Wang Family Tea

Captain’s Backlog, Tea Date 25 April 2023

Steeped western but no notes made on parameters. Smooth and dark dark dark malt with some dark wood tannins. Strawberry preserves, rose, artichoke undertone. Dark. Dark fruits. More aromatic than flavorful. Leafhopper said she like this a bit less than What-Cha’s Wild Shan Cha; I think I like this one a little more despite not paying much attention. Maybe that’s the key to my appreciation for these Taiwanese native specie black teas. This seemed a little fuller and rounder, like there’s a more substantial body to connect the strong aromatics to the taste.

Wang generously included a 25 g bag of this tea as a free sample in my last big order. I’d nearly ordered it on my own, so needless to say, I was happy to see it. This tea is from spring 2022. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of orchid, osmanthus, honeysuckle, coconut, and grass. The first steep has notes of orchid, osmanthus, honeysuckle, freesia, butter, grass, and cream. Like the unscented Alishan, it’s woodsy with a slightly vegetal aftertaste. The second steep really opens up, with coconut, honeydew, more osmanthus, fruit tree blossoms, honeysuckle, gardenia, lemongrass, pine, petrichor, minerals, and grass. The bottom of the cup smells really sweet, a bit like floral honeydew, although the tea itself is not too sweet. I assume this is what osmanthus smells like. The next couple steeps feature coconut, lemongrass, sugar cookies, spinach, and grass, and that distinctive osmanthus flavour. Steeps five and six still have lots of heady osmanthus florals, although the vegetal nature of the Alishan is showing through. I get petrichor and mineral notes along with the spinach and grass. The end of the session is vegetal and persistently floral, with freesia and orchid being noticeable.

I usually think of scented teas as having lower-quality base material, but this one proved me wrong. I liked it even better than their excellent regular Alishan because of the addition of the osmanthus, which made the tea even more floral and fruity. The osmanthus was a wonderful complement to the somewhat vegetal Alishan and truly enhanced the drinking experience. Daylon, some of this will be in your box!

Bottom of the bag. The dregs. This will steep differently than the top. The leaves are quite a bit more broken compared with other Wang Family Oolong. Which isn’t a bag thing but it then does require one to have an infuser nearby to catch the extra leaves. Aromas of plum, tropical fruits, minerals. The flavor is mineral. It does get a bit tannic if left for too long. The mouth feel is smooth but has astringency. Appreciated with blacks but not with oolongs, not even the roasted ones. Perhaps I got a bad batch. I would be willing to try this one again to see if my batch just ended up as a mistake or soemthing.

Argh, I didn’t take notes. Prepared the same and in same pot as Floating Leaves’ Ruby 18 Black. I recall this being more muddled in taste and a little more astringent and tannic especially later; darker forest floor vibe but not nearly as strong as in The Tea’s Yuchi Competition Grade Ruby 18 Black Tea. Plenty of tomato-malt and wintergreen for me though :)

Thanks again, Leafhopper!

This tea surprised me quite a bit. It‘s the first Taiwanese oolong I’ve ever had that tastes exactly like Tie Guan Yin. The familiar creamy orchid and vanilla notes of TGY greet you at every steep. On the bright side, it’s not obnoxiously floral like TGY can sometimes be. It has a thick, lingering aftertaste and lasts through several steeps. The flavor more or less is the same after every steeping.

It was nice having a Tie Guan Yin type tea again but I prefer the more subtle florals, layered flavor and texture of a real gaoshan.

I love Sun Moon Lake. But I never knew it could be this good. The dry leaves is big and dark chocolate in coloring. The woody notes are reminiscent of our deep coniferous forest of Northern Minnesota but also of the mossy redwood forests. It is smooth with just a bit of astringency. It finishes with a clean note that leaves you feeling refreshed. After steeping the leaves are a mix of olive green and milk chocolate.

