Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: T-Oolong Tea
Tea Description:
This high quality Lishan Tian Fu Oolong is handpicked, handcrafted and produced from Qingxin Oolong varietal grown in the mountain areas of Li Mountain. The aroma and taste of the tea are intensely floral, sweet, fruity and rich with honeysuckle-like flavors. The aftertaste is very sweet and long lasting, and this tea stands up very well to multiple infusions. It is very rich, smooth and delectable with almost no bitterness and astringency.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
There are few tea times more enjoyable than when I brew myself a cup of LiShan Oolong tea! And this LiShan Tian Fu Oolong Tea from T-Oolong Tea is so amazing!
I combined five infusions in one Yixing mug, and the combination of the infusions produces a sublime flavor of sweet, exotic tasting flower with hints of fruit. It is an intensely flavored cup. The most prominent note is that of the floral tones, which is reminiscent of the essence I would experience from the springtime air at my gramma’s house when I was young.
You see, she had a very prolific honeysuckle vine on the rear corner of her house, right next to one of the bedroom windows. And when the weather was warm during those later spring days, the window would be open, and the breezes from the Santa Ana winds would filter through the honeysuckle plant and then the breeze would enter the window. That’s what I’m experiencing as I sip this tea! I just love how tea brings these fond memories to life.
Beneath the sweet and floral honeysuckle-esque notes I taste faint vegetative notes that have a slight buttery intonation to them. There is some creaminess to this cup, but it isn’t a strong creamy note, nor does it seem to build or intensify as I continue to sip. It’s a subtle creamy taste and texture that melds with the vegetal tones.
Toward the end of the sip, a hint of fruit emerges … just faintly. It is a sweet note that reminds me of a crunchy apple, but without the tartness that I usually associate with an apple. As mentioned in the above review, I notice no bitterness, and no astringency.
And while this particular tea is not currently in stock on T-Oolong Tea’s website, I think it would be worth the effort to keep checking in occasionally to find out when this tea will be restocked. It’s a LOVELY tea, and if you love Oolong, it’s one you should try!
Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea is one of the ten famous Chinese teas. This Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea origins in organic tea base of Tianmu Mountain in Lin’an, Hangzhou. The organic tea base of Tianmu Mountain, has passed the organic certification of European, USA and Japan, is a significant base of planting organic dragon well and green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
These leaves are beautiful. So long and slender and wiry. The color is so deeply green on these leaves that they almost appear black. A deep, forest-y green like the color of the evergreen forests here in the Pacific Northwest. Gorgeous!
The brewed tea is very light in color and has a very pleasing flavor. Mao Feng is one of my favorite green teas … quite simply because it tends to be very simple! It tastes like what I expect green tea to taste like. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a complexity to this cup – it certainly has many layers of enjoyable flavors – what I mean to say is that it doesn’t try to be anything that it is not. It is green tea, and that is what it tastes like.
It has a forward vegetative taste that tastes of sweet, broth-y vegetables – sort of like a comforting bowl of vegetable soup but without the chunks of vegetables! It isn’t really “grassy” … it is more like vegetables, but occasionally, I do get a distinctive tone that is more grassy to me than veggie.
When served hot, it becomes a very cozy, relaxing cup of tea. When served iced, it becomes a very refreshing, exhilarating drink. It is sweet and enjoyable served straight, but it also takes the addition of a thin slice of lemon quite nicely. A sprig of mint would also be agreeable.
This is one of those teas that I’d choose for an everyday green tea. A really enjoyable Mao Feng.
Tong Tian Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
This Dancong offers a full and engaging tasting experience. In early steepings, a crisp mineral or stone quality dominates the texture with a rosewood quality on the sides of the palate. Soon, a mouth-watering juicy note of apricot makes an entrance and continues to build up a thicker body for the tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have tried Dancong teas in the past, but I don’t think I’ve tasted one quite like this one.
The first two steepings produced a flavor that is very mineral-y, I can almost feel the minerals on my tongue! This experience was a little jarring – ok, quite jarring – because I found myself having very little to say about those early sips except for the taste and texture of mineral. As I continue to sip, I notice fruit tones – yes, apricot, just as the description suggests.
These first steepings are thinner than I expected from an Oolong, but that is not meant to sound like a bad thing, because I find the texture to be quite interesting, especially the almost grain-y kind of feel on the tongue. The flavor is light but it teases the palate with flavors to come: more sweet, juicy apricot, hints of wood, and a honey-esque sweetness that slowly develops in the background and then begins to wash over the palate with every sip.
With the third and fourth steepings, the mineral texture and taste remained, but it had softened somewhat, allowing for the apricot notes to shine through more distinctly. The sip starts off soft, almost silky, and soon develops a mouthfeel that reminds me a little bit of a Darjeeling tea with its light, crisp quality and dry, somewhat astringent finish. Even with the astringency, I find these steepings to be remarkably soothing, especially at the start with its silky soft (it’s almost fluffy!) presentation.
Later infusions become softer in texture. The mineral-y taste and texture is but a memory, and now I have a tea that is much more like an “Oolong.” That is, much more like what I might expect from an Oolong. The flavor is sweet and slightly creamy. I notice hints of spice and wood which meld together in a taste that I want to describe as “wilderness” – it is as if I can actually taste the “wild” in this wild-picked tea.
Quite remarkable, really, this tea. But really, as Verdant has proven itself to offer nothing but the best, I expected nothing less!