Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea

In a twist of fate that made me laugh, the latest round of sample provided to me by TeaVivre arrived yesterday, just after I placed our black friday order. Hopefully these will tide me over until that order comes in! On to the tea.

This tea.

This tea, folks. It’s so damn good. The leaves seemed to burst open in my infuser. I was so busy chatting with the wife this morning that I forgot to set a time and yet this tea forgave me. As it steeped, the kitchen began to smell like fresh, buttery vegetables. Man, I was already regretting not signing up for a Mama Earth (organic produce) delivery for this morning, and the yummy veggie smell of this tea only made it worse.

On the sip, at first it’s floral, but then it expands into a buttery, steamed kale deliciousness. Ashmanra put the kale idea into my head and I can’t help but agree. I stood at the kitchen counter just breathing in this tea as my poor wife was shuffling around me trying to get the trash to take it out. But I couldn’t help it, it smelled so dang good. I’ll have to make sure my tortoise doesn’t get a whiff, she loves kale.

Now, I did add sugar. I can’t help it, I sugar every tea I drink. However, I only used about half the sugar I usually do and it is just perfect.

Here comes the honest part. I will recommend this tea with my whole heart and I will love every sip until it is gone…but I will likely never buy this tea. My wife and I just don’t reach for straight teas, we’ve learned that over the years (and seen a lot of Verdant Teas go to waste because of it.) My wife will occasionally go for a straight oolong, so there is a small chance this could find its way into our cupboard, but it is doubtful. But you never know. She could try this tea and absolutely fall in love.

But this is an amazing tea, and if you enjoy straight oolongs, give this a go. You’ll be glad you did.

FIRST OFF.
GUESS WHAT YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE FINALLLLLYYY RELEASING THE JURASSIC PARK 4 TRAILER ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!!
I’ve seriously been waiting so long and no one ever actually believed me when I said they were gonna make another one and finally they did and I’m so freakin’ excited!!!!!!!!!!
Now just gotta wait for Child’s Play…

But anyway!
This tea.
This tea is alright. It’s super buttery and grassy. Much too buttery for me.
Always feels like I get sick after super buttery teas…it’s like too strong for me.
This one reminds me more of a green tea, to be honest. I know a few people who would really love this one, this one just isn’t for me.
I will just have to pass it on to someone who likes buttery and grassy teas!
Thank you to Teavivre for these samples!

Overall I found this to be a very nice tea. It had a good balance of flavours. It is soft, but has enough fruit and biting spice notes to create interest without being bitter or overly aggressive. I sometimes find this style of oolong to mild to suit my tastes but this one had enough complexity to hold my interestover 15 steeps.

The dry tea scent was of hay and clover flowers with a hint of smoke. The leaves themselves are amedium to larger sized rolled oolong with a nice bright colour thast is almost like a cross between the colour of grass and darker lime rind.

I steeped the tea in a 100ml gaiwan using enough tea to cover the bottom( around 1.5tsp). I started with a water temperature of about 90°c and increased it gradually after the 6th steep. After a rinse I steeped this tea 15 times (20, 25, 27, 32,40,50,60,70,80, 90,110,130,160, 190,240s,). The broth was a pale antique gold colour.

20s scent: soft and floral with hints of gardenia and magnolia, with honey and a sweet fruit scent of candied grape mixed with pineapple and apricots, with cream.
Taste: sweet cooked greens, mixed with cream and a cool floral a mix of magnolia and lily, hints of corn and corn silk, light hint of honey. The aftertaste is floral with a faintly sour fruit note.

25 s. Scent: stronger floral and fruit scent
Taste: similar blend of sweet vegetables and a floral fruit mix with a stronger gardenia note, a hint of mineral and spinach mixed with cream.

27 increasing fruit notes(apricot and pineapple), corn, cream, increasing gardenia note with a much more present biting spice note appearing . These notes are over top and are mostly hiding a spinach note and a mineral note. There is a tingling on the underside of the tongue, the back of the throat and lips.

32 stronger pineapple and apricot with a hint of orange, biting spicy floral notes, cream, cane sugar, faint hint of corn, veg and a definite mineral note.

40s cream, lilac, gardenia, apricot, mineral notes over sweet vegetables.

