Shui Xian Wuyi Oolong

Not sure if this tea is for me unfortunately. Oh well, it was worth the experience!

Steep 1: steeped for 10sec with 8oz water. Taste like buttery, clove, and honey goodness! Mmmm! In the aftertaste I taste ginger. I hope that comes out more in later steeps!

Steep 2: steeped 13sec. This steeped the buttery and clove increased. The honey was about the same. Aftertaste the ginger actually decreases a bit.

Steep 3: steeped 15 sec. This steep there was just a hint of honey. The buttery flavour was a bit stronger but the floral really came out in this steep.

Steep4: steeped for 20 sec. The buttery flavour was less noticeable in this steep. Once again the floral increased in this steep.

I really enjoyed this tea. Just wish there had been a bit more ginger but still a great tea :)

Wow, I don’t think I have experienced this combination of favors before in a tea. I’m so glad I ordered this, but I’m not so glad that I ordered only one ounce!

As I filled my 4 oz. gaiwan with 4-5 teaspoons, I could smell a mix of Big Red Robe with a dark fruitiness in the dry leaves. Since this came from the WuYi region, I was very curious as to how similar this would taste to Verdant’s Big Red Robe, which is known for its robust taste and vibrating texture.

After the rinse, I closed my eyes as I took the first infusion to my lips. When the tea hit my tongue, I literally thought I was drinking a whole milk cream with a distinct vanilla and sugar flavor. I was so convinced I just had to open my eyes and realize I was drinking a non-flavored Shui Xian. I couldn’t believe it. I also have been consistently noticing the notes of banana in the aftertaste, which I am quite fond of.

I am currently on my fifth steeping, and the favors have shifted a bit. The vanilla is more pronounced in the front, without the sugariness of the first two steepings. On this cup and the one before, I also started picking up on a particular flavor of marshmellow or perhaps the waffle cone (as mentioned on Verdant’s site) on the aftertaste with the banana. It tastes a little nutty as well.

Before I steeped this stuff, I watched David’s video on brewing it. One thing he mentioned is that it is a much lighter WuYi roast than it’s BRR counterpart. This is true, and I love it for that! As much as I loved Verdant’s BRR, I felt it’s strong flavor and texture fit cold seasons well, but not as much for warmer, brighter seasons. This Shui Xian fills that gap perfectly. This tea is great for cold nights, sunny seasons, and relaxing evenings after a long day at work. Given the vanilla flavor, this would definitely be a nice treat for a couple enjoying a date night, too!

Now where this tea reaches the stars with flavor, it’s texture is also on the lighter side. However, I did not find this to be an issue at all as this stuff is just so dang easy to drink up. I’m sure with an open mind and a curiosity for sweeter-tasting teas, you’ll be happy when drinking Shui Xian as it takes you to a sweet, tranquil state of mind.

First day of classes, had some downtime so I thought I’d brew a cup of this before I run off to my next class. I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow, classes from 10 to 5 straight through in the part of campus where it’s hard to find food vendors. I’ll have to scarf down lunch in between classes. Will probably be making lots of sandwiches this semester! Anyway, I’ll deal with tomorrow when it comes.

I found a small packet of this tea when I was digging through my tea trunk (more of a storage container than trunk or box, but ‘tea trunk’ sounds nicer) last night. Brewed gongfu style, but I probably should have used a little more leaf.

The wet leaves smell like fall. Roasty and sweet. Kind of reminds me of the aftermath of the bonfires we had at my boarding high school, minus the smokiness. First steep, mineral taste with some sweetness.

Time to head to class! Definitely looking forward to more steeps of this later today.

This came as a surprise sample with my last order. Using 4 gms in 4 oz of just under boiling water, I brewed it Gong Fu style in a series of short steepings. Borrowing a word from a description about this tea from Verdant’s own website, I would say “luscious” about sums it up for me. I was a little lazy and mixed 4 steepings together for my son and I to share, so I can’t comment on the differences between steepings like others have. Suffice it to say, it is a worthy addition to the cupboard and will be on my next order.

Well rounded, roasted flavor that lasts multiple steepings. Tieguanyin remains my favorite oolong carried by verdant tea, but I’m very much going to enjoy having this tea at work (starting from the very first cup, as I’m taking a break from work to write this).

My first oolong in a very long time, I figured I might as well go all out and get one that was rated very highly. Infused several times, I liked it more and more with each sip. I get the previously mentioned toasted rice (reminds me of genmaicha) and waffle cone flavor, also a bit of a cooked greens taste.

