Taiwan 'Long Feng Xia' High Mountain Oolong Tea

I feel I may have underleafed this beauty at 7g:5oz, as I picked up on a lot but it persisted in a watery, first-steep sorta way. Steaming leaves gave up spinach, toast, cream, and corn, with very subtle florals that I couldn’t put my finger on.

The steeps were pleasant — cream, vanilla, light florals. Just so subtle… and not as much in a “delicate tea” sort of way as in “please feed dis teapot moar.”

Rather than mess with adding leaf, I just steeped later steeps longer — quite long — and found some really lovely florals. The trade-off was substantial astringency, but What-Cha gonna do? I found a bit of mild honey (honeycomb candy, really, as my palate is pretty out of touch with actual honey). The florals were really nice, and I’m a sucker for them.

I think I’ll put a note right on my label to up the leaf next time… maybe up arrows and down arrows will start a whole cupboard code over here.

2021 Spring Harvest

High Mountain Green Oolong types are an easy favourite, and one’s from the Shan Lin Xi area are an easy if expensive sell. I thought I’d made notes on more of them than this but they have a tendency to not stick around long enough for that! The aroma of the dry leaf and broth is (as expected) beautiful, rich, and aromatic – it’s a mixture of floral (honeysuckle), honey, and fruity notes, along with something that is quintessential oolong. Pure ambrosia.

Cream, floral and fruit components are at the right balance for me here, creating a well-rounded profile. The fruity component is kind of like pineapple and the honey-sugar qualities of persimmon. While at it’s hottest, the finish has a zesty-sweet heat. I second Daylon R Thomas’s suggestion of “ginger lily” (it’s a bit of both, ha). There’s a suggestion of creamy banana and/or persimmon as a lingering taste as well. The sweet-grass/vegetal notes, which gain prevalence as it cools, also lend to the persimmon effect.

Western Steep Count: 6

After the second steep I went to bed and carried the session into today. I think steep 4 onward tasted a bit like a natural Jin Xuan (you know that subtle vegetal cream) but with more floral. Next time I’ll try for an uninterrupted session with gongfu so I can draw it out more!

It took a while for me to add this, especially now I am half way through it. I like Long Fengs, but in small quantities because they are thickly green. These oolongs have the pineapple skin taste strong in every steep. That is the same for this tea, and I had a hard time not comparing it to the Shan Lin Xi. I preferred that one ever so slightly because it was a little more crisp, BUT this one is fairly creamy and can brew nice cups if treated delicately.

It was fairly consistent from brew to brew gong fu either beginning with a 15 sec rinse, 30 sec, then 20 sec or even beginning 47 seconds and then going 20, 35, 55, 75… There is a rise from a generally jasmine rice like beginning with a lemongrass background with the rising pineapple skin and tropical florals rising through the middle steeps like a bell curve, especially in steeps 3-5. Steeps 6-8 being 3 min, 5 min, 7 min, were just generally creamy floral, and slightly sweet. It’s creamiest when it’s hottest, and more floral and grassy when it cools off.

I’m having a hard time picking up the florals for this one other than the lemongrass. Maybe honeysuckle, but there was a slight spiciness that reminded me of ginger. Ginger lily? Don’t quote me on that. I’ll have to figure out what they are.

I would not recommend this tea to someone newly getting in to teas because it might just taste like slightly sour, mega creamy green tea to them. It’s more up oolong snob ally. In terms of quality this would at least be a 90, but I personally prefer the Li Shan just because of its more delicate character and I’m not sure how often I’d buy this. I’d rank it 86 based on what I like, but it deserves a higher rating on this website. This one is robustly green, but still excellent. I’m going to try it with less leaves western, but I’ve been happy Gong Fu with the slight nuances and watering mouthfeel it has…despite being a little bit like a semi sweet to dry white wine.

So yes, I recommend this tea, but I recommend it for experienced oolong snobs or for those looking to chart the elevations of Shan Ling Xi.