Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
Green Terrace Teas
Product Description:
Our founder’s favorite tea – this is a rare and unique cultivar available only in Taiwan. Grown at elevations of over 2,000 meters, our spring harvest is both exquisite and complex in character. Non-astringent and mildly sweet, this black tea has floral and fruity undertones with notes of plum and honey. Its aroma of sweet, ripe fruit is strong and noticeable instantly after the leaves come in contact with hot water. If you’ve never had a quality black tea before, this variety is a must try. Best brewed with multiple, short infusions.
Tasters Review:
YUM! I would agree that this tea is rare and unique and that first and foremost is why I give this two thumbs up! From first sniff of the tea liquid – post-infusion, of course – I could smell something sweet – much like honey or mead – and a berry of some sort – fruit – almost like currants or wild berries…maybe even elderberries! The color of the tea in the cup is that of a weaker or more see-thru lighter brown. Just because it’s lighter in color does NOT mean it lacks in flavor! The flavor of this Li Shan Black Tea is truly scrumptious! Floral and Fruity – YES – but zoning in more on the plum, berry, and honey flavors. It’s sweet and floral but makes your mouth water. This is tremendously good hot or cold! It’s good for multiple infusions starting off with the shorter infusions and moving up the scale to longer infusions. This is a MUST TRY indeed!
Bi Luo Chun Green Tea from Green Terrace Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Green Terrace Teas
Tea Description:
While most Bi Luo Chun is grown in Jiangsu Province, China, this unique cultivar grown in Taiwan has bigger leaves and is picked slightly earlier in the year. As a non-fermented green tea, it is rich in antioxidants and other natural chemicals that promote various health benefits, including reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Bi Luo Chun is sweet and fruity in flavor, with notes of peach and a mildly vegetal aftertaste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh this is lovely!
When I think “Bi Luo Chun” – I think of the tiny conchin shell shaped leaves from China. These leaves are larger, not as curly and darker in color.
It tastes different too. This has a sweet, buttery and vegetal taste. The buttery tones are profound and lend a soft, almost creamy texture to the cup. The vegetal tones are slightly grassy, somewhere between grass and lima bean. No sharpness to the grassy notes and no bitterness. This is a sweet grassy taste.
The sweetness is somewhat fruity, although I find myself struggling with trying to pinpoint what kind of fruit notes I’m tasting … melon, perhaps? It’s got the juicy sweetness of a melon but not the flavor of one. Perhaps a melon that’s been pressed for the juice and then that juice was mixed with rainwater and dew drops, enough so that the flavor of the melon becomes obscured but the sweetness of it remains.
There is some astringency to this. I feel a slightly dry sensation toward the tail. But it is very slight. I noticed a little more astringency in the second cup (second infusion) than I did in the first, but in both infusions, the astringency was very light.
To brew this tea, I measured a bamboo scoop of the leaf into the basket of my Kati tumbler and poured 12 ounces of water heated to 180°F. I let it steep for 2 minutes. The liquid is a pale golden-green and has a very faint vegetal aroma.
These leaves resteep well. I brewed a second cup much the way I brewed the first (adding 30 seconds onto the steep time) and sipped the second cup with just as much enjoyment as I experienced with the first cup. Still sweet and delicious. The texture is a little lighter in the second cup. The first cup was a little creamier than the second, although the second did have lighter creamy notes. I found that the second one felt more refreshing because it was a little crisper and lighter. Both infusions were delicious and it’s well worth the resteep!
Ali Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea from Green Terrace Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Green Terrace Teas
Tea Description:
Ali Shan is one of Taiwan’s most famous tea growing areas due to its high elevation and rich soil. The cool and moist climate allows the tea leaves to grow more slowly, developing a higher level of complexity and flavor. Our premium grade Ali Shan High Mountain Tea, or “gao shan cha” in Chinese, is grown at elevations of 1,300 meters (4,265 ft) and above. It has a sweet buttery taste with a creamy body and mild floral undertones. The tea becomes more vegetal after a few steepings, bringing a pleasant variation of tastes among each infusion. Overall, this is an exquisite and savory oolong that can be enjoyed at any time of day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Love!
No matter how many times I drink Ali Shan Oolong, it seems like my very first reaction after that first amazing sip is “Oh my god! Oh wow!” And that’s because Ali Shan is just that good. There’s a reason why it’s my favorite Oolong teas (and one of my very favorite teas of all).
And this Ali Shan High Mountain Oolong from Green Terrace Teas is one of the best I’ve had. It is so incredibly sublime that it feels like I’m floating in the clouds when I’m sipping it. Yep, it’s heavenly.
The leaves look very much the way I’d expect an Ali Shan tea too look. Vivid green leaves that have been tightly wound into pellets that unfurl slowly in hot water to release their flavor. The aroma of the dry leaf is floral – an intense floral note. The brewed tea keeps that floral note, although it is softened significantly.
To brew the tea, I reached for my gaiwan and added a bamboo scoop to the bowl of the gaiwan. I heated freshly filtered water to 180°F and added enough liquid to cover more than cover the leaves and let this ‘steep’ for 15 seconds. Then I strained off the liquid and discarded it. (I rinsed the leaves!) Then I refilled the gaiwan with the hot water and let the tea steep for 45 seconds. I strained this first infusion into my special Yi Xing mug that is just for Ali Shan teas. Then I continued the process, adding 15 seconds onto each subsequent infusions, until the mug was full (4 infusions).
The first sip of this first cup (the first 4 infusions), elicited the aforementioned response of: Oh my god. Oh wow! And then my second sip elicited the response: Oh that’s lovely! It’s a good thing that my Ali Shan Yi Xing mug holds 4 infusions because I would have finished the whole cup before I was able to get any sort of lucid comments about this tea for the review.