Having this again 6 months later, smells quite roastey/toastey in the bag. Steeped smell is roastey as well, but also smells a lot like hot chocolate. Taste is basically the same as smell. I’m not getting any of that genmaicha-like flavor I got last time, not much of the cooked greens taste either this time. I’m upping my score a little bit. As it cools I’m getting more and more mineral/hot rocks-like notes. Second steep had some slight caramelesque notes.

I don’t usually do oolongs iced, but I tried this that way out of curiosity and it is quite good, gonna have to have iced oolong teas more often.

This tea got such good reviews, I’m not sure why I’m kind of meh about it. Maybe it’s just that I was wanting something more green this morning.

I’m drinking it plain/straight, and I am not getting any of the waffle cone/vanilla/buttery notes that are talked about.

This is from an ancient bag from when I had a Verdant subscription that most likely dates pre 2015. Not gonna rate cause it’s so old, but I did enjoy it.

First steep; 6 seconds: floral, mineral, and honey notes.

Second steep: Creamy mouth feel, cinnamon and other sweet wood spice notes. Darker flavor over all. Some vegetale notes.

Third Steep; 8 seconds: Same as the second steep, but less creamy mouth feel and stronger vegetale notes. Some very mild black tea like astringency.

Fourth Steep; 12 seconds: Seems to have lost a lot of flavor. Mostly just bland mineral with faint tasting notes from before. Seems to taste better as it cools. Mostly just spicy wood notes and maybe camphor.

Fifth Steep & Sixth; 14 seconds: Mild sweetness and spicy minerally, with vegital taste. More sweet and spicy cinnamon when cooled.

Seventh and 8th steep; 20 seconds: Reminds me a lot of the first and second steep combined. Maybe vague vanilla sandalwood sweetness? Maybe it’s floral honey? Tastes better when on the cooler side.

Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh; 30 seconds: Finished it off this morning. Very minerally with some sweetness, woody spice, and hints of cardamon. Wasn’t bad, and went well with a stoop waffle.

I finished a pouch of this tea earlier in the day. I’m not sure which harvest it came from, but I want to say spring 2016. I could be wrong. Anyway, I seem to be an outlier when it comes to my opinion of this tea. I am a big fan of Shui Xian, but I was not all that sold on this one. I did not find it to be bad, but I did think it was a bit rough and perhaps a hair more astringent than it should have been. Some of that may have been due to the leaf quality. I noticed a lot of crushed and broken leaves in my pouch, and that troubled me, especially since this tea had been very carefully stored since I purchased it last year. It had not been placed near anything heavy. It had not even been handled or opened between the time it had been placed in storage and the time I first opened it last week.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves (more like a combination of leaves and leaf material) in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 4 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 6 seconds, 8 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected aromas of sandalwood, pine, rock sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg coming from the dry leaves. After the rinse, I found emerging hints of orchid. The first proper infusion then brought out a hint of roasted almond on the nose. In the mouth, the liquor expressed mild notes of sandalwood, orchid, pine, cinnamon, nutmeg, rock sugar, and roasted almond backed by hints of raisin, cream, and dandelion. Subsequent infusions brought out notes of smoke, tobacco, earth, cedar, juniper, charcoal, minerals, vanilla, orange, and narcissus. The finish really irked me on a few of these infusions. It would start off sweet and relatively fruity before turning acrid and astringent. The aftertaste was like a mixture of charcoal, dandelion leaf, dried tobacco, and smoke. Oddly, it softened and then smoothed out completely toward the end of the session, as the later infusions mostly offered notes of minerals, cream, charcoal, and pine balanced by hints of rock sugar, smoke, raisin, roasted almond, and orange here and there.

I don’t know about this one. Something was off here and I have no clue what it was. The tea clearly was not stale and still displayed more than enough depth and complexity to satisfy. It did not seem to have been contaminated by anything. I’ve had other Shui Xians from Verdant Tea in the past and all have been very enjoyable, and again, this was not remotely terrible or anything, it just was not wholly up to snuff in my eyes. I know I have been more than a bit spoiled when it comes to teas produced from the Shui Xian cultivar since I started with some extremely expensive old bush teas. I know the less than exceptional leaf quality I received in my pouch also likely played a part in the opinion I formed of this tea. I, however, still feel like I should have enjoyed this tea more than I did. Oh well, I suppose everyone has a number of teas they don’t enjoy quite as much as other people. I guess this ended up being one of those for me.