Floral and vegetal aroma in the infusing leaves. Smooth mouth feel. My first sip was full of vegetal notes. Eventually, I will make zucchini bread but having a gong fu session sounded so nice. Grassy notes come out a bit as you steep it longer. Similar to Japanese grassy notes but with more mineral tones. A bit of popcorn, steamed green beans, and some minerality in the wet leaves. Now on the 4th session. I think. There is an interesting clarity to the flavor. The vegetal notes are mellowed As are the floral notes. But for some reason the word clarity comes to mind first.

Charcoal roasted oolong are an interesting phenomenon. Because one would think you would end up with notes like you do in Lapsang but these farmers are so adept at what they do that you get the charcoal without the smoky. At least in my opinion. There are so many sweet notes that remind me of creme brulee. Especially the top bit that becomes hardened by the flame. Yum, yum, yum.

Wet leaf aroma: Burnt sugar. Brown sugar. Charcoal. Slight caramel.
Mouth feel: Silky. Incredibly smooth. The definition of full-bodied.

Brought my son into urgent care last night because he had been having chest pain. After losing a grandpa to a heart attack I didn’t want to mess around and my anxiety was through the roof. Turns out it was costochondritis. To anyone who works in the healthcare industry I know your job is rough but thank you THANK YOU for what you do. So so much.

Happy 2023! I apologize for my long hiatus from Steepster. It’s certainly been a while.

Here’s another entry in my attempt to drink all the unroasted teas from Wang’s catalogue. Shan Cha is difficult to find, and to my knowledge, this is my second one after the excellent What-Cha version. Thanks to Wang Family Tea for the generous 25 g sample! I believe this is from 2021 and is the non-competition version. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of apricots, rose, raisins, and autumn leaves. The first steep has notes of rose, dried apricots, raisins, autumn leaves, cream, malt, wood, and tannins. The stonefruit and rose are rather lovely! The next steep adds a bit of blackberry and more sweet rose and apricot over the malty, woody, tannic base. The next couple steeps are similar, with the addition of honey, grass, and clove. Steeps five and six are less strong on the apricot, but still have lots of rose and raisin. The tannins assert themselves increasingly strongly in the next few steeps, though the apricot and especially the rose continue to make this tea worth drinking. The final steeps are full of malt, tannins, earth, minerals, honey, and wood.

This is a lovely fruity, floral tea that I enjoyed just a little bit less than the What-Cha version. The tannins could get aggressive, both in my preferred shorter steeps and in the longer ones that Wang suggests on their website. I did, however, purchase the competition version of this tea from 2022, so we’ll see how it compares.

Feeling the need a something warming. Something with pick me up. Something to punch me in the face. This sounded good. When I made a Black Friday order with them (2022) they added this and a Charcoal roasted oolong as a sampler. Their Sun Moon Lake is very good (as are all of their oolongs) so I was excited to try it. The aroma after opening the package immediately hit me with heavy ginger notes. It wasn’t a nose-tingling experience but rather soft and pleasant. And then slightly tingly. This is a great combo. The Sun Moon Lake is mellow enough to not drown out the ginger but likewise holds its ground with good woody notes. The ginger is strong but not chai strong. I would totally buy this is it came out in a loose version.

Sending some derk and Leafhopper’s way. I hope both of you like this one! I finished a wopping 6-7 grams of it gong fu, and it was satisfying. It went back and forth between the quality nut like roast of chesnut, to greener cups of honey and lilac. My earlier review sums up my opinion and note pretty well. I’m happy I tried it, and happier that I’m sharing it. I’m not sure if I would have been able to finish 75 grams of it despite how much I like it. This tea is something you take your time with in spring on the weekend to fully appreciate it yet.

I’ve been playing around with this one, and got a cool tin. I had a hard time deciding on making my last big buy from Wang Family Tea between this tea and the Competition Gui Fei when it was discounted. I was determined to get more of the Jasmine Shanlinxi in larger amounts, but for nearly a year, I really wanted to try this one. My main issue was that it was an expensive competition grade tea that was only sold in amounts of 70 grams.

