Mountain Stream Teas

If you like scented teas and Taiwanese Oolongs you should try this tea, as it is good, and naturally scented. It and their Orange scented one are the Best scented/flavored teas I’ve had, not-including high quality jasmine teas.

As I’m not a fan of scented teas, I can’t help but compare it as a green Oolong to the other teas on the site, which it does unfavorably (the un-scented oolongs there are really good).. it only makes sense, taking into account the work put in to scenting.

(Brewed it by the recommend parameters in the product page)

This tea tastes like a combination of green Oolong and green tea, since that’s exactly what it is.
The flavor is mostly good milky Oolong (JinXuan), but you can feel the green processing in the mouthfeel and also a little in the taste, which makes this tea different enough to have around..

I like it

(Brewed it by the recommend parameters in the product page)

I’ve had both this and last year’s Old Master Black, and enjoyed both immensely.
If you are interested in uncommon and unique Blacks this is well worth the (not low) price.

Highly Recommended

(Brewed it by the recommend parameters in the product page)

This was a pretty mediocre tea. It’s one of those dark oolongs that tastes more like a black tea than an oolong which isn’t necessarily bad if the flavor is there. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here. It started off with with roasty, malty, tobacco-like flavors. On the nose I got notes of resin and sweet potato. The next steep tasted like an dry pile of leaves. On the third steeping, there’s tobacco, a mushroomy earthiness, and a shou puerh like flavor. The last steep tasted like a generic black tea. I stopped here because I couldn’t stomach any more of it.

Overall, I was bored by this tea. It had little to no aroma, no sweetness, and lacked the warm toasty goodness of a normal baked Taiwanese oolong. Fans of heavier oxidized tea might like it, but I’ll take a humble dong ding over this any day.

I had this a few nights ago. I wasn’t expecting much considering a Taiwanese oolong vendor sells this and he was most likely fibbed to about this tea’s origins as explained in the product description. I wanted to try a 25g sample for educational purposes.

It’s a very simple, one-note sheng. Barbecue. But not overwhelmingly so. Very light-bodied and lacking any depth with only a hint of bitterness and sweetness and no astringency. Interestingly, for a young sheng, there is a bit of an aged floral aroma and taste and the leaf is kind of dark. I’m guessing low quality material that was fired longer to make up for it? Or it was processed in damp weather and needed more fire to dry out the material? Or? And I’m wondering if it was wet-stored for a short amount of time? I’m not armchair-experienced enough in puerh processing and storage effects to say, so for now I question. So much to learn.

I’m glad I have enough of this tea to play around with leaf amount and will leave a rating after I finish the sample. My initial gut rating is 50.

Addendum: bitterness definitely increases with more leaf and the liquor numbs the tip of my tongue which I’m not too keen about. There are also flecks and very small grains of some kind of shiny gold substance in the cake that settle to the bottom of the brewing vessel and cup. Because of that, I’m not going to finish my sample. Rating: even lower

Followed MST’s parameters, using 5g, 100mL, 195F, rinse followed by 6 steeps of 30/45/60/70/?/??s

The dry leaf had a faint aroma of honeyed brown toast, red plum and rose. Warming and rinsing released notes of brown sugar and hints of cream and pear. Light liquor aroma. The taste was a little stronger than the aroma, mellow with notes of brown toast, honey, plum, raisin, persimmon sweetness and faint cinnamon and rose. Later, the toast turned into barley and malt, the sweetness turned more toward turbinado sugar and some very light butter and wood presented. Aftertastes and texture were also quite light with only a hint of astringency. Toward the end, I did notice some waxiness lining my tongue.

Overall, I found this to be a very mellow, unfussy tea. It didn’t strike me as being exceptional in any way, nor did its Alishan provenance stand out. One thing I did appreciate was the lack of any overpowering lingering flavors from the roast. I would recommend this tea to somebody looking for a daily drinker roasted red oolong.

Something more exciting than my opinion of this tea — my motorcycle caught on fire. Luckily it was just in the driveway being worked on and there was no damage at all to the bike but I did rip some fingernails in the process of trying to access a fire extinguisher. Also luckily my friend put out the fire with a water hose so I didn’t have to clean up any nasty extinguisher powder. I’m looking forward to getting this old girl running again and going for a day ride along the cheese trail.

The snow pick is least like a green tea among all 4 of them. together with the fall pick, they have the thickest mouthfeel. It is the most reminiscent of Tie Guan Yin. I find it to be very complex, although maybe not as tasty as fall.

There are a lot of elusive notes, the likes of vanilla, sugarpeas, spaghetti squash, milk, lime, coffee, blueberry leaves. The taste is very delicate and crisp, with mostly sweet, floral and vegetal qualities. On top of that, there is a light alcohol character of the aftertaste. Apart from the complexity, the smooth, velvety is the highlight.

