Rivers & Lakes Tea

Well this one is quite unique! I was expecting the typical Shui Xian profile when I tasted it, but instead was greeted with a more Taiwanese oolong flavor! According to the website, this one is still made with the Shui Xian cultivar, but is made in southern Fujian province near Anxi instead of in the north where Wuyi sits. I could get used to this one! Will have to buy more and sample the “traditional” version as well. This tea is like a hybrid between a Taiwanese oolong and a Dan Cong.

Great price to quality ratio at about $0.41/g. No sweetness, bitterness, or astringency. Buttery mouthfeel with a pleasantly sour aftertaste.

Not bad, but maybe not as good as the other SJG I’ve tried. The flavor here is nice, it’s just not as complex as other yancha or oolongs.

Mostly dark flavors, with scent and taste of dark chocolate, but without much if any sweetness. Medium-low astringency. Decent longevity. Mouthfeel is okay; aftertaste is not prominent.

Harvest: 2024

My first time trying Tie Luo Han, or “Iron Arhat.” It is certainly a nice tea, though this one is not as good as the other oolongs I’ve had from R&L. Nonetheless, it also has a very nice Wuyi flavor with minerality and decent complexity.

Not as much sweetness or identifiable characteristics as the Rou Gui. I’d like to sample some more of this style of Si Da Ming Cong sometime.

Harvest: 2024

This is a very nice Rou Gui! Perhaps the best I’ve had. Enjoying R&L’s oolongs for sure. This one fits the profile for Rou Gui you read about online more closely than others I’ve had. Complex, cinnamon, with some dark fruit flavors.

The tea lasts 8-10 steeps as well, which is good longevity. The transformation in the flavor is very nice, but not as dramatic as for the Ba Xian. Mild sweetness in some of the later steeps. No astringency. Tastes like a light roast, but the website says medium.

Harvest: 2024

Now this is what I’m talking about! This is some good Dancong. Have I finally found the Dancong vendor for me? I’ll have to wait until the rest of theirs come in stock again later this year. But for now, this one is quite good and at a phenomenal price.

Takes a steep or two to get going, but when it does, the steep-to-steep variance is crazy. Has a tantalizing mouthfeel with aftertaste that lasts 2-5 minutes. Very complex tea with medium-low astringency. Some medium-low sweetness that evolves in the later infusions.

Ba Xian is the “eight immortals” varietal of Dancong. I’ve never tried it before, but supposedly it is considered fairly complex, with over 53 different olfactory compounds identified in brews of this tea alone. There is also supposedly a white magnolia scent, which may very well be the case, but I am not sure what to look for there. The scent is definitely floral.

Harvest: 2024

posted on the wrong tea yesterday. Oops. This is for the Huang Ya. Updated the correct Gan Lu review.

3.0g, 100 mL Brita water, 180f-190f

no strong smell, but slight sweet and malty

30s: wet leaves smell of cooked tomato like sour and sweet, which is a little strange. tastes slightly sweet, slightly thick. slightly lingering undertone of tomato, but passes so fast it may as well not have happened.

30s 2nd infusion: similar

forgot to note exact time, but probably similar to before. 3rd infusion note: light astringency and bitterness. sharp toasty note.

2.1g, 90 mL water, 180f

Meng Ding Gan Lu

leaves don’t have any strong smell to note, except maybe raisins or maybe that’s just the paper bag style that seems to give contents an odd smell. leaves in warmed gaiwan give off a slight warm, nutty smell.

1 min: weak

30s: strong beany taste w/ tannins, slight drying and astringency

1 min. 30s: more tannins

2 min: smoky note.

2 min. 30s: smoky

indefinite, cooled: tastes and feels a bit like a young sheng puer off the first steepings. Not sure what it was, but my stomach felt a bit funny afterwards and I connected the dots. Only really bitterness and sharp edged throughout though, and lacking in the complexity that a quality young sheng would have.

Maybe batch issues, or I got something different than the rest of the people reviewing on their site that seemed to have loved it. Plenty of great green teas out there; this is not one of them.

2020 Winter Shan Lin Xi Oolong

Rivers & Lakes Tea

6.0g, 100 mL gaiwan, Brita water, 212f

dry leaf smells like classic Taiwanese oolong: floral and bright

wet leaves: sweet floral, reminiscent of Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea lol. nice bright green.

5s: light sweet, floral, vegetal. bit of mint cooling note in aftertaste

8s: bitter note that transitions to a floral, then mint note. something slightly coconut & crushed leaves as well.

6s: an extension of previous, but less bitter. more crushed leaves and mint. the last steep and this one make this one seem like something akin to Philosykos, if that were a tea and not a perfume, haha

8s: slight sweetness reappears. No bitter, just a slight dryness then mint aftertaste.

15s: similar to before, coconut-like notes, then mint.

Proceeded to cold brew, not because the tea ran out of steam, but lighter oolongs are just not my favorite. cold brew wasn’t really complex, but a strong ginger note appeared.