Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea

Backlog:

I do love Ali Shan … and Teavivre is one of my favorite companies out there, so it should follow that this is one of the better Ali Shan teas that I’ve encountered! Yep!

Creamy, smooth, sweet! Fragrant and floral. Fruit notes, and even some vegetative notes. I got 10 infusions out of this tea. Wonderful, very flavorful, and an all around delightful Ali Shan Oolong.

My full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/10/23/superfine-taiwan-ali-shan-oolong-tea-from-teavivre/

Free sample from Teavivre. Thank you.

I like Alishan, so I was really pleased to be sent this for review. I had a friend round for games last night (yes, I am a gamer), so I made a pot for both of us to see how he, a non-tea drinker, enjoyed it.

Upon opening the packet I was faced with little dark green nuggets of tea leaf. They had a slightly milky aroma to them. Upon steeping they opened up to fill the pot with huge leaves, some with large bits of stalk still attached. It’s a wonder there was still space in the pot for water! Did I mention that the leaves are huge and whole? Beautiful.

As the hot water hit the leaves, a waft of honeysuckle sweet oolong smell filled the room. The tasting notes from Teavivre mention gardenia scent. I’m going to have to sniff some gardenias for comparison. Whatever, the scent is brilliant. It’s sweet and floral and brings to mind all the good things about a springtime garden.

Drinking the tea, I was most struck by the creaminess of it all. It was smooth, sweet and clean, but also round and creamy. It brought to mind sipping nectar from honeysuckle, when I was a child. The sweetness extended into the aftertaste, which was great while it lasted, although I did not find it endured as much as other teas. The tea itself was also very relaxing. I felt very much at peace after drinking it. If you like floral, full-bodied teas, then I think this one is for you. Well, it’s for me, anyway.

Oh, and my friend? He said that I had spoiled him with a really great tea. Job done, I think.

Thank you to Angel at Teavivre for this wonderful sample!

Dry: Tightly rolled olive bundles that seem to include a bud and full leaves when unfurled. Smells green, almost grassy, and mild. I wasn’t sure what to expect at all in the brewed tea from the package because the dry scent is not anything that really caught me initially, but (spoiler alert) I was very pleasantly surprised.

Steeped: Clear light green liquor. I brewed this with the Western method and it needs even more room than most oolongs to expand as the bundle of leaves are quite large and whole. It smells sweetly floral and fresh.

Taste: As soon as I took my first sip, I was falling in love. It is my new favorite Taiwan oolong. I am greeted with creamy milk blended with soft floral notes. I am not into flower teas usually, but the flavor of this tea is lovely and elegant with a silky mouthfeel. The aftertaste is sweet and mild, leaving me wanting to take another sip time and time again. I daresay I like this even more than the milk oolong with its smooth buttery goodness and natural milk flavor.

Everything is frosted and quiet outside, the sun is just starting to peek over the towering trees, and I am sipping a taste of the mountains on this fine Sunday morning. Yes, please!

Happy polar vortex everybody. In other words holy crap it’s cold in the Buckeye state! I started the car this morning because my wife still had to work and my finger tips were red just from pulling the car out of the garage. I’m not complaining though the boss closed the office so I didn’t have to make the the drive to work, the heat works, water pipes are good, and I got to spend the whole day with the little man. In need of an afternoon boost I grabbed this. I’m excited because it’s an oolong so I know I’m going to get a few cups out the leaves and because it’s from Teavivre. Most green oolongs I have tried either tend to be floral(Jasmine) or buttery. This one is definitely more floral. I love jasmine teas and the first cup definitely has some jasmine characteristics that I’m tasting. Really good. I’m finishing up my 5th cup with the same set of leaves. Each consecutive cup seems to be less floral and be more nutty. Another great offering from Teavivre.

I love autumn oolongs. I never receive quite the same level of enjoyment from the aromas of spring teas, compared to the depth and complexities of autumnal aromatics. This specimen’s scent, for example, is potent and fresh. Aspects bringing to mind sweet grasses, honey, and warm biscuits are exuded upon allowing the leaves to sit in a preheated gaiwan. The bread-like features seem to suggest a low oxidation level, which is supported by the opaque light green-yellow liquor. The leaves also seem to point to a slightly higher oxidation level than average, with their somewhat darkened color and occasional bruising.

After a steep or two, the gaiwan lid begins to hold a thickly floral aroma, while the empty cup scent presents a “darker” side of this tea, with a deep, full-bodied richness. The liquor’s form retains a hefty development, while it’s introduction is weaker and monotonous. The front end of each sip is low in flavor with stone-like texture. This rapidly shifts to an overall “greenness,” low and silky sweetness, and an moderately assertive vegetal-grass flavor. This development is of medium duration, dropping suddenly into a low, flinty sweetness, light mouth-cooling, and the characteristic gao shan aftertaste. There is also a [generally] pleasant bite of tartness felt primarily on the sides of the tongue during this finish. Perhaps a result of the bruising I found on some of the leaves.

