Taiwan Sourcing

I love this tea that reminds me of a deep steamed sencha with an oolong tone. It is floral with grassy astringency and a sweet thickness reminding me of oolong. HuiGan / 回甘 is very quickly noticeable and lingers for a long time afterwards. I prefer to over-leaf, and use a lower temperature as if brewing green tea, in a gaiwan starting with very short infusions (unforgiving if over-brewed this method). Stretches out. This tea is a winner for me and worth experimenting with brewing methods. Read Less

I got this in a reddit swap – can’t remember who I swapped with really…oops! An interesting black tea, different from any others I’ve had. In my mind, I described it as if a black tea and a baozhong had a baby. The dry leaf didn’t have much of a smell, while the wet leaf smelled like steamed vegetables.

Throughout most of the session, the tea had a beany taste with a slight malty finish. For steeps 2-4 or so, there was a bit of cocoa in the finish as well. Also got a bit of milky creaminess in those steeps. Not much change through 9 steeps otherwise. An interesting and different black tea for sure.

Brewed Gong Fu style in Yixing teapot. Initial aroma is very strong and enticing: it instantly reminds me a lot of an aged and re-roasted Da Hong Pao (especially the 9 year old DHP carried by Yunnan Sourcing). However the taste is more subtle than that, and softer than the aroma suggested. Rich yet smooth with a nice intense hit of dark roast that does not linger on the palate for too long, revealing a softer side, making it a nice all-round tea for a long relaxing tea session.

I’m actually reviewing the Spring 2016 version of this tea. I wish there was a way Steepster could archive reviews of previous harvests of teas that are produced annually, so we don’t end up clogging the site with multiple entries of the same tea.

Anyway, I’m not much of an oolong drinker but I’m trying. I’ve been impressed with TS teas and this one in particular. It’s a beautiful, aromatic and delicious tea that tastes vegetal when it first hits your mouth but then boasts a zesty clove/cinnamon/allspice component to give the tea a little kick.

It coats the mouth and throat like a quality Sheng and promotes a beatific mood.

This was a very good tea. From a certain perspective I guess you could say this had notes of honey. It certainly had a prominent sweet note. I liked this tea and I don’t remember the price being too high.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.1g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Smells of butter and honey. Reminds me of my Yunnan Sourcing Light-roasted Tieguanyin.

This has been the best oolong from TS yet for me. I’m not even going to go read what it really is online because I don’t need to. The brew was very clean and bright from the first infusion. The taste has the mild roast with the slightest butter texture, but what made this amazing is it’s sweet nutty taste that is quite unique compared to others.

Smooth, tasting. and brews sweeter as you continue. A solid tea for sure.

I love high mountain Taiwanese oolongs. Roasted ones, like this guy, don’t quite do as much for me. But this one also tastes a little odd. Maybe it’s the GABA processing. Maybe it’s how they roasted it. Maybe it’s something else. I like the calming properties of the GABA, but the tea otherwise isn’t much of a treat.

I’m still somewhat of a neophyte when it comes to Oolongs, but I think I can recognize a truly spectacular one. This is both delicate and substantial at the same time with the perfect balance of melon, lemon and orange flavors. I’m still experimenting with steep times, but the tea is pretty forgiving and there’s something in each steep to enchant.

All the Muzha that I have had until now were roasted to a dark color with quite strong depth to each sip. This is somewhat light compared to the others, but it is also much cheaper. My favorite Muzha is about $9/oz and this is $17 for 75g… solid deal if you let it age for another year really; needs to get a little of that salted funk out of it and the roast will dissipate to more of a toasted caramel note (if the small amount of bitterness from the later steeps goes away)

The leaf is on the smaller scale, but that is just aesthetics. I’ll have to play with some more low roasted Muzha teas it seems so I can begin to assess quality in the lower roasted ones; this might be the first time I prefer something more bold.

Has that buttery, light classical high mountain oolong flavour, a brown sugar sweetness, along with the yeasty fermenty GABA taste. Not bad but not my favourite.

From the first sip this tea is remarkable. It evokes the sense that you’ve found the tea you’ve been looking for. The touch it has on the palate is both smooth and crisp at the same time. After brewing a few solid rounds the flavors dance around in their sweetness. The roasting is not at all overbearing and creates the layers that TGY drinkers love so much. This is definitely a tea I cherished gongfu style on a cold rainy early evening in northern California. The flavors lingered and had a resonance into the night…Maybe somewhat unlike a king I felt sovereign in my solitude.

I made this tea for a bunch of friends thinking this would be a fun tea to try. I was right.

Dry leaf aroma is crazy fruity in the preheated vessel. Really wow.

Wet leaf aroma is equally unbelievably aromatic. Round after round it is silky sweet and full of flavor. Both my tea friends and non tea drinking friends were blown away by the pure joy of this new “red oolong”.