Wang Family Tea

Another one from Tiffany! I don’t usually like flavored teas much. I love WFT, and this is pretty darn good for a flavored tea, but I just can’t get into it unfortunately. I certainly get a lot of pomelo flavor which is nice. And the mouthfeel of the tea is there. However, I cannot get any other notes from the tea itself as the pomelo is so overpowering. It seems kind of like rose water, just with pomelo flavoring haha. Again, it’s not bad if that’s what you’re looking for, but I prefer being able to taste more contribution from the tea.

Sometimes teas hide under other teas. Like playing hide and seek until they know you can fully appreciate them. This one was hiding in plain sight.

Wet Leaf Aroma: Buttered Popcorn. My husband disagrees. He says it’s nutty. Just can’t pin down what nut. Maybe Brazil nut? Also dried apricots and tropical fruits and flora.
Flavor: I’ve had better Jin Xuan in the past but besides the name, this is still a nice oolong. It lacks minerality in the beginning but kicks into gear as it enters your throat. More apricot notes emerge with more steeping.

Dry aroma: Very similar to jasmine. Soft and fragrant
Dry appearance: Mix of dark and olive greens. Tightly ball rolled.
Inital steeping aroma: When you walk off the plane in Hawaii (in the smaller airports like LIH) you are greeted with a sweet scent. This scent. Paradise…
Flavor: Different from jasmine but some of the similar qualities of tropical fruit and plant notes. The pomelo holds earthier notes with a slight bitterness.

I’ve come to realize that I have holiday anxiety. It also doesn’t help that the last two years have been filled with drama between my sister and I but that is a whole other mess. Hope you all made it through and are able to calm with a bit of tea.

I bought a bunch of black teas from Wang in 2020, and I think I’m nearing the end of them. Red Rhyme is harder to find than many other Taiwanese hongcha, and I was curious to see what it was like. I steeped 4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 40, 40, 50, 50, 60, 60, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of raisins, grapefruit, florals, and malt. The first steep has notes of raisins, muscatel, grapefruit, honey, malt, orchids, and brisk tannins. The next steep offers more grapefruit, rose, orchid, and earth, but the tannins are also quite pronounced. I get some citrus reappearing, or “rhyming,” in the aftertaste. Steeps three and four are very tannic, but still have lots of raisin, muscatel, grapefruit, other citrus, and florals. Subsequent steeps have notes of malt, minerals, raisins, honey, earth, and tannins. Cooling the water to 185F does little to make this tea less astringent.

I enjoyed the fruity, floral profile of this hongcha, but the astringency was not so fun. I might try using 3 g in my 150 ml teapot to decrease the astringency. However, I think the tannins are just part of this tea. Age might explain the raisiny flavour, but if anything, I imagine it would have softened those tannins if there was any hope of softening them. Fortunately, Wang has many other teas I love.

If tea were music this would be a classical piece. It’s a bit too subtle for the pieces like L’Éloignement but I don’t know if I want to be cliche by saying the rose flavor matches with Vivalid’s Four Seasons Spring. Granted I really do love that piece. If you’ve ever been to Delos, Greece you will especially love this: https://archive.org/details/live-from-delos-vivaldis-the-uncertain-four-seasons

First brew: In a mug. 195F.
Liquor aroma: Creamy. Warm milk with a hint of some type of spice.
Flavor: Woody notes swirling with rose. Hint of cacao.
After taste: Sweetwood.
Mouth feel: Smooth. No astringency.

Gong fu: Currently on my second infusion. My first edit of this post got erased on my phone. _ I will tell you that I do like this tea better as gong fu but both are still very enjoyable. Great woody notes highlighted with rose.

This tea from spring 2022 is labelled Alishan Jin Xuan, and I’m assuming it matches up with the Meishan Jin Xuan that’s currently on the site. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of milk, orchid, violet, lilac, and mung beans. The first steep has notes of milk, butter, spinach, mung beans, orchids, lilacs, and that crisp mountain air thing I sometimes get from Taiwanese green oolongs. The aftertaste is a bit grassy. Steep two is even more milky, sweet, and floral. Steeps three and four continue to be milky with lilac, orchid, and violet florals, but there’s more spinach, beans, and grass and some earthiness. The florals persist through the next couple steeps, but the tea gets more vegetal as the session goes on. I find that these longer steeps produce shorter gongfu sessions.

