Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Purple/Green
Where to Buy: What-Cha Tea
Tea Description:
A brilliant and rare tea produced from purple varietal tea plants, with a smoky aroma and taste combined with a wonderful smooth texture.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow!
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a tea grown from the purple varietal tea plant, so I was excited to try this Yunnan Zi Juan Purple Varietal Green Tea from What-Cha. And it definitely did not disappoint! This is LOVELY!
The texture is smooth and silky. There is a mild overtone of smokiness with a sweet undertone. There is a delightful fruit note to this tea that evokes thoughts of melon and plums. There are faint vegetal notes that are nicely accented with a buttery tone.
It’s a really delightfully complex tea, reminding me more of an Oolong than of a green tea because of it’s silky smooth texture and its deliciously creamy butter notes. But just as I’m thinking that this is more of an Oolong tea the vegetal notes come through to say, “Hey, I’m green!” In the distance, I’m picking up on some light florals.
With all the amazing complexity of this tea, I decided to steep the leaves a second time to see what more I could discover with these leaves. The second steep is even more flavorful than the first!
The smoky notes have softened somewhat now, and the fruit notes have melded into a unified flavor. The vegetal notes are still there, but they are still faint … and there is still a beautifully creamy butter note to complement those vegetative flavors.
I’m tasting a little more floral notes. These floral tones are moving forward, out of the distance and a little more into focus in the foreground. This tea is still delightfully sweet. With the first cup, I mentioned how this tea reminded me a bit more of an Oolong than a Green … but with this cup, this tastes much more like the green tea that it is.
This is a truly delightful cup of tea. If you resteep it, this becomes two truly delightful cups of tea. And you really should resteep it!
Shanglinxi Yang Zi Wan Oolong Tea from T-Oolong Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: T-Oolong Tea
Tea Description:
Our Shanlinxi Yang Zi Wan Oolong tea is handpicked and handcrafted. The tea is produced from Qingxin Oolong varietal grown in the mountain areas of Yang Zi Wan district in Shanlinxi area, frequently covered with fog or clouds. The ideal tea growing environment of the high mountain plantations makes the tea high quality. The brewed Shanlinxi Yang Zi Wan Oolong has a strong floral and sweet aroma and taste, a long-lasting flavor and a pleasant sweet aftertaste. It is very smooth and delectable.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have only tried a couple of Oolong teas from T-Oolong Tea thus far, but what I’ve tried, I’ve really liked. This Shanglinxi Yang Zi Wan is no exception!
The aroma is intensely floral, evoking thoughts fantastical thoughts of what it might be like to walk through a forest dense with flowers: such a sweet, enchanting fragrance.
The flavor is also quite floral and sweet. There is also a fruit tone in there, tasting like something between an apple and a peach. It has a broth-y sort of mouthfeel – smooth and thick. These flavors of flower and fruit linger in the mouth long after the sip is gone, providing one of the longest aftertastes I’ve yet to experience from a tea.
A true delight, this Shanglinxi Yang Zi Wan!