I made my bet, and I partly regret it on the opportunity cost of some of the other competition teas. However, this tea is definitely up my alley. It’s weirdly green for a roasted tea, and the taste is more on the green side, but the taste has more charcoal and nuttiness than vegetal tones. The roasted chestnut and orchid flavor are the most prominent through every session, whether I followed instruction or used shorter steeps and slightly more leaves. It does evolve in terms of sweetness. The flux from charcoal, to nuts, to florals with a bit of balsam finish reminded me of the Zealong New Zealand’s Aromatic Oolong, which was one of my favorite lighter roast oolongs. This one is more nutty and floral overall, and does have more complexity. The only little thing it lacks is my gaoshan preference for fruitiness.

So overall, this is a very unique tea that has more roast qualities in taste than it does appearance. I think I would have been really happy with 25 or 50 grams instead of the 70, but I got a great tin and a bunch of great bagged tea samples of ginger Sun Moon Lake Black Teas and Cui Feng Heavy Roasts. I would recommend it if you are really into Dong Dings and lighter roast oolongs though.

Backlog:

I actually recommended this one first to Leafhopper, but totally forgot to write it. I’m about a year or two behind. I think I got the 2020 or 2021 vintage, and I got it at the same time as the Dayuling. I immensely enjoyed this one, though Leafhopper got most of the notes out of the way.

Unlike a few other teas, this one had a much denser texture giving the egg yolk quality as the company described. Insanely viscous, being thicker than dew and raindrops in a sugary, peachy and floral form. I could manage to get a lot of flavor if I over leafed to 6-8 grams and did rinse brews, but I found 4-5 to be the sweet spot and varied my steep time depending on water temperature and the current climate in Michigan. I had to shorten the steeps on hotter days, but lengthen it on cooler ones.

Hotter brews tended to make the tea more vegetal, but could bring out more intense bursts of peach. Going softer on temperature made the peach more of an undertone of orchid, lilac, and mung bean.

Like I commented to Leafhopper, I would occasionally preferred this one to the Dayuling because it was more forward. It has nearly the same complexity, but the fruity peach is a lot more obvious despite a vegetal tradeoff. The Dayuling was better for a more pensive experience, whereas this one was more tropical orchard transportation in a cup.

So I highly recommend this one. I have almost gotten more of it and I will likely in the future when I can budget….after I get a house. Then again, I blew my Wang Family Tea budget on the Jasmine Shanlinxi and the Competition Grade Light Roast Lishan. I maybe should have opted for a different tea than the Lishan even though it’s still veerry good, but I do NOT regret getting more of that jasmine oolong.

I’m nearing the end of the green oolongs I bought from Wang back in 2021, and I have to say I’ll be sad when they’re gone. Most of the previous Qilai Shans I’ve had have been very floral and not that memorable, but of course, I couldn’t resist picking up one more. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus several long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of orchid, pineapple, and grass. The first steep has notes of orchid, pineapple, mung bean, and grass, and there’s a little bitterness because it’s the last session’s worth of tea in the bag. The next steep adds peach, lemon, and other unidentifiable florals. Steeps three and four give me peach, apricot, pineapple, lemon, cream, and orchid, but are not particularly sweet because the tea is quite vegetal (beans, lettuce, spinach, grass). The vegetal notes get stronger during the next couple steeps, with the fruit diminishing into grassy florals. The pineapple and orchid last the longest, leaving a not unpleasantly bitter vegetal impression as the session winds down.

As with all of the green oolongs I’ve tried from Wang, this Qilai Shan conveys clean, simple flavours very well, with the added benefit of having unexpectedly fruity notes in some sessions. Its longevity is also great, as is the fact that without the tea bits, this vegetal tea doesn’t actually get bitter. It’s a little unpredictable and slightly more vegetal than I’d like, but I’d highly recommend it!