This tea has all the sweetness and florality I’m looking for in a jin xuan, but its longevity isn’t as great as some of Wang’s other teas. Perhaps that’s due to age, or perhaps it’s due to the lower elevation. Either way, I’ll have no trouble finishing my 25 g sample.

A few days ago, I wanted some green oolong without having to open an entire 150 g pack, so I raided my tea museum for this small sample bag. The label doesn’t have a year on it, but I suspect it’s from 2021 or 2022. This Lishan deserved a better fate! I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of peaches, orchids, other florals, cream, mung beans, and grass. The first steep has notes of underripe peach, cream, orchid, sweet pea, mung beans, and grass, with a nice, thick texture and a peachy aftertaste. I notice a bit more grass than is usual in Wang’s teas, though that could be due to age. Steep two is grassy peaches and cream. The next couple steeps are more floral, with notes of cream, custard, and sadly, more grass. The next few steeps retain the ethereal floral, peachy aroma, but the taste increasingly features spinach and grass. Still, I continued to steep the leaves several more times to extract those lingering florals.

This is a good oolong that might have been fantastic when it was fresher. I’ve added it to my list of great teas from this company, which also includes their SLX Wild Garden, Da Yu Ling, Fushoushan, Osmanthus Alishan, and SLX Small Leaf Black Tea.

Thanks to Daylon R Thomas for this one!  I have had this one a couple times but never wrote a note.  But then I felt bad about that, because I shared some with Michelle but haven’t even written a note yet for a tea Daylon sent over.  It’s just a hard tea to write a note for!  It’s so light tasting to me… I don’t really notice distinct flavors, even with two teaspoons.  It’s mostly smooth and sweet.  The description mentions milk flavor? eh, if they say so… This is a Taiwanese Assam, so it is a variety that I know and love but the flavor here is just lacking, compared to what Butiki or Whispering Pines would offer.  I’m glad Michelle found more to love from this tea!
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

I got home from a very long drive to some tea mail, yay! The first steep is deep caramel, almost molasses, with a charcoal undertone, like a big red robe. The second steep has minerality with a toffee finish. Third steep is still tasty, but is a weaker version of the first two steeps. What a tasty Assam with such big leaves! Thanks tea-sipper!

This one is from Daylon R Thomas quite a while ago. Thank you! I had to open the packaging, so I trust this note is a little accurate.  It’s quite a unique scent to the dry leaf.  Much different than most black teas.  The light brew has flavors of cucumber, and I swear it’s not because of the abundance of cucumbers in the house right now…  None of them are cut open cucumbers anyway, creating a waft of cucumber scent in the house, so I do believe it’s the tea.  Second, I notice lychee and probably some other exotic fruits.  Then turning to peach. It’s a unique one!  I definitely wouldn’t lump this with Ruby 18 varietal (even though it is ACTUALLY stored in the same box as a Ruby and the leaves look fairly similar.)  The second steep was STRONG.  Possibly a bit too much, tasting more like a harsh, astringent, typical black tea… which leads me to realize I might be overdoing the steeps for these types of leaves on the second steep.  I will try to be gentler in the future…
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minutes

Eyed this for a while, and decided to reward myself for the end of doing summer school. I also had a coupon.

So trying it out, it’s probably the most floral tea I’ve had from Wang which is saying something. I did a 15 sec rinse, then followed the 55,45, 55 parameters closely, and it lost a little bit of power after two more steeps for one minute and two minutes.

The tea itself was comparable to a scented tea in terms of how immense some of its florals were despite being a very light tea. Here’s their own notes, and I’ll comment my own spin on them below:
-Wild ginger flower
-Magnolia flower
-Jasmine flower
-Gardenia flower
-Betel nut flower
-Chinese violet
-Fresh milk
-Ripe red apple
-Dried kelp
-Cream
In other words, floral bomb! If I were to blind taste it though, I would have guessed this were a Baozhong or a four seasons of spring style tea. I personally guessed lilac and orchid in terms of overall flavor, but the florals kept shifting. It’s definitely got the florals they list for sure. It’s a cacophony of white and purple flowers. It’s interesting they noted red apple, since it had a watery fresh thinness that red apples have.