I am actually somewhat impressed by the degree of flavor present in this tea. It is spring-like in its intensity and autumnal in its depth; it is an appealing balance. However, I fail to detect much of a huigan and the mouthfeel is lacking in substance, particularly the creaminess or butter-smoothness of other high-end gao shan Taiwan oolongs. I would say this tea offers a wide spectrum of what a gao shan oolong can offer in a single package, as it does not really have anything particular that defines it uniquely.

This evening I wanted another cup of tea, but only an oolong would do! This one looked like a nice choice. I generally like ali shan oolongs, perhaps not my ultimate favorite, but a solid choice. The scent of this tea is buttery and floral. The floral notes are sweet and simply gorgeous! I’m excited to see what this tea will taste like because the scent is beautiful.

Sipping… this is quite delicate! I was expecting more of a floral smack in the face, but this is very smooth.. it’s almost like a whisper of what I want it to be. A tiny bit of astringency finishes off the cup, but otherwise it’s very smooth and almost milky. I wish that this tea had a little bit more to offer in terms of the flower or butter notes, but it’s nice. I think that this could be a good choice for people who are new to oolongs and aren’t sure where to start.

Even though I could use a little more flavor, I could see myself popping this into my shopping cart. Thank you, Teavivre, for a sample!

Once again, shout-out to Teavivre for the tea!

First steep – 15 seconds in a Gaiwan using near boiling water. The aroma is pleasantly floral, doubly so since I have gotten over my brief cold. The initial flavor can have a touch of astringency fading quickly to a smoothness that is unique to high-mountain teas. I put this uniqueness down to the minimal roasting and oxidation used in these tea, which preserves the delicate flavors of the tea. The thing that really makes this tea stand out is how long the slightly-mineral aftertaste lasts. it was lingering for over a minute and half with my tea. That’s almost a record, and the other such tea was a big red robe, which is a much stronger tea. Truly remarkable. The other thing in the palate of the tea is a bit floral, which reminds me of some bushes near my grandmother’s house. I’m not sure what they are, but I’ll call her to see. All in all, this was a great cup of tea, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Second steep – 5 seconds with near-boiling water. The result is much better, the floral flavors have really matured. Oolongs are almost always better on the second steep, peaking on the third, but improvement this pronounced is pretty rare. It’s like the first steep was a sketch, and the second was the painted final version: There are details and nuances that there not initially present. The aftertaste has also improved, becoming much sweeter. The end result is a much more balanced tea, with the right amount of sweetness to accentuate the other flavors.

Just when I think that I have a break, I find out my roommate is very sick with something that it is actually really serious. This has put a severe damper on my plans for the evening, ans so this will probably be the last note I have time for. Anyways, the third steep was prepared same as the second, and the results were actually a bit less satisfying than the second. It lost enough of the sweetness that the flavor wasn’t as perfect as before, which was a bit surprising. I think that the wash I gave it to begin with was actually detrimental to the flavor, so I probably won’t do that next time I taste the tea. It’s still an exceptional tea, but it lost the perfect balance between smoothness, floral flavors, and sweetness that made it exceptional. Anyway, I wish all of you the best, and hopefully the rest of your weekends will be more relaxed than mine.

Another “Superfine” tea, Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea, hides its fragrance very well when dry. It’s like sniffing a clean table; you get nothing. Once steeped, you get some nice orangey flowers warming up your day, the delicately edible kind like marigolds and sunflowers. In fact, more than the petal part of the sunflower is the scent of sunflower seed. (If you’ve never had sunflower seed butter, go put it on your toast. Now.)

With the first infusion, its liquor the color of a watery Post-it, the sip is full of those sunflower seeds. But not just any seed… Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/10/15/snooty-tea-review-teavivre-round-3/

Thanks, Angel and TeaVivre for yet another sample!

I’ve sampled several oolong selections in the past week and have already grown accustomed to their consistently less than robust taste. The flavors have never been unpleasant but mostly softer than I prefer, particularly in the mornings.

When I opened the sample package of this one, there was little to no aroma coming from the dark green tea buds. I deduced that this was a warning sign. I steeped the buds for 2 minutes at 212 degrees as recommended.

The brewed color was an extremely pale gold. It almost looked like a watered down oolong from last week. There was no odor emanating from the pot. These attributes were also alerts to my senses.

When I first sipped the tea, I wasn’t sure if I was tasting oolong flavor or my filtered water. There was very little taste that could be identified. As I sipped more of the brew, a faint floral essence appeared. However, I had to really tune in my taste buds to pick up on it.

If I had to label the taste of this tea, the term “ghost flavor” comes to mind. The flavor (what little there was of it) wasn’t bad or bitter and it was smooth. There wasn’t sufficient present taste to produce an aftertaste. This selection just did not have enough gusto to attract my interest.

didn’t enjoy the vegetal notes of this tea. i like spinach, however i don’t like spinach flavored water.