I avoided Ruby 18 like the plague for a while because of a few very astringent examples, but What-Cha’s Yu Chi Red Jade made me more open to exploring this cultivar again. I received this as a generous sample from Wang last year, and was eager to finally try it. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of cinnamon, menthol, raisins, cream, malt, and wood. The first steep has notes of cinnamon, menthol, cream, raisins, camphor, malt, and wood, with a little astringency. The menthol and cinnamon are stronger in the second steep, and I get that sassafras note I associate with Ruby 18. Steeps three and four are full of mint, cinnamon, and sassafras, with some cream, grass, tannins, malt, sweet potato, earth, and raisins. The astringency isn’t off-putting, but it’s definitely there. Over the next few steeps, the distinctive Ruby 18 notes persist, but the tea becomes more bready, earthy, and tannic. The tea doesn’t change too much throughout the session, although grass and honey surprisingly emerge right at the end, along with the predictable tannins, malt, and wood.

This pleasant Red Jade has a lot of the cinnamon and mint that are typical of this tea type. These flavours persist over almost the entire session, though sadly, so does some astringency. Using the steeping parameters on their website (195F, 40/40/50 seconds) doesn’t tame the astringency, and produces fewer steeps. For me, this is a solid tea that I didn’t enjoy as much as the What-Cha version.

I’m surprised not to see a note for this tea. Wang generously sent me a sample in my mega 2021 order, and I’m getting to it in preparation for my mega order in 2022. (Those Black Friday sales are dangerous, especially with all the new award-winning teas on the site!) I steeped 5 g of my 10 g sample in 120 ml of boiling water for 60, 50, 65, 90, 120, 150, 200, and 240 seconds, plus steeps of 5, 8, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of linden, peach, orchid, and grass. I’ve never had the pleasure of smelling peach blossom, but I can believe the vendor’s claim that the tea has that aroma. The first steep opens with grassy, orchid notes, and then reveals white sugar, peach, grass, mung beans, orchids, and spring flowers. The next steep is quite peachy, with vegetal, grassy, orchid, and sweet flavours and a lovely, lingering aftertaste. The vegetal aspect detracts somewhat from the ethereal florals and stonefruit, but not enough for me to care. Steep three has a lovely combination of peach, orchid, sugar, lettuce, grass, and egg yolk, which I wouldn’t have identified if the vendor hadn’t pointed it out. The tea is both very sweet and very vegetal, with a peachy aftertaste. The next few steeps have lots of peach, cream, and florals, plus lettuce, spinach, grass, and beans. The tea never gets harsh, though it does gradually become more grassy. The peach hangs on until the end of the session, though only as an attenuated sweetness.

This is a stellar tea that I had to buy more of. It’s a bit more vegetal than the Da Yu Ling, but the peach won me over. It also has great longevity. I highly recommend this tea for anyone who likes sweet, fruity high mountain oolongs.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this Shan Lin Xi for a while, and finally finishing a 150 g pack of another Shan Lin Xi gave me the perfect opportunity. (I actually forgot to post a note on that tea, but fortunately, I have another bag.) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus several uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of pineapple, orchids, and grass. The first steep has orchid, pineapple, coconut, woodsy, and grassy notes, with some other unidentifiable florals mixed in. The next steep has a touch of astringency and the sappy quality I get with many teas from Shan Lin Xi. I also notice cream, green beans, and sweeter florals (narcissus?), and as Daylon said, it kind of reminds me of a fabric softener sheet. The aroma at the bottom of the cup is particularly floral and fruity. Steeps three and four are full of cooked pineapple, herbs, orchids, sweet pea flowers, beans, grass, and veggies, with maybe a hint of citrus. The tea is becoming increasingly vegetal and green. The next couple steeps feature more coconut and pineapple in the aroma, but more spinach and grass in the taste. The final long steeps are mostly vegetal with hints of florality.

This is a highly drinkable tea, as shown by the fact that I’ve had three sessions with it in the past few days and will finish my 25 g bag shortly. I love the tropical fruit and sweet florals, but the strongly vegetal flavours and lack of longevity bring my rating down somewhat. Nonetheless, this is a tea I will consider buying again, if only because it’s substantially more affordable than the SLX Wild Garden.