So this tea definitely had flavor, but it’s not as fruity or even vegetal as other Taiwanese oolong I had. This tea was drinkable perfume that wasn’t too harsh. Heady, yes, but not cloying. A part of me wishes I got more of the Jasmine Shan Linxi since that’s floral and fruity, yet I’m actually glad I tried this one. In terms of season, I think this one may be better to drink during winter and spring. It’s fresh enough for summer, but the floral water character would go well with the visuals of dew drops turning into ice, or resurrecting dead flowers in waking spring. Yes, that was too dramatic and florid of a description. Floral is the theme of this one.

Final tasting note: Florid.

Free sample from my last order from WFT. This is a nice tea! I’m not usually one for roasted oolongs, but this one is quite good.

Very bold flavor. The roast is done with expert care. Supposedly was roasted three times. No bitterness. Mild-medium sweetness. Lasts 8-9 infusions.

Harvest: Spring, 2024
Location: Bagua Shan
Cultivar: Taicha No. 20/Ying Xiang
Elevation: 400 mg
Roast: Medium

Dry leaf: Coffee, charcoal, roasty
Wet leaf: Same
Flavors: Coffee, brown sugar, sweet, charcoal, smooth

HO-LI SHAN this is amazing! Now I see why people like Lishan so much. Fruitiest tea I’ve tried. Furthermore, the steep-to-steep variance is insane.

The smell when I opened the bag was heavenly. No other way to describe it. Red, tropical fruits, sweet. Wet leaves screamed breakfast table, still with some fruit. First steep was all fruit all the way, quite sweet. Second steep was savory, green, vegetal. Third steep was back to sweet and fruity. Fourth steep is white sugar and a bit sweeter. Later infusions are vanilla, fruity, and sweet.

A top five tea in terms of complexity. Balance is top notch. Hui gan is fruity and lasts at least 2 minutes. Zero bitterness and astringency. Medium-high sweetness. Mouthfeel is very smooth and full and slippery like a longan. Longevity is 9-10 infusions.

This experience reminds me why I love tea so much. Thank you, Wang Family.

Harvest: Spring 2024
Location: Bi Lu Xi, Renai Township, Li Shan
Elevation: 2300 m
Cultivar: Qing Xin

Dry leaf: Pomegranate, cherry.
Wet leaf: Breakfast table, toast, butter, cream, papaya, guava.
Flavors: Papaya, guava, blackberry, sweet, mung bean, vegetal, savory, jackfruit, peach, white sugar, vanilla.

Had a nice note all written out and then chrome decided to delete it. Yay. Or maybe I should blame myself for not letting my eyes be able to be torn away from Iron Flame. Either way, once again here are notes from this most delectable oolong.

Dry aroma: dry white sesame seeds.
Dry appearance: dark green and tightly twisted balls

Flavor: Charcoal, sesame, floral undertones, minerality
Mouthfeel: incredibly smooth. With each infusion it becomes a bit silkier..

Wet leaf: charcoal and sesame

With each infusion, it gets better and better. I have no idea of what number I’m on. 10? I have no idea. But my kettle is empty so I’m thinking I’ll make the rest into an iced version for while I sit at my daughter’s swim team.

Edit: YUP! This makes an awesome tea on the go. Sesame, floral notes, minerality up the wazoo. So good.

From Daylon R Thomas a while ago!  Thanks very much!  Impossible to measure these leaves unless using a scale.  Once in a while, I seem to say “these are the longest leaves I have ever seen”, but these must be the longest!  Not so much twisted together, as almost straightened somehow, but still very difficult even to POUR out of the skinny bag. I was pleased to notice the description says: “Our Cang Ya is tightly twisted into a strip shape.”  So there you go.  The dry leaf has a scent of summer squash and dried hay.  The flavor is also summer squash!   But also a sweet fruit candy flavor that I thought might be strawberry, but then settled on candy grape. The second steep is rich but not overdone or bitter.  Biscuity.  I really expected the flavor to be much lighter on this one, so I’m very happy with how this one resulted! (I’m really not describing the richer flavors here, but there are some.)
Steep #1  // 22 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 – 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  just boiled // 3 min

The last of my WFT samples to try. This one is super super fruity on the nose, less so on the palate but still with a good bit of papaya. Another really good tea from WFT. I love love love this company and they will for sure be getting many repeat orders. Best tea company. Period.

