Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea

March Mad(Hatter) Tea Tournament!
Round #1 – Match #7    Teavivre – Taiwan High Mountain oolong  VS.  Teavivre – Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan oolong

It’s funny that two oolongs from Teavivre matched up!  However one is the newest I have, 2019 harvest, the High Mountain — while the other is indeterminately many years older, before I started dating the harvests on samples myself, the Superfine Ali Shan.   I tried to keep parameters the same while steeping these side by side.  The Superfine Ali Shan dry leaves have a very fruity fragrance, yet the brew smells like flowers.  The flavor is a bit sweet, starchy and creamy.  It definitely shows its age though, taking on a stark quality, but who could blame this poor tea.   
The High Mountain has a less distinguished dry leaf aroma, brews darker, and has a flavor of pears?  Or something fruity.   But also not as distinct as I think a Teavivre oolong should be, if it wasn’t so old already.   The second steep has even more depth, pears but a dessert of pears, roasted with cinnamon and a bit of ice cream.  I think we know which one wins here.  It will be interesting to read my past notes for both of these teas… at least they both tasted very different and didn’t just taste like “old oolong”.  :/   Winner: High Mountain

Thanks to TeaVivre for this one!

I’m not a huge oolong person, but this is very nice. Tastes like a cross between tieguanyin and milk oolong. Yum :)

This came as a free sample from Angel and Teavivre.

It’s no secrets my favourite oolongs are high mountains. When I drink them, I feel like I’m transported to some luxuriant Chinese garden.

This tea is cultivated at an altitude of 1000 meters on Ali mountain, so naturally, I have high expectations for it ( pun intended!).

Yum, it smells like lilac and macadamia nuts.

It feels pure and clean just like fresh spring water. When I was a kid, there was this natural spring water source in the forest at my grand parent’s. The water came out of some rock and tasted really sweet and mineral, we couldn’t get enough of it. This tea is a little reminiscent of that. It’s fresh and clean.

The taste doesn’t disappoint, I get some floral and creamy notes, very smooth and buttery.

Round in the mouth, there’s a certain thickness to it, I call that the “pudding” phenomenon, as if the liquid gets suspended in your mouth for a few seconds, a little cloud of goodness. It leaves a very distinctive lingering taste behind.

A beautiful tea I am grateful I got the chance to try.

Thank you Angel for this opportunity.

I thought this oolong was ok, but not amazing. I’ve been drinking some outstanding oolongs lately. Maybe it’s becoming harder to impress me!

I was feeling very lazy this AM, so I made the mistake of brewing this grandpa style with about a tsp of leaves in my Dr. Who mug at 208 degrees. I didn’t get many pleasant flavors or aromas. It just tasted kind of weak. As it sat and cooled, it started leaving a kind of dry feeling in my mouth, but it didn’t really get stronger.

This afternoon, I decided I should brew this properly, so I used 5 g of leaves in my gong fu pot and did some shorter steeps, still at 208 degrees. The tea was better this way, but still seemed weak. It did smell and taste green with some light florals, but something just seemed to be missing.

I only did about 3 steeps before I stopped getting much of anything out of the leaves. I just don’t think this is the oolong for me.

After I wrote this up, I was reading some of the other reviews. I think I may be the only person who doesn’t think this was exceptional!

Scheherazade’s Super Sipdown (Long) Weekend #8

I followed the parameters with this one today, despite my reservations, and was pleasantly surprised with the result. Putting oolong in boiling water made me a little nervous, but I definitely experienced a depth of flavour this time that wasn’t quite there when I brewed this one at 180. It’s a pleasantly smooth, buttery, vegetal oolong. Kind of asparagus-like in flavour. I did get a little astringency as it cooled, but nothing too much to worry about. I pretty much said everything I wanted to say about this one in my first tasting note, but I’m glad I had the chance to try this one brewed a couple of different ways. Many, many thanks again to Teavivre for the sample!

This tea is very pale and fairly mild, in contrast to some oolongs I have had in the past. It is lightly sweet, and a little bit silky and creamy. I don’t catch too much floral in this one, and it almost reminds me of a green tea, but there is just that bit of separation between the two. It is not bitter or astringent at all, and my first cup was straight with no additives, though I did add a little raw sugar to my second cup since I’m craving something sweet right now. Wish I had cookies.

This is a pretty nice oolong…it is mild enough, that I think it might be a nice starter oolong for some.

