Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Yezi Tea
Tea Description:
Just as many people call Wimbledon tennis’s most important Grand Slam tournament, many a tea connoisseur likes to think of Jin Xuan as the most important oolong to come out of Taiwan. Jin Xuan is grown at 7,500 feet above sea level. At this altitude, the tea leaves are worked upon by hot days and extremely cold nights. These varying climatic conditions, along with a year-round fog, lend this tea a complex and diverse palette of flavors and sensations.
Like most Taiwanese oolongs, Jin Xuan has a naturally sweet flavor. After your first sip, you might find yourself thinking of sugarcane reeds swaying and glistening in the sunshine. However, after a few more brewings of this loose-leaf tea, its accompanying floral and tangerine scents will transport your imagination to a lush green orchard. Grown in the cool, high altitudes of Hualien County, Yezi’s Jin Xuan is brought to you from local tea farmer Gao Xiu Chen and is an ideal beverage for cooling you off on a hot summer day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been looking forward to my tea time with this Jin Xuan Oolong Tea from Yezi Tea all day! I drink tea daily, and I drink a LOT of tea daily. But the time that I spend with an Oolong is special for me, because I love the complexity of an Oolong. I love that I can keep steeping and steeping and explore so many different layers of flavors with an Oolong. It’s such a relaxing and wonderfully contemplative experience!
And this Jin Xuan from Yezi is top-notch! So sweet and creamy! This first cup of tea (infusions 1 and 2 following a 15 second rinse) is very smooth and has a lightness to it that I’m sure will probably be gone with subsequent infusions. The creamy texture is so delicate and really lovely. I taste notes of flower. Not sharp or perfume-y, these floral notes reside in the background at the moment, as if to let me know that they will soon be a bigger part of what I’ll be enjoying soon.
My second cup (infusions 3 and 4) is indeed creamier and richer than the first was. The floral tones are beginning to emerge now, but they remain pleasantly soft and sweet. The cup is sweet and creamy and the mouthfeel is somewhat milky.
The third cup (a combination of infusions 5 and 6) is my favorite of the three cups that I enjoyed of this tea. It is a delicious balance of silky creaminess and sweet floral tones. It still has that milky texture. And as the above description suggests, I do notice a hint of tangerine to the aroma when I inhale before a sip, and this influences the sip in a very delightful way, adding a hint of fruity finish to the sip.
A really FANTASTIC tea journey awaits you with this tea … I highly recommend it.
Nonpareil Taiwan DaYuLing High Mountain Cha Wang Oolong Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
The Nonpareil Taiwan DaYuLing High Mountain Cha Wang Oolong Tea is grown in the area at the altitude of 2500 meters, in which the climate is cold and forests grow well. This cold and moisture condition is suitable for tea trees’ growth. In addition, the soil here is fertile, meanwhile performs well in drainage. Thus the tea leaves carry a natural scent of flower and fruit.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The fragrance of this Nonpareil Taiwan DaYuLing High Mountain Cha Wang Oolong Tea from Teavivre is extraordinary. It has such a beautifully sweet, floral scent with hints of fruit and a slight vegetal note.
My first cup of this tea – infusions 1 & 2 following a quick rinse of the leaves – is light, sweet and creamy. There are faint vegetative notes with more prominent floral tones. There are subtle notes of fruit in the layers of flavor here too … reminiscent of apricot.
The second cup – infusions 3 & 4 – is not quite as delicately flavored as the first, and it’s a little less on the creamy side and a little more on the floral side. The floral notes seem to be melding with the vegetal tones to create a seamless flavor. The fruit notes seem to be emerging a little more too. This cup is a little more flavorful overall.
I noticed that my third cup – infusions 5 & 6 – was much more unified in flavor. It was still a little creamy and the floral notes are less sharp and distinct. I find that the fruit tone tastes a bit more like an apple now: crisp, sweet, with vague hints of sour. I don’t taste very much of a vegetative taste now, this is more fruit and flower than any other flavor. The texture is very smooth and there is very little astringency to this cup.
Teavivre offers some of the very finest Oolong teas that I’ve ever tried and this DaYuLing is but one example of what I’m talking about. They also provide excellent customer service, and exhibit exceptional care for their product. I cannot recommend them highly enough … you just can’t go wrong with them.
1991 Da Ye Aged Oolong Tea from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our 1991 Da Ye Aged Oolong is a 22 year old spring harvested tea from Nantou, Taiwan. This rare tea is oxidized between 20-30% and charcoal roasted. Da Ye Oolong is uncommon today since this tea has a lower production volume. Our 1991 Da Ye Aged Oolong is sweeter and creamier than our 2003 Reserve Four Season Oolong. Notes of roasted chestnut, bark, fresh butter, honey suckle, and cinnamon can be detected. Due to the age of this tea, some mineral notes may also be detected. This tea has a silky mouth feel and is sweet and buttery.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I haven’t had a lot of experiences with aged Oolong teas, but I have tried a few and I have fallen in love with the depth of flavor that I enjoy with an aged Oolong, and this 1991 Da Ye Aged Oolong Tea from Butiki Teas might just be one of the very best that I’ve tried yet.
I prepared this tea the way I typically prepare an Oolong – in my gaiwan! First, I do a quick “rinse” of the leaves by steeping the leaves for 15 seconds in hot water and then straining the tea and discarding it. Then I steeped the first infusion for 45 seconds, and added 15 seconds to each subsequent infusion.
I combined the first two infusions into one cup for my first cup of this aged Oolong. This first cup I would describe as “raw” in that it had a somewhat earthy taste to it. Notes of wood … but not so much of a charcoal-y note. The chestnut flavor was just starting to develop in this first cup, as was the notes of sweet butter. It was a little lighter in flavor than the subsequent cups, but, it still was really quite enjoyable. I didn’t really notice much of the spice notes that were suggested in the above description, nor any of the floral notes.
