Four Season Spring Oolong

So I kind of sort of broke my no tea buying rule this year… but not really! This company offered a free sample of this tea if you paid $1 shipping, so how could I resist? I mean, I didn’t buy tea, I bought shipping! Watch me rationalize. Anyway, the sample was a whole ounce, so it was a really good deal anyway. The dried tea has a nice floral, fresh aroma to it, and when steeped that turns into a very floral, very buttery scent. The first thing I thought when I took the steeping basket out of my mug was “woah, those are some huge leaves!” There are some small leaves, some pieces of large leaves, and some stems in the mix.

The flavor is both strongly floral and strongly vegetal… they just play off each other so that they both get time to shine. It is a bit buttery but overall the tea is a little astringent in that way that green oolongs sometimes are. No sweetness to it, really, but it is a rather nice cup.

As a side note, this company has a lot of interesting oolongs but they only sell 5oz or more on most teas, and that is more than I want to buy untried. They have some flavored oolongs I’d like to try too, but those are only sold in 10.5oz packs! Oh well.

It might have just been a while since I’ve had a green oolong..but this is pretty good. Really floral. I kept thinking while drinking it, “hey, this kind of reminds me of Tieguanyin”…turns out the varietal is a strain of TGY from the 80’s (confirming for the moment that I’m not crazy). I got 4 good steepings out of it with my gaiwan before I made dinner.

Found out about this from Reddit…one of the proprietors/owners did an AMA on /r/Tea and mentioned an offer for a free ounce of this if you pay $1 shipping (not sure shipping costs to countries other than US, but they did seem pretty responsive to questions). They also offered a coupon code for 5% off (reddit).

I bought for $1during special offer some time ago. I felt like finding a small treasure during treasure hunt.

I brewed went gongfu on this one with 3 grams of dry leaf and 100 ml water on 85 Celsius.
Infusions (in seconds)
1st: 60
2nd: 45
3rd: 60
4th: 80
5th: 120

Dry leaf is small with light roast and faint TGY aroma. Wet leaf reveals some light oxidation on edges of few leaves with slightly fresh, floral and buttery notes.
Infusion is clear with light emerald tone. Since I only took quick notes on each steep, I’ll copy-paste them and write an overall impression.

1st
Light, fresh, and buttery.

2nd
Light, fresh, buttery, a bit less floral than previous, faint citrus sour, and decent floral aftertaste.

3rd
Light, fresh, same floral tone like from previous, buttery note fades away, citrus sour more expressed than previous, and gets a bit astringent at tip.

4th
Light, fresh, floral note fading away and overall taste as well. There isn’t any sign of citrus sour.

5th
Light with even more overall loss of taste, starts to give out watery impression. Surprisingly, sour citrus appears but overall impression isn’t enough for additional steep.

When I got this a whole ounce was packed in single foil, the kind used for packing 5-8 gr of tea. I couldn’t believe it when I opened it and found a small ‘oxygen absorber’ bag. It was my first encounter with something like that in tea packaging. Quite ingenious!
First sniff made me remember of Ben Shan, but the dry leaf itself resembles TGY with tightly rolled, more roasted and more even leaf texture than Ben Shan’s.
First and second infusions are subtle, but impressive. I would recommend it to those that find TGY too strong to their taste, and than there is that buttery-ness that gives it additional character. On third steep you get a drop with buttery notes fading away and getting more of floral and citrus sour background.

Two things were noticed when I opened the small foil package of Mountain Tea’s Four Seasons Spring Oolong. First was the delicious floral scent that wafted to my nose. “Mmm,” I thought, “this is going to be good.” Second was the small packet of stay-fresh crystals, such as as sometimes found in packages of beef jerky. Perhaps this is something common in the world of tea, but, in all my years of drinking tea, never before have I ever seen such a thing. I appreciate The Mountain Tea Co’s efforts at keeping my tea fresh, though!

Having heated my water to just off boiling, I preheat my teacup of choice for the day (a pint mason jar) and my gaiwan. The leaves get their rinse, and I begin the first steep. The floral notes floating from the gaiwan when I open it are wonderful. However, they are not quite imparted in the first steep, which smells weak. The taste of the first steep is about the same. I think that the oolong is very smooth, yet I cannot be too sure, as my thirty-second beginning infusion must not have released much potential for the tea.

Steeping the leaves again, I smell the resulting brew and know that the potential of the tea has begun to come forth from within the leaves. The aroma is a balance of floral notes and distinctly vegetal scents. The flavor is a bit disappointing. I get more oolong taste in the aftertaste than in my sips. Steeps three and four seem to be much more effective. This tea has finally opened itself, revealing itself to be a pleasant sipping tea. The floral taste seems to coat the mouth, though the mouthfeel of this tea is not too thick. Another couple steepings and this tea will be done. I liked this tea, but did not really feel that it packed the flavor or strength that I would expect from a derivative of a tie guan yin. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this tea an 82/100.

My first oolong. I got it for $1 as part of a promotion the company was doing. Definitely good, and I’m interested in learning more about oolongs

Who can resist an ounce of tea for a dollar?

The dry leaves are lovely, fairly-tightly curled and smell absolutely wonderful; like a fresh, floral Taiwan oolong. The first steeping yields a greenish-honey colored liquor, which has a lightly floral and even more mildly herbaceous smell. The taste is much more…polite than the smell of the dry leaves leads me to think it will be. When sipped quite hot, the predominant flavor is that vegetal, herbaceous quality that you get from the odor. After it has cooled for a few minutes, the more timid floral-ness comes forward slightly, and sometimes there is what seems like a slight hint of almost a honey flavor on the back of the tongue, which is quite nice. Unlike many other oolongs I’ve had, which seem sometimes to be the most floral when they have cooled a bit, this tea is definitely at its best when quite warm.
The wet leaves seem to mostly be large, single leaves, but mostly whole and with that pretty tell-tale purplish oxidization on the edges. There are some lovely little tips, and some broken pieces of larger leaves, but they are mostly large, whole leaves.
This is a very pleasant tea, and an incredible bargain at $11.00 for 5oz. (~141 grams)
Edit: I brewed this tea gongfu-style in a small porcelain teapot.

This is the tea that got me into Oolong. It is absolutely delicious! Tastes like Tie Guan Yin, very smooth, some subtle aftertastes that are quite pleasant.

The company offered it for a sample (1 oz for $1 of shipping costs), and I would like more of it, but they only offer large volumes at once for the moment.