Taiwan Jade Oolong Tea

I got this tea in the mystery tea package from Alistair.
The immediate smell of the leaves is fresh, mildly milky, very creamy. Quite a warm scent.
First impression of the brew gives the same aromatics but definitely with a bit of floral notes. Generally very creamy; more than I am used to.
Second brew reveals the same notes but with more acidic taste/citrus.

Overall a excellent tea – especially for being a low altitude, cheap oolong!

March 2020 harvest. A mystery oolong pick that Leafhopper shared with me when we went a little crazy in November.

The dry leaf has notes of spinach, walnut, cream, gingerbread and honeysuckle. This transforms into a very floral perfume with the rinse – notes of lilac and gardenia, plus cream and gingerbread.

The tea is one of the most fragrant unscented teas I’ve ever had, so strong that it’s dizzying — in a good way if I were to find myself in a mood that warrants such an effect — but I couldn’t handle it either time. The tea is creamy, sweet, soft and silky and produces a wonderful mouth-watering effect. The floral perfume lingers long in the aftertaste.

The characteristics of the tea soup point to good quality, but the floral aroma is much too intense for me. I can see why this tea garners such positive reviews here, but it’s simply not for me. This is truly a Jade oolong and for those sippers with a major floral tilt, I would recommend it.

I got this as a mystery tea in my Black Friday What-Cha haul. It’s something I probably never would have ordered, but it fits my interest in Taiwanese oolongs. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of orange blossom, honeysuckle, and cream. The first steep has notes of butter, baked bread, lilac, orange blossom, honeysuckle, cream, lavender, faint fruit, and grass. The fruit resolves itself into cantaloupe and citrus in the second steep, and the orange blossom becomes stronger. I also get hints of corn and spinach. The grassy, vegetal, and spinach notes grow stronger in the third steep, but those citrus, orange blossom, and melon notes do as well. By the fifth steep, I get more vegetal flavours, plus minerals and umami. However, it’s still full of orange blossom, honeysuckle, lilac, and other flowers I can’t put a name to. As the session progresses, the vegetal, umami, and mineral flavours gradually take over, although the tea retains its florality for a long time.

This oolong punches well above its price point and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. It has a wide range of floral notes and the hints of melon and lavender were a pleasant surprise. While it’s not as nuanced as a high mountain oolong, it’s definitely one of the nicer low elevation teas I’ve had in a while.

Spring 2020 Harvest

This was provided as a sample with my latest order. Thank you, Alistair!

This tea has a gentle yet persistent creamy profile that is more than pleasant. I may have forgot I was drinking this tea and thought I made a Jin Xuan on the second steep. It was early and this tea is very creamy and smooth.

Steep Count: 5

I got this tea as a free (25g!) sample and it turned out to be unexpectedly unique and delicious, thanks a lot Alistair! Despite being a low elevation tea, it’s not particularly lacking in any respect. On the contrary, it has a complex and pungent fragrance, very nice flowery taste, long lasting aftertaste and a thick, creamy mouthfeel.

As for the specific notes, I could detect notes of butter, dry grass and lavender in the dry leaf smell. On the other hand, wet leaf aroma is very fresh, green, sweet, and floral, with notes of mint, sourdough bread, green beans (and a few other vegetables).

First steep tastes of menthol and freshly cut grass. It has a slightly sour finish and a sweet aftertaste. In later infusions, the profile gets progressively more flowery with a distinctive citrus blossom note. The aftertaste is very fragrant and displays notes of various flowers such as osmanthus.

On top of being creamy and quite thick, the liquor also induces a cooling, tingling sensation in the mouth, which makes it all the more interesting to drink. I hope that Alistair can continue to source this tea at such a competitive price, when looking for a floral jade oolong, this one shouldn’t be overlooked.