No astringency or bitterness. Mild sweetness. Lasts 7-8 infusions. Great balance of flavors. Fairly complex. Mouthfeel is nothing remarkable.

This one is the third cultivar among the batch and it is also a “dong pian,” which means it was harvested in winter. Finally, the tea is grown at 500 m. Surprisingly, this tea still tastes like a > 1000 m Qing Xin. Most similar to Shan Lin Xi teas IMO.

Harvest: Winter, 2022
Location: Bagua Shan
Elevation: 500 m
Cultivar: Siji Chun

Dry Leaf: Papaya, cream
Wet Leaf: Papaya, cream, vegetal
Flavors: Papaya, cream, fruity, sweet, vegetal, floral.

Free sample sent with my first order from WFT. This one is a fruit bomb in the dry leaf, then becomes more floral and vegetal in taste and smell of wet leaves.

Mild sweetness, no bitterness or astringency. Flavors fairly intense for a high mountain oolong. Aftertaste lingers for a while and is mostly comprised of savory saline/vegetal flavor. The sweetness is on the front/middle of the palate. Longevity is 5 infusions.

Long Feng Xia is a mountain in the Shanlin Xi area. I’m a big fan of Shanlin Xi teas, and this is no exception :).

Harvest: Spring 2023
Location: Long Feng Xia, Shanlin Xi
Elevation: 1900 m
Cultivar: Qing Xin

Dry leaf: Papaya, tropical fruit, melon
Wet leaf: Papaya, tropical fruit, floral, vegetal
Flavors: Floral, sweet, savory, umami, vegetal, saline, cream

The most distinct of the WFT oolongs for sure. Very complex as others have mentioned. This is the only one that is not a high mountain oolong either. Also a different cultivar (Xue Li = “Snow Pear”). The difference is not only notable in the flavor, but in the liquor as well, which is darker yellow and not as clear as the high mountain oolongs.

Medium bitterness, no astringency. Medium-low sweetness. Aftertaste lasts multiple minutes and is salty and sweet.

Harvest: Spring 2023
Cultivar: Xue Li
Location: Gangkou, Manzhou Township, Taiwan

Dry leaf: Floral, seaweed
Wet leaf: Salt, seaweed
Flavors: Floral, seaweed, fruity, umami, mung bean, vegetal, sweet, salty

Another very nice tea from WFT. One of my last samples. It’s okay though because I have more coming in the mail ;). This one is great, but is overall not as complex as some of their others. Certainly a nice intense flavor that lasts ~7 infusions, though.

Minimal to no sweetness. No bitterness or astringency. Mouthfeel is creamy. Aftertaste is citrusy and lasts awhile.

Harvest: Spring, 2023
Location: Qi Lai Shan
Elevation: 1900 m
Cultivar: Qing Xin

Dry leaf: vegetal
Wet leaf: vegetal, barley
Flavor: vegetal, barley, lemon, cream.

Second tea from my new order from WFT. I remember how amazing this tea was now. I think that this year’s tea is a bit less dynamic than the winter 2022 batch I last drank, but this tea is still exquisite. That lovely mystical misty mountain forest flavor that made me fall in love with this tea is still present. The main drawback is I don’t get much in the way of tropical fruits on the nose this year. Not a huge deal though :).

So glad I splurged on 75 g of this. I will be enjoying it for at least a couple of months I bet. Phenomenal stuff really. Now I just wish I had more of the Bi Lu Xi as well haha.

Harvest: Spring 2024
Location: Da Yu Ling
Elevation: 2500 m
Cultivar: Qing Xin

Flavors: Mist, rainforest, sweet, vegetal, cabbage, cream, butter

JEEZUM this is good. WFT has the highest quality tea of any vendor I’ve tried. This one is complex beyond it’s competitors. Savory, vegetal, floral, fruity, sweet, creamy all combined. Crazy mouthfeel, huigan, aftertaste. Perfect balance.

Medium-low sweetness, no astringency or bitterness. Longevity is 6 infusions. Mouthfeel is quite buttery. Aftertaste lasts minutes. Super yummy and barely any faults.