This is part of the High Mountain Experience Set I bought from Wang back in 2021, and I wanted to try this tea before it became eligible for a spot in my tea museum. I haven’t had many Cui Feng oolongs. Of the two I can remember, one was not that great and the other was very floral. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus a few uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of orchids, cookies, cream, and grass. The first steep has notes of orchids, cookies, cream, honeysuckle, other florals, and grass, with faint peach in the aftertaste. Orchids continue to be the dominant flavour in the second steep, with cookies, grass, cream, citrus, peach, and other florals in the background. This tea is quite sweet. The next couple steeps have lots of orchid, honeysuckle, orange blossom, grass, cream, citrus, peach, and something I’ll call woodsiness that also recently appeared in their Alishan. Steeps five and six are a bit more grassy, though with plenty of orchids, other florals, cream, and fruit. The next few steeps become even more grassy and a bit vegetal, though I still get orchids, cream, and sweet florals. The final long steeps are floral, grassy, herbaceous, and vegetal.

This tea measures up to Wang’s high standards, though I was a bit distracted by all the grass. Steeping it in my clay pot highlighted its grassy aspects and toned down the fruit, which is why I prefer it in porcelain. The sweet florals and hints of fruit make up for any downsides, and like other teas from this vendor, it has good longevity. This isn’t my favourite tea from Wang, but I’d highly recommend it.

Sipdown. A wonderful session marred only by my pocket pipe kyusu slipping from my hand during cleaning and shattering. Sigh. I love mini teaware for solo sessions especially with pricier tea like gaoshan. Luckily I have my 50ml shibo to fall back on which I’ll now need to be extra careful with.

This was the last tea from my Wang Family Tea order. I have to say, I‘ve really enjoyed all of the high mountain oolongs I tried from Wang. Not only were they all good but I noticed their tea didn’t go stale as quickly. Green oolongs usually deteriorate within a few weeks. I took me nearly 3 months to get through this one and it suffered only minimal loss of freshness.

Dry leaf smelled like pear and lily. Upon placing in a warmed gaiwan, kettle corn and magnolia aromas appeared. More florals and a scent of honeycomb following a rinse.

The tea starts off light and fresh, building body as it progresses through steeps. Luscious spring flowers with notes of orchid and daffodils. Not too thick texture or heavy body but elegant and understated.

It’s best when gongfu steeped but is also nice western style or when all of the infusions are combined.

I’ve been neglecting my oolongs from Wang Family Tea, and wanted to rectify the situation a bit before starting on my spring 2022 purchases. This unroasted Alishan is from spring 2021. Following Wang’s instructions, I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95, 120, 150, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is sweet and floral, with notes of orchid, gardenia, and honeysuckle. The first steep gives me heady orchid, gardenia, honeysuckle, pine, coconut, cream, grass, and other flowers (Daylon mentioned freesia, which fits). The florals are even headier in the next steep. Maybe it’s because of the pine, but I do get a sense of “woodsiness,” as the company calls it. The tea is also a little vegetal, with grass and lettuce in the aftertaste. Sweet freesia and lilac are more prominent in the next couple steeps, along with coconut, lemongrass, pine, lettuce, and that “woodsy” note. The next few steeps are full of sweet florals, but are becoming increasingly vegetal, with lettuce, spinach, and grass. The tea never gets bitter, but has a vegetal, floral fade.

This is a very nice Alishan that’s better than many others I’ve had. It’s definitely on the floral and vegetal rather than the fruity side, but as someone who likes heady florals, that’s okay. I’ll probably revisit another harvest of this tea at some point, though the Shanlin Xi Wild Garden is more up my alley.

Finished this one up a couple of months ago. Another very nice Wang family tea that offers a lot of florals that shift and evolve from steep to steep.