Holy orange blossoms, this tea is amazing! It’s sweet and flowery filled with a lovely orange blossom flavor. The tea starts off somewhat weak but with an interesting Korean melon like fruity flavor, corn husk, and a slight sourness. The florals really come out after the first steeping. I detected notes of osmanthus, orange blossom, and cream. The floral notes soon flattened into perfumey orange blossom water for the next several steeps. I brewed it fairly hard, at temperatures between 200 F to boiling , and there wasn’t a trace of bitterness.

I can see this replacing one of my favorite teas that’s now discontinued: Taiwan Tea Craft’s Citrus Scented oolong, a Taiwanese oolong scented with pomelo flowers. I was astonished at how much it resembled the TTC tea despite being unflavored. Compared to What-Cha’s Li Shan, this had less depth of flavor. The orange blossom, though enjoyable, becomes the dominant note. I would have liked more of the osmanthus and fruity flavors that I tasted early on but faded quickly.

This was the other tea I put off reviewing until I returned from Georgia. Again, I wrote fairly comprehensive notes pertaining to my session(s) with this tea. I found this to be an intensely aromatic, flavorful, and complex jade oolong that is incredibly reasonably priced.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in a 4 ounce gaiwan filled with 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of butter and cream underscored by hints of sweetgrass, lilac, and violet. After the rinse, I detected robust aromas of cream, butter, sweetgrass, lilac, and violet, as well as emerging aromas of hyacinth, lily, vanilla, and honeysuckle. The first infusion saw the floral aromas intensify while scents of baguette, spinach, and custard also began to appear. In the mouth, I got notes of cream, butter, baguette, and sweetgrass accompanied by subtle impressions of hyacinth, violet, and lilac. Closer inspection also revealed incredibly subtle notes of lily, honeysuckle, spinach, vanilla, and custard in the background. I was a little concerned that such a short infusion would not yield much, but I was wrong. Subsequent infusions revealed stronger aromas and flavors of hyacinth, violet, lilac, lily, honeysuckle, spinach, vanilla, and custard. I also began to detect emerging aromas and flavors of Narcissus, magnolia, honeydew, cantaloupe, green apple, and minerals. The later infusions were dominated by cream, butter, mineral, sweetgrass, and baguette notes, though a subtle fruitiness and some lingering floral and vegetal qualities were apparent in places.

The tea was good enough for me to crave it, and then come back to it. It was also good enough to be preferable to a Milk Oolong I have. So I’m finally rating the tea.

Although this is a daily drinker and really a quintessential green oolong, it is naturally sweeter than the average oolong. The florals are present in but not pronounced in a creamy texture bordering on butter and an corn like aftertaste. It was good western for three brews. I have not gong fu’d it like I normally do before a rating, but I bought it specifically for easy preparation.

It’s satisfying for easy preparation, and it might not be a bad way to introduce someone to general oolong….that is, after you sell them with something like a Li Shan or Ali Shan. This was not as grassy as so many of the oolongs that I have had though it was definitely green. It was not as grassy as the Shan Lin Xi, which I’ll review in this week. It’s simple character and its butter like profile against a Western flavored sweet tooth might be the only detractors. So if you are buying this tea, don’t expect to be blown out of the water, but really, don’t expect anything other than an understated oolong.

A bit more of a grassy aroma that reminds me of a Tieguanyin. The wet aroma is less floral/grass any slightly creamy and milk. The brewed tea is a bit on the light side but really does have some nice milky flavors reminiscent of a milk oolong but not as extreme. I wouldn’t say this tea is my favorite but its still quite enjoyable and decently priced. I would but more of this if I was looking for a daily green oolong.

Continuing to work my way through what-cha’s discover collection, and I saved this one for a cool Sunday evening at home.

Tried 30-45 second steeps @ 185.
First steeping had a wonderful floral aroma and I can see why what-cha mentions corn in the tasting notes.
Second steeping started to get a subtle melon flavor, but the corn was still dominant.
Third had a slight jasmine taste.

Overall, would drink again, will wait to get a larger sample till I’m done drinking my way through all the oolongs though.