I have so many notes I gotta backlog…Well, I went to the Coffee and Tea Festival at the Detroit Institute of Arts and enjoyed some frickin’ amazing cardamom Turkish coffee, jasmine, Taiwan Assam, and Alishan tea after a ceremony. This sampling with the gorgeous art and atmosphere that is already at the DIA made for an awesome day…especially with really great quality Mediterranean food afterwards. Plus more tea including this tea.
I finally get to try this one, holy crap! This has been on my wish list for so long and I finally had the courage to get some.
I knew that this tea was going to be on the veggie side, but I did not expect the tea to be as GREEN as it was. Unlike a few other jade’s I’ve had, the more grassy qualities matched mint more than anything else which impressed me. The hyacinth and lilac were there, but the florals were a closer to lilies and maybe rose for me. The rose is also a bit of a weird note, which I will update after more experience with it. The fruit quality pops up way more in the third steeps, and they are the usual Li Shan nectar fruit notes, but I am not sure how to describe them. How that sweet fruit note combines with the florals and the mintyness makes me think of blue cotton candy a little bit, but grassier and tarter. It made me think of cotton candy flavored floss like Rasseru described.
The Summary: a flexible resilient “clean head, clean feeling” tea with a great display of notes in a light, green body. I actually agree with Rasseru’s 86 rating, though I might put it at an 88 depending on how I am feeling. I have had Gaoshans that I definitely prefer over this one considering the price and the green taste. It was almost closer to a green tea than a regular oolong for me. I know it’s a jade oolong and they are more like green teas by default, but this tasted greener than some of the BaoZhongs I’ve had. I wonder how might it have tasted if it were fresher, but for $19 for 50 grams, this was a deal that I am very content with for great quality.
You know I will write more notes of this one for the future.