The rolled tea leaves are gigantic and dark green in color, emitting an aroma of apple and flowers. Following a rinse, coconut and tropical fruit emerge. The tea begins with creamsicle, flowers, and mineral accents. Lily of the valley and daffodils bloom in the second infusion. This is followed by more floral notes of gardenia, perfume, and a little honey. It begins fading after the 5th infusion but still offers a pleasant syrupy flavor.

I also prepared this by combining / stacking the infusions together. The result was a sweet and rich floral bouquet. Not as thick though and lacks some of the top notes. Nevertheless still full flavored and tasty.

Backlog.

This was the second tea from my Wang Family Tea order. A few months ago when I was knee deep in studying, my tea consumption went way up despite having less time for leisurely gongfu sessions. Most of the time, I just wanted to be able to quickly fill up a mug or tumbler. So I resorted to compounding all of my gongfu infusions into one mug. And to my surprise, infusions often tasted better when combined than on their own. Such was the case with this tea. It expressed itself differently depending on how it was steeped yet was delicious no matter what.

I brewed it grandpa style the first time. Upon opening the bag, the tea leaves smelled of buttered flowers. First sip tasted like crisp, clean spring water with a lily floating in it. Reminiscent of baozhong with its lilac and light floral notes but absent the usual body and minerals of gaoshan. Refreshing flavor with a little fruitiness in the finish. After topping off, it had a more body along with sugarcane and vanilla notes.

Next session was normal gongfu where I tasted each steep individually. The leaves, which had been allowed to rest for a couple of days, now emitted a soft tropical aroma. A heady burst of orange blossom, coconut, and mango following a rinse. The flavor of the tea was sweet, juicy, and mineral rich. Full bodied with a bright, minty herbaceous note, and lingering florals.

The best result though came from combining all of the steeps. Using my 65ml mini kyusu, I stacked 4 steeps at a time and was shocked at how intensely fruity it tasted. It felt like a tropical cocktail in tea form. Fresh pineapple juice accented with with lychee and melon. Some top notes disappeared by the time I got to the later infusions but it was very fruity and delicious.

After seeing all of the rave reviews for Wang Family Tea on this site, I finally pulled the trigger and placed an order last November. Picked up 25g each of Gangkou, Lishan, Shan Lin Xi, and Long Feng Xia. I’m happy to report that all of them were outstanding and having experienced these teas, I get the hype for this vendor now.

Gangkou is the first tea I tried and the sole low elevation tea of the bunch. Wang Tea’s website describes it as having five flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Indeed, this was the wildest one of the bunch as the flavors are all over the place. The website recommends a high leaf to water ratio and “heavily boiling water“ to steep. Despite my better judgement I followed their steeping parameters initially.

Overall, this was a complex and enjoyable tea although a bit challenging at times due to how unpredictable and inconsistent it is.

Even just saying the name Alishan gets one excited. But then I opened the bag… Generally, when you have an absorber in there you don’t get much aroma but this one jumped up and popped me a good one. Floral with wet mineral accents. Big smile The wet liquor reminds me of being in a jungle and coming across a fresh bubbling brook loaded with flowers around the edges. Gardenias and orchids. Oh my. It is so soft on the tongue. The minerality increases the more steeps you progress into. Coconut. Fresh coconut milk. It isn’t strong but the mouthfeel and the taste are reminiscent of this. I love unraveling the wet leaf to see the beautiful pluck. A bud, one, two, three, and sometimes four leaves.

My four-year-old son is generally pretty good with knowing not to shake my arm while I’m drinking tea but this delectable brew and my keyboard were almost in big trouble when he grabbed my arm and hung from it. Good thing I’ve been working out.

The keyboard to my MS Surface is surprisingly durable. During a matcha workshop with Sooz of BeingTea.com I spilled at least a 1/2 cup of water all over the place. Half of which went into my keyboard. I unplugged and immediately tried to gently shake out what I could and then set it upside down in the sun. The first few days I thought for sure I’d need a new one. These things aren’t cheap T_T But now almost a week later it’s back to normal. Glad my son didn’t spill on it because that probably would have been the nail.