My second cup (infusions 3 & 4) was absolutely delightful. I could really taste the roasted chestnut here. It tastes like freshly roasted chestnuts! Notes of wood and butter, with a slight caramel-y undertone that melds in a really unique and delicious way with the charcoal notes which are now really coming through nicely. The aforementioned earthy tones are still there but they have subsided quite a bit, filling out the background rather than standing in the forefront.
The third cup (infusions 5 & 6) was a little lighter than the second, but not quite as light as the first. I still taste the charcoal notes, and some mineral notes are starting to emerge now. I am also tasting the cinnamon notes that the description mentioned. This cinnamon note lingers in the aftertaste. It’s quite interesting! Still nutty, although not quite as distinctly “roasted chestnut.” Also emerging now are more of the floral tones, but they still remain part of the background for the most part, so if you’re one who avoids Oolong teas because you find them too flowery, this one would definitely be more to your liking, I think.
The second cup was definitely my favorite of the three … but the third cup was also really delightful so I do recommend taking this tea through it’s many flavorful infusions to enjoy the most of this tea exploration. I’m really glad I decided to try this tea! What a wonderfully memorable tea it is!
Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong is a typical kind of Taiwan High Mountain Tea. This tea is from Ali Mountain, which is the birthland of High Mountain Tea.
The tea garden where Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea grows locates at the altitude between 800 meters to 1400 meters. On the high mountain, climate is cold and cloudy. Sunshine time is short, as a result, the astringent substance in the tea leaves is reduced, thus the tea becomes sweeter. In the mean time, temperature in daytime and in night is distinctive, which make the tea tree grows slowly. Therefore, the leaf is soft and thick with high content of pectin substance. This is the unique feature of Ali Shan Oolong Tea as being a type of Taiwan High Mountain Tea. What’s more, the tea trees are irrigated with spring water on Ali Mountain, making the tea carries a sweet flavor of spring water.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yay! Ali Shan! I love Ali Shan tea!
Yeah, I know you’ve heard that before from me.
But I get very excited when I get to an Ali Shan Oolong in my stash of teas. And this Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea from Teavivre is certainly worth the excitement! It’s so good!
I brewed this the same way I’d typically brew an Oolong tea – in my gaiwan – but with one significant difference. Instead of combining the first two infusions in my first cup, and the next two infusions in the second cup, and so on, I combine the first six infusions into my special “Ali Shan” Yixing mug, and then, infusions seven through ten are combined in my mug for my second cup. Because of this, I’m unable to really delve into the individual infusions as much as I would do with other Oolong teas.
My first cup was creamy and sweet and floral, with hints of vegetation and distant notes of fruit. The floral tones were much more up front and mingled with the creamy notes that were a bit more like milk than butter or heavy cream. I like the way the smooth feeling glides over the palate. The sweet creamy notes linger into the aftertaste. This creaminess is a light creamy texture, thugh, and it never feels overwhelming … I never feel like my tongue is being weighed down by the creaminess of this tea.
The description of this tea from Teavivre suggests notes of gardenia and I’m getting that. It’s a beautifully fragrant tea – a lot of fun to steep! Not just to watch the tightly wound pellets of deep, forest green leaves unfurl in the hot water, but to experience the beautiful aroma.
My second cup was not as creamy as the first, but there was still plenty of flavor in this cup – and this is infusions seven, eight, nine and ten! I would have thought that these leaves would have been exhausted of their flavor, but, they delivered ten very flavorful infusions! Bravo!
The second cup was still floral, and as I said, not quite as creamy. I noticed more of the fruit and vegetative notes in this cup. It is still a pleasantly smooth and creamy experience … and certainly worth the effort to brew these extra infusions!
A truly magnificient Ali Shan! What else can I say but: Teavivre delivers a top notch tea yet again!
Zhong Shu Hu Oolong Tea from Tea From Taiwan
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea From Taiwan
Tea Description:
Zhong Shu Hu oolong tea comes from the Zhong Shu Hu area of Ali Mountain (Alishan) – one of the most famous tea producing regions of Taiwan. The climate here is cool and moist with cloud cover and mists every day. These conditions are ideal for tea because the plants grow very slowly and produce tender, flavorful tea leaves and buds.
Zhong Shu Hu oolong tea has a sweet taste and refined aroma. Each brewing brings out new flavours and taste sensations. This tea has a complexity that provides continuous nuances with every cup.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Ah! Ali Shan! Yay! There are few teas out there that make me happier than an Ali Shan Oolong. And this Zhong Shu Hu Oolong Tea from Tea From Taiwan is an OUTSTANDING Ali Shan tea!
It is so sweet and light! The light texture is what I’m noticing in particular here … this tea does not feel heavy or weighty on the tongue. It seems to float over the tongue, delivering it’s delicate taste and delicious sweetness.
Up front, I notice notes of flower that are reminiscent of orchid. There is a honeyed sweetness to the cup that accentuates the orchid notes nicely. I notice hints of Asian pear (apple pear) in the distance … sweet and crisp! And then there is the buttery note that is absolutely irresistible.
But what I like about that buttery note here is that it doesn’t weigh the palate down or feel like it’s “coating” my tongue. It is light! As if the hint of vegetable taste that is also a part of this tea has been lightly drizzled with melted butter. Just enough to enhance the flavor of the veggies, but not enough to overwhelm their delicate nuances.
This is one of the best Ali Shan Oolong teas I’ve tasted in a very long time. I highly recommend it to all those who love Oolong like I do. And if you’re worried about the price – don’t! I got ten AMAZING infusions out of one measurement of leaves … so consider the price an investment in good taste that will keep paying you in re-steeped dividends!