Once I also tried a 20 min long simmer at the end of the session. It was not spectacular, but interesting for sure. It smells like stewed kale, butter and a cake of sorts. The taste is lighter than I expected, but it has new notes of menthol and lettuce. The mouthfeel is lubricating and thick with no astringency.

I ordered the whole Pear Mountain sampler with 4 different harvest times and drank them all today. This one is my least favourite I’d say. The dry leaf smell is very similar to the fall pick, but I find it sweeter and greener. The wet leaf has more of an artificial, sweet gum aroma. Taste is kind of like a green tea, but more floral. Overall, it is not too interesting though. Aftertaste is more intriguing. There are notes of cinnamon, cream cheese, nuts and minerals. The mouthfeel is quite thin, buttery, watery and slightly drying.

And lastly, the fall pick. I find it to be the most enjoyable of the 4, although it’s not as delicate and complex than the snow pick. It has a stronger aroma than the spring pick, with a nutty, floral and vanilla notes. There are a lot of florals in the smell, most notably osmanthus I think. The taste is strong from the very start of the session. It is quite multi-layered, delicate and mineral. The flavours include ones like custard, cream, grass, orchid, brown sugar and apricot pits. Mouthfeel is lubricating and body is medium I’d say.

The spring pick is more interesting than the winter one, at least it has been earlier for sure. Over time, it got a little bit more bland and is now closer to the winter pick than what I remember. In the cooling smell I noticed aromas of stonefruits and egg shells. The taste is quite light, sweet and tart. There are flavours of freshly cut grass, umami and herbs. In the aftertaste, notes like spinach, guava appear. Over time, the aftertaste gets mostly sweet, of the molasses kind I think. Mouthfeel is fairly thin, powdery and soft.

Camellia formosensis is the native Taiwanese tea species. I don’t think it’s often seen on the market. It has been crossed with a Burmese assamica leaf to create the Hong Yu T-18 cultivar, which is known as Red Jade.

This oolong hasn’t gotten positive reviews here. Told myself when I first had it a few years ago that I’d try it again. So here we are with a Winter 2020 harvest.

It tastes pretty much the same as Spring 2018 but with less bite and maybe lower toned, or at least with less high notes. It’s a tonal tasting tea for me — savory-herbaceous green and roasted nutty-toasted rice brown. This tea isn’t roasted though, so I assume the roasty-toasty deal is because of oxidation. Juicy and a little drying. There is some creaminess and a tangy tone that’s lemony, balanced by a little bitterness and sweetness. Mild earthy-foral aftertaste with a bit stronger sugarcane returning sweetness. It’s kind of like a savory sake.

Nothing really draws me to this tea other than its uniqueness. It’s a nice change of pace.

Why was I compelled to buy a tea that has such poor reviews? Because sometimes I’m stupidly curious and I’ve never had a piss poor oolong that’s gotten terrible reviews.

Spring 2018 harvest. To start, these are some giant nugs and they’re shades of green I’ve never seen in unroasted oolong. They smell like roasted walnuts, crispy rice, green cardamom, deep vegetal, violet? and toasted marshmallow. Wut. A few notes I’ve never experienced before. Warmed in the teapot then rinsed, they release aromas of spinach, sugarcane, sake, rice, herbs and cardamom. Very vegetal, savory and sweet.

Five grams of leaves in my 100mL teapot produces 5 steeps at 30/45/60/70/90s. The liquor starts off strongly with spinach, herbal medicine, sugarcane, and lemon water, retaining those notes throughout. A penetrating bitterness comes in on the second steep along with bold, savory sake without the alcohol. That clear, light yellow liquor is producing an unexpected intensity in flavor. After I’m done with the second cup, a strong returning sweetness hits the back of the throat and comes up up up, like ‘Hey, lemme out here!’ Later, some aftertastes of butter and rice appear. The texture is smooth but drying, not thick or thin or anything else. I suppose it’s just there. The bottom of the cup smells like a medicinal sake and also like some sencha I’ve had before.

This is certainly a different oolong and one I’m actually really glad to have experienced. I can see it being appealing to a very small subset of seasoned oolong drinkers looking for a change of pace or even sippers with a taste for the burly but this Wild Cultivar is definitely not for those looking for a refined, floral experience. That said, I might be in that small subset. I won’t order this batch again but I’ll have no problem finishing off the other 5 grams. If MST ever offers this Wild Cultivar again, I’ll buy another 10g sample.

Oh yeah, some of these giant nugs unfurl into leathery GIANT LEAVES. The biggest tea leaves I’ve ever seen in my life — some pushing 15cm in length. I feel like I should dry them out in my plant press and mount them.