Thanks to Angel at Teavivre for sending me this sample. I’m just sorry it took me so long to try this one. I have not been in an oolong mood for a while, but I had the urge tonight, so I jumped on the feeling and had this.

DISCLAIMER: Cussing ahead.

My husband just got Dark Souls II. So you know what that means…It’s oolong time!! I first discovered green oolongs when my husband was playing Dark Souls. I’d drink tea and blog about it while watching him play. Those were good times. To this day, whenever I smell or taste oolong, it reminds me of my husband and Dark Souls. So in commemoration of those beloved times, I shall drink oolong again as he embarks on his new journey in Drangleic.

Upon hearing an all-too-familiar sound, I glance up to see “YOU DIED” flash across the screen and my husband say, “F***ing thing! I was so careful too.” LOL! The fun has begun! After dying the second time, a mere 30 seconds later, he says, “Wow. That was bullshit. Very well game. Very well.” Cliffs are my husband’s bane. “Well, this is slightly embarrassing,” he laughs upon falling to his doom. “I haven’t even fought anyone yet.”

Finally, he reaches the Emerald Herald and has the chance to level up. At the level up screen, he pauses the cursor over VGR and END and says, “Viagra. Endurance. Gonna’ need both of these.” Then he glances sideways at me and pauses for a reaction. LOL! He’s so crazy. I swear, he could be on his own reality TV show because he’s so entertaining. In any event, the tea is cool enough to drink now!

This is a lighter, more buttery, less floral oolong than the oolongs I usually drink. It’s good! My mouth waters in between sips, prompting me to drink more. I’m already at the bottom of the cup, so I’m off to make a second infusion for 2.5 minutes. The leaves are fully open, large, green, unbroken leaves, some even still attached to 2-inch long stems. I don’t know how they rolled such a giant, sturdy stem into those tiny little balls that came out of the package. Surprisingly, this cup isn’t more flavorful than the first, as is usually the case with oolongs. I definitely liked that first cup better. I’m going to steep the third cup for a full 5 minutes because it’s getting late and it will likely be my last this evening.

By the way, for anyone who’s interested, video game javelinas are strong as shit. The blood stains on the ground confirm it. Death is a common occurrence in the Dark Souls games. To put this into perspective, there have been 1,905,148 deaths worldwide since this game was released less than 24 hours ago.

Back to the tea. This third cup tastes a little metallic, like licking a penny. Is this what people call mineral notes? It’s not bad, but I don’t think I’m a fan of minerals. I prefer buttery, vegetal, and floral notes. Overall, this is a delicious tea. It’s definitely not like the other oolongs I’ve had, so that’s exciting. I enjoy trying new things. Big thanks to Teavivre for providing this free sample! Y’all are always so generous. There were a surprisingly large number of samples in that deceivingly small box. ;)

I’ll leave you with my husband’s last comment as he waltzed up to the first boss in the game. It was a tree giant with a hole where its face should have been. My husband said, “It’s an asshole monster. He’s gonna’ shit all over me.” Then he proceeded to rape it. Victory achieved on his first try.

Medium roasted and grassy flavour

Received this one from Teavivre’s free tasting activity.

This one is an interesting oolong. I was expecting a normal Taiwanese oolong, but there is a bit of a surprise to this one.

It is a light green oolong, with some floral scents. It is smooth and creamy, almost like there is a bit of milk oolong in there. There is also a pleasant metallic taste, as well as a spice to it. On my first sip, I almost thought this was a ginseng oolong, but there is not real ginseng taste to it. The more I drink it, the less like an oolong it tastes to me. It is taking on a more bold, very slightly roasted flavour. I am hardly getting any sweetness. It is reminding me of a green and black tea blend. It is quite good. I am a little sad I have waiting so long to try it.

Buttery. Milky. Creamy. Floral. It was about what I expected from a good quality high mountain oolong from Ali Shan. The only problem that I had with it was how few steeps I was able to get from it – somewhere around four, if I am remembering correctly. It has a very nice mouthfeel, thick liquor, and long length. I cannot recall the throat, however, I remember being pleased with it. All around, a very enjoyable tea.

Fun fact: I brewed this high mountain tea on top of a mountain!
Pics: http://tea-pet.tumblr.com/post/95846332203/yep-im-that-crazy-person-who-takes-an-entire