50s. Similar to above with a bit of cane sugar and sweet corn not as creamy on the tongue.

60s. Cream, corn with hints of spinach, lilac, spice, apricot.

70s cream, apricot, corn, soft lilac. Thick creamy texture.

80s apricot, cream hints of spinach, lilac, pepper, corn. ( increased temp of water). Hints of sugarcane.

90s cream, lilac, apricot, sweet greens
110s. Sugar cane, apricot, sweet greens, lilac, pepper.
130s. Light vegetable note, pepper, apricots, cream, hint of lilac.
160s. Cream, apricot, light vegetable, light lilac,pepper.
190s. Apricot , cream, light vegetable, faint lilac.
240s sweet vegetable and apricot.

As noted the finished leaves are huge with three entire leaves attached to a stem. The margins are mostly entire. Overall this was a pleasant experience and this is an oolong that would appeal to many different tastes. Thanks Angel and Teavivre for giving me the opportunity to sample this tea. I enjoyed it!
http://instagram.com/p/vq9GQDmK6B/

Opening the pack…smells like grass and fields of flowers. Very pretty

Post brew (and most def do Gaiwan on this one. the leaves unroll like woah)smells Vegetal. Buttery. Soft.

Sipping….sweet, smooth, really nice buttery aftertaste…..light hint of floral on the tongue.

Very relaxing tea actually. A pleasant sip. :)

Thanks Teavivre for the awesome oolong sample! :)

This time instead of decanting into a different container from my gaiwan, I just filled up a mug. I did notice that I only got a little bit of tiny leaf from my second steep in the cup, so I need to pay attention to how I am holding the gaiwan on that motion so I can modify my grip.

Anyway, yesterday was my birthday and it was fun. Now I get to have a nice cup of tea after my snack of some leftover cake. I waffled over a couple of oolongs before deciding on this one.

Steepings: Four steepings at about 10-12 seconds each probably. I just poured on the water and then poured out the steep into my cup. I did do a rinse first.

Liquid Color: A very light golden stream was coming from my gaiwan when I poured it. It looks darker in my cup because my cup isn’t white.

Smell: Warm and sort of woody in a good way. My nose has gotten better at smelling since I’ve been dabbling in perfume oils and I can smell my tea better. Which probably sounds strange, but smelling your tea is all part of the anticipation of drinking it, right?

Taste: I was expecting the tea to taste light and to be slightly floral, but I wasn’t expecting a creamy taste on my first sip with this one. It must be coming from some of the earlier steeps in the cup because it tastes sweet and creamy when you first drink it then it evolves into a more floral taste when you keep drinking it. The finish of the sip is starting to ring a little nutty, but not heavy because of the creamy mouthfeel.

Hmm, that is about the best I can do today. I might end up filling up my travel mug with some more steeps of this and bringing it to my work because there is very little drying element here. So it won’t make me more thirsty during work.

Why did it take me so long to try this one? I think the label of “superfine” intimidated me a little bit. Again, thank you Teavivre for the lovely samples and once again making me fall in love with my tea.

I ended up using my entire 7 gram sample packet for this pot of Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong, in part, because the dark little nuggets were so deceptively small. It just did not look like very much tea at all.

In reality, the nuggets unfurl by the third infusion to produce huge, whole, perfect leaves. To my amazement, the volume of the wet leaves filled nearly half the pot! What a stunning metamorphosis!

Equally amazing is the delicious taste of this oolong—all the way through four distinct but equally delicious steeps. The flavor is lightly floral and super smooth like silken cream, fading slightly more with each successive infusion.

I decided to save the fourth infusion to imbibe iced tomorrow as the forecast is for more 90F+ weather.

I bought a bunch of Tieguanyin samples and then opted for this as a smaller free sample, which is too bad because I’d take an Ali Shan over a Tieguanyin any day of the week (and I have so many Tieguanyin packs). Oh, well. That’s what this mass oolong drinking marathon is all about; getting my priorities straight!

I have two cups of this on the go: one is a gongfu style (+10sec) and the other is a “western” 1-2min steep at +200F. Both get a rinse, as usual.