This red oolong has a great multi-faceted flavour with depth that’s fairly uncommon. It lacks a bit in terms of its aroma and, to a lesser extent, the mouthfeel. The thickness is pretty good, and there is a very nice bubbly quality to it, I just found it to not be coating enough to provide the best possible experience. It is possible, that you need a “mountain stream” water for that though ;)

It might be that my expectations for red oolongs are generallly skewed. I like them a lot, but since the first one I ever tried – the Longan Nectar by TS – was far better than any other I had later, I tend to rate them lower.

I spent a while this morning picking the last of the persimmons off my aunt’s tree… upwards of 80 fruits, not including the handful pecked by birds and the resident fat squirrel. The tree has produced at least 300 large, edible fruits over the past 4 weeks. I ate some persimmon cookies last night after having a garden salad with sweet chunks of persimmon in the mix. And I had a cup of this tea this evening. Maybe it’s wishful thinking but the fruit note in this tea might also include persimmon. Or just be persimmon. The fruity note is so smooth and out of reach, almost like I was stretching the picker basket all the way to the top of the persimmon tree to get the last few orange fruits.

I love a good red oolong and this is one of the best I’ve had. Highly oxidized, no roast and tastes very close to a black tea.

Fall 2017 harvest. Gone gaiwan: 3g, 60mL, 212F, flash rinse (these nuggets open up quickly), followed by 11 steeps.

This is a smooth, sweet tea that left me grasping too much to pick out distinct flavors so I’ll leave you with an impression. It’s like a dish of highly fragrant baked fruits, perhaps enclosed in a light layer of buttery pastry which becomes evident in later steeps. Seems like a mix of quince, apricot, peach, plum, faint dark cherry, studded with raisins and baked with a good sprinkling of brown sugar and golden syrup. Tones of baking spices and vanillin are also present. Later it turns a little tart, like a mix of orange and apricot, with some light mineral and mouth-watering qualities. There is a roasty note present throughout but it’s not a roasted tea and the flavor integrates well.

On top of all that, the tea is fragrant with perhaps fruit tree flower and rose notes. The liquor has a syrupy thickness that makes for a satisfying, loud swallow. It’s quite sweet and can get a little astringent in the throat but that transforms into a nice returning sweetness.

This red oolong’s fruitiness, floral quality and sweetness remind me of Yunnan Sourcing’s Big Snow Mountain Black Tea with Rose Flowers but this red oolong is calmer and more refined in the mouth like a smooth Taiwanese black and has a greater range in its fruity flavors. This tea also performs well western style. That, combined with its flavor profile, sweetness and not having to fiddle around with temperatures, inclines me to recommend this as a dessert tea for people wanting to branch out from flavored teas or those with added ingredients.

I finished this one off last night with a friend, and I never quite got the same notes no matter how consistent or different my brewing styles were. Gong fu cha in my shiboridashi yielded an influx of buttery corn bread notes accented by osmanthus and lilac, and then passed into a floral crescando of honeysuckle, osmanthus, lilac, and then ended with some faint honey hints and lime hints in the end. Western had more honeysuckle notes, with fresh greens, collards, and lime zest barely in the accents. There were times were it was more sweet like butterscotch, and times more vegetal. I’ve gotten more fresh notes like sugarcane and watercress with a very small amount of leaves western. Butter, lilac, honeysuckle, osmanthus, and lime zest reoccurred the most in flavor.

This was almost my favorite of the sampler because it was fairly versatile. I did occasionally have some astringency here and then reminiscent of a sheng because of how I brewed it, but it was definitely oolong and on the greener side. I’d recommend this for those looking to get a cheaper alternative for a snow pick. I’ve coveted others for a heavier price, and this one was different enough to stand out from previous Li Shan’s I’ve had. Rating for me personally as a result of the occasional astringency is between 88 and 92

After some resting/aging period, this tea is smoother, has slightly fuller body and better balance as well as a nice minerality in the aftertaste. Therefore, I upped the rating and will look forward to further changes over time. This tea is like the opposite of a daily drinker :D

This is a very unusual tea. It literally smells and tastes like fenugreek. If someone gave me this labelled as fenugreek tea, I wouldn’t doubt them for a second.

The dry leaf aroma is very weak and slightly vegetal. In the wet leaf I can smell just … fenugreek. And some milk in the background. First infusion was super light with almost no taste, but the later ones were ok. I could taste fenugreek, some bay leaves and gastric acid (no kidding!). It is somewhat savoury and bitter, and overall quite imbalanced. It has light body and the mouthfeel is powdery and drying.

All in all, not a very good tea, unless you are in love with fenugreek (which I actually quite like personally). I can’t deny that it’s a unique experience though.

Been down with a head cold for the past week which has impaired my sense of taste and smell and relegated me to mostly genmaicha. Sucks, but almost a given whenever the seasons change. In the meantime, I’ll be reviewing a few teas from the backlog.