The most unique aspect of this tea is that every steep is a bouquet of new flavors. Truly the perfect tea for gongfu.

Harvest: Winter 2022
Cultivar: Qing Xin
Location: Da Yu Ling
Elevation: 2500 m

Dry leaf: papaya, mango, tropical
Wet leaf: papaya, mango, tropical, vegetal, floral
Flavor: Cabbage, vegetal, floral, buttery, creamy, savory, sweet, sugar, salt, mist, rainforest.

Thanks to Daylon for sending me this tea! I have a couple of Wang’s competition teas in my museum archives, but this sample is the first one I’ve tried. Like Daylon, I was tempted to get this tea instead of the Competition Shan Cha I eventually bought, but I worried the roast would be too heavy. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml pot using boiling water for 50, 40, 55, 70, 90, 120, 150, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of charcoal, chestnuts, orchids, other flowers, and grass. The first steep has notes of chestnuts, grain, charcoal, orchids, honey, and grass. I get hints of peach in the second steep, along with a little more charcoal and some florals. Sadly, the peach disappears after this steep, and the tea is buttery, nutty, and roasty with lots of florals to balance it out. By steep six, I start getting the minerals and pine that Daylon mentioned, and the roast is becoming more pronounced. Later steeps have a saline quality, lots of chestnuts and roast, and a surprisingly floral and grassy aftertaste.

While this is definitely a roasted tea, it’s nicely balanced with the chestnuts and florals. The tea is pleasant to drink and the flavours evolve in an interesting way. I wish there was more fruit, and while the thick body and florality remind me of Lishan, I’m not sure I would have guessed the terroir if it wasn’t on the label. I don’t think I could finish 75 g, but I will enjoy the rest of this sample.

Might be an off day for my palate? This is one I was anticipating enjoying quite a bit. 25 seconds for first steep, 30 second, 55 third. Just not getting much flavor out of it honestly. Think I need to try again another time. Will hold off on final judgement until then :).

UPDATE: Tried some again the following day and BOOM. Flavor hit me this time for sure! Adjusting my rating appropriately. My palate was not feeling it yesterday. Weird how that happens! I didn’t adjust brewing parameters or anything.

Anyways, this is mostly tropical fruit in smell and flavor and I love it! Not as rich as the Fushou Shan, but still fairly rich. Great value for the price. Would be interesting to do a side-by-side brew of this and the one from Eco-cha. Hard to say which one is better at the moment tbh.

Mild sweetness, no astringency or bitterness. Longevity is 4-6 infusions. Mouthfeel is creamy and rich. Notes shift more vegetal in the later infusions.

Harvest: Spring 2023
Cultivar: Qing Xin
Location: Shanlin Xi
Elevation: 1200 m

Dry leaf: Sweet
Wet leaf: Papaya, sweet, tropical fruit
Flavors: Sweet, vegetal, papaya, pineapple, tropical fruit, cream, floral, coconut, honeysuckle, creamed spinach.

Decided to give WFT a chance to redeem themselves, and boy did they! This tea is UNPARALLELED. There are simply no words strong enough to describe it’s beauty.

The color of the brew is clear, crisp, transparent and lime green like a gemstone. The flavor is perfectly balanced with excessively sweet and long aftertaste. High sweetness, no bitterness or astringency. Flavor is incredibly rich. Easily the richest flavor of any unroasted oolong I’ve tried. Longevity is about 6 infusions, but they are golden infusions infusions ripe with flavor.

This is PEAK Taiwanese oolong. I would drink this everyday if I could afford it. Just absolutely perfect and right up my alley! I am ecstatic to work my way through the rest of these samples (assuming they are all as I ordered them ;)) and see what other gems WFT has to offer.

Also this is the 100th tea I’ve tried and reviewed on Steepster! Quite fitting that I am rating it 100/100 then :).

Harvest: Winter 2022
Location: Fu Shou Shan
Elevation: 2500 m
Cultivar: Qing Xin

Dry leaf: White sugar, fruity, stonefruit
Wet leaf: Vegetal, orchid, floral
Flavors: Peach blossom, floral, fruity, vegetal, white sugar, sweet, grassy, spinach, rich, fresh, papaya, egg.