I have always wanted to try Eco-Cha’s oolongs and I was ecstatic when a box of delightful oolongs arrived for the SororiTea Sisters to check out. With the snow falling and the crisp air, today felt like the perfect day to try Jin Xuan GABA tea.
So I brewed up a pot, broke out a few snacks, and gave myself a few moments to really indulge in this brew. And indulge I did.
Each sip I am greeted with pops of fruit with a slight bready finish. Fresh crisp smooth and delightful. I can’t get over how fantastic this oolong is and how much I’ve missed oolongs to be honest. I’ve been in a green tea craze and this tea is telling me its time to shake up my tea routine. Pot after pot of this tea and I was on cloud nine. Not only does this oolong taste fabulous with such a smooth flavor profile that is insanely satisfying, this tea is one of those soul soothing teas that you can literally just soak in and it helps wipe the day away.
So in not so many words, I loved this offering so much, I’ve asked for a subscription for Christmas! I need more Eco-Cha in my life!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Eco-Cha
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Sun Moon Lake Assam from Cameron Taiwan Premium Loose Leaf Teas . . . .
Sun Moon Lake Black tea from Cameron gets its name from its home region of Taiwan. What a celestial and romantic name! Do how did the tea compare?
This was a competition grade assam black tea. The dry leaves were large and flat, darkly colored from the full oxidation process. When I put my nose into the bag of dry leaves it smelled pleasantly like chocolate and dark plum.
Brewed, this tea was smooth and crisp, which was a bit of a surprise. I’m familiar with assam teas with big names like golden tiger which brew up deep and chocolatey, with a robust warm-and-fuzzy feeling.
This assam was much brighter, tasting a little greener. It reminded me of the tartness of a breakfast black tea, with a brisk and refreshingly dry mouthfeel. Though there wasn’t as much of the cozy chocolate notes as I expected in the brewed tea, there were plenty of sweet fruit flavors like apricot and plum alongside the more traditional black tea notes.
Maybe the duality of Sun and Moon come into play in comparing the tea’s scent with its taste. The fragrance of the dry leaves are very much the evening moon, with darker, richer tones of cacao and purple plum. The brewed leaves are much more like the sun, bright and crisp and perfect for breakfast.
This is a great tea if you are looking for a high quality assam that will surprise you. Take a walk on the brighter side of assam and brew up a cup of Sun Moon Lake tea from Cameron.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Cameron Taiwan Premium Loose Leaf Teas
Description:
Sun Moon Lake is located at altitude of 700m, surrounded with mountains and lakes with remarkable environment and typical climate. Heavy moist and stable yearly average temperature make the tea trees grow thick and rich tea leaves which produce carmine and perfectly clear liquor.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
San Lin Xi Oolong from Harney & Sons. . . .
San Lin Xi Oolong from Harney & Sons is an overly comforting tea that I have been enjoying as of late. I know I have said that about other teas in the past but with as much tea as we drink here at SororiTea Sisters it has to be something REALLY special to wedge it into that ‘overly comforting’ category.
It’s just one of those teas that you verbally let out an “ummmmm” or ‘yummm’ as soon as it hits your tongue and swishes around in your mouth. It instantly put a smile on my face.
Harney & Sons San Lin Xi Oolong is a Taiwanese high mountain (Gao shan) oolong. It’s from the middle of the Nantou District, between Li Shan to the north and Ali San in the South. It’s lightly oxidized yet sweet and buttery. It has a medium strength for an oolong and works well with multiple infusions.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Description
We are pleased to expand our offering of Taiwanese high mountain (Gao shan) oolongs. This tea is from the middle of the Nantou District, between Li Shan to the north and Ali San in the South. It is a lovely lightly oxidized oolong.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Formosa Oolong from Simple Loose Leaf. . . . .
Most oolongs taste like either greens or blacks to me, but this one’s a perfect in-betweener. It’s got that lighter, vegetal green, but throws in a dash of that sexy deep note that I love about black.
There are also other notes here, some sort of a plum/raisin sugar-tartness that really kicks it up a notch. If I were going to going to assign this tea an aura color, it would be a warm autumn purple.
This is the sort of tea that I would sip while exploring an attic while wearing an oversized woolen sweater. Knowing my luck, that attic would be haunted as EFF. I’d open a yearbook from 1934 and be possessed by some girl who died of — I don’t know — polio? The vapors? What did people die of back then?
I wouldn’t be possessed long. In movies, ghosts LOVE their new bodies, but in reality, a ghost from 1934 wouldn’t know how to use my car, phone, or computer at work. She’d probably go “the hell with this” and bounce of her own accord. If our grandparents are any indication, people of that generation loathe the digital area. She’d cross over.
Back to the tea.
I really enjoy this tea. It’s just the right afternoon lift without making my heart dive-bomb out of my chest.
The outside of the bag says Formosa Oolong is a “perfect introduction to the world of Taiwanese tea.”
Okay, Taiwan. You have me interested. I’m ready for a second date.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Description
This semi-fermented tea from Taiwan, gets its name from the Portuguese explorers who called the island Formosa, meaning ‘beautiful’. The copper-red leaves with tips of silver brew into a beautiful bright golden brisk cup with peach undertones. Delicious hot or cold.
Ingredients: Taiwanese Oolong Tea
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Ma Liu Mie the Monkey King and Monkey Picked Oolong from Teavivre
There’s a lot to take in with a name like Taiwan Monkey Picked (Ma Liu Mie) Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea, but the most exciting part is “Monkey-Picked.” What? Really? There were monkeys involved in getting this tea from the tree to my teapot? According to legend, the steep cliff-side where this tea is grown is too treacherous for tea farmers to reach the leaves, so they trained monkeys to pick the leaves for them. Ma Liu Mie is an honorable nickname for this tea used by the locals, as well as the name of the tea-picking Monkey King of legend. Read more about the tea under the “more info” tab here.
My first impression of this tea is that the leaves are small and dense, not cut or broken, but simply in a different shape than the long curls of black tea I’ve come to expect. Dry, this oolong smells pleasantly earthy with a bit of stone-fruit sweetness like raisin or apricot. I followed the recommended brewing instructions, using very hot, boiling water and a hefty serving of tea leaves.
At first sip, I notice strong roasted flavors. However, this tea is not full-on smoke-flavored like lapsang souchong, instead it is more complex, like the perfect warm, golden-char flavor of eating food cooked over a campfire. There are some of the aged, fermented notes I tend to associate with pu erh, but they are much more gentle and less sour. This type of earthiness is concentrated and layered, with notes of toasted grains, warm woods, and new leather.
On a day-to-day basis, I drink tea that is drinkable and easy-going. I have to be in the right mood to want a bold, smokey lapsang souchong, or a challenging, fishy pu erh. This Monkey Picked Oolong is a perfect compromise between all three. It is so much more than a basic breakfast tea, but it is not so sour or smokey to bowl you over. It is gentle and earthy, smooth and toasted, and it has a well-earned, legendary reputation.
How could you not give Monkey Picked Oolong a try?
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Description:
Using Taiwan autumn tea as material, this Monkey Picked Tie Guanyin carefully selected by TeaVivre is baked slowly by soft fire (the baking process falls into three steps and every step lasts two minutes). The degree of fermentation is 100 percent so that the dried tea can keep a long-lasting fragrance. After brewing, the smell of honey peach and the baked flavor can be perfectly appreciated and the beverage tastes gorgeously smooth.