This is sweet and lusciously smooth. It’s like what I’d imagine drinking liquid silk to be like, only much tastier. Maybe liquid silk mixed with thinned honey. Even then, I wouldn’t quite have captured the true flavor of this delightful tea, because it has so much complexity. So many delicious layers of flavor. The top layer is floral, reminiscent of orchids but I also want to say that I taste honeysuckle too.
To illustrate what I’m experiencing with this floral note, I’ll use an example that I’ve used many times in the past: my bedroom in my grandparent’s former house in California. When I was young, they had a honeysuckle vine that grew just outside the window of the bedroom. And when the Santa Ana winds would make their way through the area, the breeze would pick up the amazing scent of the honeysuckle and bring it into my bedroom and I’d smell that delightful aroma and even taste the air. Now, if my grandmother also had an orchid plant or two outside my window … the combined “air” that would filter into my window would be what I’m tasting right now.
Other layers of this tea offer a soft, buttery taste and texture. Hints of vegetation. Honey. Very soft, very silky, very sweet. And a pleasure to sip.
My second cup (infusions 5 -8) was just as lovely as the first (and perhaps even lovelier!) with it’s sweet, creamy, honeyed notes. The floral notes are soft, they seem just a tad softer than they were in the first cup. The sip starts out smooth and silky and it maintains this texture all the way to the finish. There is very little astringency to this. And when I say ‘very little’, that is to say that there is only a hint of dryness toward the tail. That’s it!
A beautiful tea from start to finish and offers so many lovely infusions, making this not just a lovely tea to sip, but a good value too! If you’re looking for THE one Ali Shan to add to your tea cupboard, I highly recommend trying this one – it’s an excellent Ali Shan. I’ve had some really amazing experiences with Green Terrace Teas and I think I saved the very best of those experiences for last.
Jasmine Green Tea from Green Terrace Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Green Terrace Teas
Tea Description:
This tea gets its sweet, jasmine aroma through a scenting process in which freshly picked jasmine blossoms are repeatedly mixed with green tea. Known to have even greater health benefits than traditional green tea, this artisan tea is very fresh and soothing in character with a light and sweet floral aftertaste. Due to the intense flavor of the leaves, we recommend using fewer leaves and steeping with multiple short infusions of only 30 to 40 seconds. This tea makes an invigorating after-meal beverage.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had quite a few Chinese jasmine teas, but I don’t recall having a Taiwanese jasmine tea until now. I might have had one or two, but none come to mind at the moment. And I think that if I had tried a Taiwanese Jasmine Green Tea like this one from Green Terrace Teas, I would have remembered! This is absolutely lovely!
I brewed this the way I would normally steep a jasmine green, but also taking into consideration the recommendations in the description above. I used a little less leaf than I normally would place in my gaiwan (normally I use a bamboo scoop, this time, I measured that out, and then I poured a little off the scoop), and I started with a rinse of 15 seconds and then started steeping for 45 seconds, and added 15 seconds onto each subsequent infusion. I combined the first six infusions into my Yi Xing mug, and that’s what I’m sipping now.
And as I said … it’s LOVELY! The jasmine is strong but not overpowering. I am getting a beautiful floral note that is sweet and exotic tasting but it doesn’t taste soapy or perfume-ish.
It’s very similar to a Chinese jasmine, except that the green tea here is distinctly different. This tastes less grassy and more sweet. It has a slightly creamy texture to it that I don’t often experience with Jasmine green teas, and I’m enjoying how this creaminess melds with the sweet flowery notes.
This is incredibly smooth and creamy and delightful! Another amazing tea from Green Terrace Teas!
Li Shan Black Tea from Green Terrace Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Green Terrace Teas
Tea Description:
Our founder’s favorite tea – this is a rare and unique cultivar available only in Taiwan. Grown at elevations of over 2,000 meters, our spring harvest is both exquisite and complex in character. Non-astringent and mildly sweet, this black tea has floral and fruity undertones with notes of plum and honey. Its aroma of sweet, ripe fruit is strong and noticeable instantly after the leaves come in contact with hot water. If you’ve never had a quality black tea before, this variety is a must try. Best brewed with multiple, short infusions.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh my goodness, this is so amazingly good.
Once upon a time, I was introduced to one of the most amazing black teas I had ever tasted. It was called Dawn by Simple Leaf. Since that time, Simple Leaf has closed. Sadness! But since that time, I have found a few teas that stack up to that amazing black tea. This is one such tea. This tea … is just as good – if not better, than I remember Dawn tasting!
It’s SWEET, rich and chocolate-y. Background notes of sweet stone fruit. A honey-caramel sweetness to this as well as the sweet fruit and flower notes that fill out the background. As I continue to sip, I notice more of the fruit and floral notes emerging, and the chocolate-y notes seem to back off just a bit to allow the other flavors to be discovered. I notice some of the “berry-esque” notes that I would taste if I were eating a high quality dark chocolate.
This is well-rounded and even though it coats the palate with delicious flavors, it isn’t a heavy tea. My palate doesn’t feel overwhelmed after I’ve had a sip. The aftertaste is lightly sweet.
I used boiling water to infuse this tea, using about 1 1/2 teaspoons of leaf for 12 ounces of water, and steeped the tea for 3 minutes. This produced a remarkably satisfying cup. Smooth, rich, and invigorating.
A truly wonderful tea! I’ve enjoyed all the teas that I’ve tried from Green Terrace Teas thus far – but this … this is my favorite. This is one that everyone should try, especially if you find yourself missing Dawn or if you never had the opportunity to try Dawn! Put this on your shopping list right now!