HEYTEA Oolong 3.6

The HEYTEA Oolong 3.6 is $11.90 and 275 calories. Oolong tea with milk and a pistachio Viennese style cloud, which puts it in the middle of the Tea Lab range on every measure.

Oolong is a partly oxidised tea, which means it sits between green and black rather than belonging to either. A light oolong reads floral and close to green tea. A dark one reads toasted and close to black tea. Both are the same plant handled differently after picking.

The version HEYTEA uses here leans toward the roasted end, which is the correct choice for a drink that gets milk in it. A light oolong disappears under dairy. A roasted one keeps its toasted edge and comes through the milk cleanly.

Against pistachio that toast is the whole point. The nut is roasted, the tea is roasted, and the two sit on the same register instead of arguing. This is the subtlest of the four 3.6 drinks and the one that rewards drinking slowly.

The 3.6 code means a dairy base, the same as it does on the gardenia, black tea and matcha builds. All four cost $11.90 and land within a few calories of each other, so the choice is purely about which leaf you want. The gardenia build is floral, the black tea build is malty, the matcha build is grassy and this one is toasted.

Sugar is 22g and fat is 14g, in line with the rest of the range. Protein at 7g comes from the milk in the base and the cream in the cap rather than from anything added.

Caffeine sits below the black tea build and above the green. Oolong falls between the two on that as well, which makes this the sensible late afternoon order out of the four.

Sweetness levels apply as they do across the menu, and this is a drink worth taking at half sugar. Roasted oolong has a natural sweetness that syrup covers up, and the pistachio cap is already sweetened.

Drink it without stirring. The cap thins into the tea gradually and the drink changes character over about ten minutes, which is more interesting than a uniform cup from the first sip.

For the same oolong without milk or cap, the Oolong Cold Brew is $6.50. For oolong with milk and no cap, the Oolong Milk Brew is $10.50.