cookies that are supposed to be dunked in chai. Perhaps I can sell them when I become a chai wallah. A chai and cookie wallah. And if I can't become a chai wallah, at least I can dress up as one for Hallowe'en.