Tea Information:
Leaf Type:
Where to Buy: T-Oolong Tea
Tea Description:
This quality Alishan Charcoal Fire Medium Roast Oolong is handpicked, handcrafted and produced from Alishan oolong. Use only the charcoal made of either Taiwan Longan wood or Taiwan Acacia wood to roast the tea (NOT by electric roasters), and follow old traditional method. This tea has a strong charcoal aroma and taste mixing with flavors of Alishan oolong. The aftertaste is enjoyable and long lasting. It tastes very smooth, sweet, rich and complex, and stands up very well to multiple infusions.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Today I reached into my grab bag of teas to review, and was thrilled when I pulled this, Alishan Charcoal Fire Medium Roast 2012 from T-Oolong Tea! Not only has my tasting from T-Oolong Tea been sorely underdone, but an oolong, Yes! Not only an oolong but a fire roasted oolong, yes again! This sounds so good that I hope it meets my high expectations!
I sneak a sniff as it steeps. I smell roasted fruitiness, and the aroma of a very clean spring from the mountains. Granted I do use good bottled water, but this aroma is not simply the water I use, its different, and reminds me of the natural stream I used to sip from with friends when I was younger, back in the days when I rode horses, daily. We knew of a stream – the best tasting water I have ever had, that we would ride to when we were parched.
So I have taken my first sip and oh my goodness, this is delicious! As I taste fruity notes, smokiness, and mineral notes. There is a wonderful sweetness to this tea, a brown sugar or German rock sugar sweetness, somewhere in between the two. I am not getting as deep of a sweetness of a brown sugar, but there is something a little more to it, like a caramel perhaps.
I also get a lovely white flower note as well as a green note, but not green like vegetal, more green like greens themselves, almost like dandelion leaves.
The after taste is clean, clear, and very refreshing! The sweetness gives way leaving a wonderful rock mineral note, floral, and that green bite, not bitter but tart.
The sad thing about this tea is that T-Oolong Tea is currently out of stock, I assume waiting on the 2013 batch, I am going to have to keep my eyes peeled for this one, this is absolutely a reorder worthy tea, and permanent stock worthy as well!
This tea is a must try for anyone who loves oolongs, especially darker roasted oolong tea.
Yes it certainly did meet my expectations, soared over them! I love this one.
LiShan Oolong, Winter from The Mountain Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Oolong
Where to Buy: The Mountain Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our Winter LiShan coats the palate with orchid, pineapple, and vanilla bean. “LiShan” means Pear Mountain and in the past, the most sought after pears came from this place. This highland climate with an altitude of more than 6600 feet above sea level produces especially superior teas. LiShan oolongs are the most fragrant, smoothest, butteriest oolongs, incredibly sweet with a taste of toasted fruit.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have only recently discovered tea from The Mountain Tea Company but I am so very glad that I have.
I have enjoyed every tea I have tried from them so far.
The aroma of this tea in dry form is amazing. Such a strong delicious scent yet so difficult to explain. There is something quite roasty and toasty about this tea yet it is a green oolong. There is a smokey aroma but that does not convey in the steeped cup.
Steeped it is fresh, grassy, vegetal, and crisp. Refreshingly delightful and just simply splendrous cold brewed!
There is such a sweet honey like flavor with a bright clear finish. The sweetness does not linger in a cloying manner but rather leaves behind the flavor of fresh cut grass.
There is a lightly floral note of orchid and some fruity notes mixed throughout the flavors on the palate and a lovely lilting vanilla note that drifts over the taste buds but dissipates quickly making me want more.
While the cup is fresh and bright there is a deep creamy mouthfeel before hand – so the initial taste is that of deeply creamy and buttery followed with the clear cleansing finish.
I know I am just not doing this tea any justice in my review but I am just so very excited to be sipping on this tea right now. I want to sit back and enjoy it yet my excitement to share information about this tea with everyone can’t wait. I just want to get it all out and written down right as the flavors and notes come dancing forward for me so that you can experience in its truest form – outside of having it for yourself. I want you to be in the moment with me while I have this spectacular tea!
I do hope to get more of this before I drink it all, and it won’t be difficult to justify as it is one of the more exquisite teas I could invest in.
As a reviewer I can drink upwards of 10 cups of tea a day, some days more, some less, and I don’t review them all. I only review those teas I would suggest to others. Be it a solid beginner tea, a tea for those who are looking only for the best, or something in the middle. Even though I may not particularly like every tea personally, due to simply perhaps not enjoying a flavor element for example, I try to be quite fair in my reviews. Regardless, this is a tea I would recommend to everyone. Beginners should use this tea as a baseline for all other teas, specifically Oolongs if you are finding you love Oolongs. For those who have been drinking tea for some time you won’t be disappointed in this tea, or The Mountain Tea Company. I certainly am not as experienced as some but thus far I have to say this is one of the most enjoyable oolongs I have had the honor of sipping.
Sometimes we just get so excited about a tea – after drinking one after another – one simply stands out above the others. As for Oolongs, I would stand behind this one hands down as supreme.