This wild Taiwanese oolong varietal was the most interesting sounding tea from my Mountain Streams sampler pack but unfortunately it turned out to be a huge dud. I suspected it was stale as soon as I opened the pouch. There was a vague aroma of cooked turnips in the dry leaf and stir fried vegetables, corn, and spinach following a rinse. However the taste was musty and really stale. It had almost no flavor as if the tea had lost its freshness a long time ago. Don’t know what’s up with that since this was a vacuum sealed pouch.

I got this tea as a free sample with my order, thanks MST! I won’t rate it though, as it is noted as being past its shelf life on the website. Since it’s already late today, I opted for less leaf and western brewing.

The aroma is surprisingly weak and initially I don’t really get much pomelo fragrance, if any. There is a sea air like scent though. After second steep, I can definitely smell the pomelo blossoms. The taste is somewhat light and very floral with bitter finish. I get notes of spinach and pomelo, as well as citrus zest in general terms. The aftertaste is quite long and displays the pomelo fragrance nicely. It is savoury too, reminiscent of sourdough bread in fact. The body is light and mouthfeel drying, but not really astringent.

Unfortunately, I found that the way the tea made me feel was quite unpleasant. It quickly got into my head and upset my stomach, even though I had dinner not that long ago.

After the rinse, this smells heavenly – sweet, fruity and woody. Unfortunately, otherwise the tea didn’t really speak to me. My main issues are that the body is too light, and mouthfeel too powdery (a little banana like). The taste is ok, but neither too complex nor satisfying. It is actually quite citrusy and slightly roasted. I didn’t get much of the fruitiness or sweet floral honey notes.

I’ve had this before, pretty sure it was Fall 2017 harvest but I don’t think I mentioned it in my last note. I bought 25g of the Fall 2018 harvest with my last Mountain Stream Teas order.

The two harvest years are notably different. I’ll stay away from comparing the two since I didn’t take great notes for either tea.

I will say this didn’t catch my attention gongfu. It was heavier in brassy tones than I was expecting. Nice lingering retronasal florals. Performed well with boiling water and lower temperatures alike. I’d rate it 79. Daily drinker material.

What this tea does do well is stewing in my thermos at 190F for a few hours. The creamy floral aromas come to the forefront. The vegetal characteristics become a smooth undertone, mingling with a moderate brown sugar and sugarcane sweetness. Medium-bodied. Relaxed, heady floral energy and a perfect amount of caffeine for me with the chosen ratios. 2017 rating was 84. For 2018, I’d also say 84 based on my stewing method but I probably won’t buy the Fall Pick again.

Recently, I haven’t been paying as much attention to tasting as I’d like.

The dry leaf is very fragrant with notes of vanilla, cream, florals and vegetal. Warmed was vegetal, lemon, sugarcane, cream and floral. With the rinse, I could also pick up on some pine. Brewed gongfu in a clay teapot, I noticed how fragrant the tea was, just overall pleasant. I did not notice much change in flavors, with the dominant notes being florals, lemon, cream and a brown sugar sweetness with some vegetal on the swallow. And dang, what a swallow. The liquor was very smooth and thick with oil, only a little astringent.

Brewed western in a glass mason jar, it was even thicker, almost like the leaves were suspended in a thin gel matrix. However, brewed this way, the astringency became much more prominent. I also noticed the minerality of the tea more and some kind of stone fruit, maybe apricot? It’s not like the apricot of puer tea, though. On the second steep, there was a strong aftertaste of something like spaghetti squash. Not sure, but definitely squash in character.

Brewed grandpa in a thermos, both the oiliness and astringency really stuck around. My tongue was slick for a few hours with no food. Here the brown sugar and spice notes that Daylon R Thomas talked about were very prominent. I could see Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I think I liked it best brewed grandpa because of that quality.

I don’t think this is my favorite of the four Lishan I’ve tried in the past few months, but it is worth picking up a larger quantity and having better attention paid to it. I’d also like to try brewing it at a temperature lower than the recommended 100C to see if that will tame the astringency.

Spring 2019 harvest

I was torn about how to rate this tea. I love it cold brewed but not so much prepared hot. Cold, or rather ambient brewing, was able to extract the best flavor from this tea. It had this almost ethereal floral flavor of honeysuckle and perfumey lilacs, punctuated by occasional bursts of hyacinth, and sweet grass notes in the background. Tastes like drinking perfume but in the best, most delicious possible way. Easily a 95+ rating for the ambient brew.

However, this tea was not as successful hot steeped. It produced a somewhat uneven flavor, more savory than flowery. Vegetal with a lemongrass sharpness.

I’m sure there is a way to bring out those luscious floral notes by hot steeping but I couldn’t quite figure it out. That’s okay though, I’m content to ambient steep as long as this warm autumn weather we’re having continues.