Both cups emit a delicious concoction of vanilla, flowers, grass, corn husk, and even a hint of jam. The first cups are sweet, creamy, with notes of corn and jam. I taste a bit of coconut too. A butter note acts as a thickener to the broth, and make this a rich cup. Grass is, thankfully, not the distinctive force it’s been in some of the other green oolongs I’ve had of late; the vegetal notes are more distinctive in the western cup.

Anyways, there are lots of great notes on this tea, so I’m going to do the lazy thing and not ramble on about each individual steep.

Steep Count: 3 (x2) (ongoing)

(2016 harvest)

This, my tea-drinking friends, is a leap of faith. I rarely drink green oolongs but here I am with some green oolong samples and an urge to try them. I looked up the Teavivre guidelines for Western steeping and they seem crazy but I’m giving it a go. The full packet in boiling water for one minute (in my Perfect Mug). The leaves are initially tightly rolled and look like small pebbles of tea. It doesn’t seem like much, but after steeping they are nearly 10 times the size. They went from a slight layer in the infuser of a few MM to a 4/5 full infuser. Wowza! There were some crumbs as well but they were large enough that they didn’t sift out so in they stay.

The resulting liquor is quite yellow and smells like boiled corn on the cob with butter melting down the side. I’ve been having corn on the BBQ lately and it’s not quite like that because it smells SWEET. This is not a typical aroma for ME in tea, but I do like it. It takes a bit of a mental reset to associate it with a beverage rather than food, but I’m okay with it. I’m getting to a point where I enjoy green oolongs on occasion, though I don’t tend to seek them out or stock them.

So, for taste I do get the sweet corn quite strongly, and also a bit of spice that again reminds me of cinnamon (like the Taiwanese oolong I had the other day). I do also get some astringency, some dryness on the tongue. It doesn’t manifest as bitterness and it isn’t too overpowering but it isn’t ideal. This is why I was leery of boiling water on an oolong, but hey – ya gotta try everything once! It’s not as bitter as I feared, so I think it is likely be being sensitive rather than burnt tea.

I will definitely do more steeps of this, I think the leaves have a lot more to give. I might prefer it with a gaiwan, and if I can remember I will try that with my other sample. As it stands, it is light, sweet, corn-y with a bit of dryness. It is pleasant, but not in my wheelhouse so it is hard for me to get more out of it. I enjoy it, but i wouldn’t seek it out. For those who prefer greener or lighter teas though, this is likely one to try.

As it cools I am getting new tastes in the aftersip, sort of fruity or berry-ish. The dryness/astringency becomes more pronounced as it cools, so I am off to finish this cup up for now.

This is an Ali Shan Oolong sent by Angel from Teavivre. Angel, thank you a thousand times.

I am an oolong drinker. My preferences in terms of Camellia Sinensis generally go to these teas and black straight Taiwanese teas .

There is no exception with this Oolong, I appreciate it but probably less than many others. This tea is extremely light and floral, the liquor has also a delicate smell of spinach. Its color is a very pale yellow, translucent. You can see the bottom of the cup effortlessly. Mineral notes are also present, especially late in the sip.

The texture of this tea is extremely creamy, soft, almost silky. It’s lovely.

I think I was wrong by choosing this Oolong to be my morning tea. It is not the appropriated tea for me at this moment of the day .But this tea is exceptional and I’ll enjoy drinking it in the evening and even just before bedtime.

This is one of the samples I got from TeaVivre with my order that arrived last night.

This is good.

I’m pseudo gongfuing it again this morning because I am having a lazy Saturday. I should have done this one in my gaiwan, but I didn’t.

I love how floral this one was for the first several infusions, sweet and creamy. It’s almost like a milk oolong. Amazing!

Now the florals are fading in later infusions, buttery and a little minerally. I really like this.

I wish they sold it in less than 100g increments because I’ve gone completely crazy in the last couple of weeks and I’ve perhaps ordered well over $100 in oolongs. Perhaps. I know this is on a really good sale right now at 30% off, but I can’t order more. I need to take a break.

I also really wanted to watch the first episode of Outlander this morning, but as I pulled it up on OnDemand, I realized that if I want my husband to watch this with me (I think he’ll enjoy it) that I need to wait for him. And since his brother is here, and they were out at the bar late last night (I went with them originally, but took an Uber home) who knows when they’ll be up….