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“This is sooooooo amazing cold brewed. Sooooooooo amazing. It tastes like heavenly snow. Like lilacs and winter. Smooth and sparkly and so delicious. I can’t describe it. I can’t compare it. ...” Read full tasting note
“OH GOD! This is AWESOME. I have to get more of this!!! I remember smelling the leafs before steeping and going HMF. It smells so green and seaweedy – I was really not in the mood for green. But I...” Read full tasting note
“My last bit of this sample was a little more than I needed, but I liked the slightly stronger taste it yielded. I went three steeps, and really did find very different characteristics in each one....” Read full tasting note
“Ali Shan! My favorite Oolong! I even purchased a Yixing mug from Jade Teapots (ebay seller 11sbaumann) JUST for my Ali Shan consumption! And I am christening my mug with THIS Ali Shan. And THIS…...” Read full tasting note
Alishan (Mount A Li) is one of Taiwan’s most famous oolong tea-growing areas. The mountain has a rich soil and ideal climactic conditions. It is cool and moist with daily mists so the plants grow very slowly and produce tender, flavourful tea leaves and buds.
This Alishan oolong is hand-picked and hand-processed by traditional methods into rolled ‘fists’. It has a smooth, fruity, sweet taste and a pleasing bright colour. This tea has a complexity that means each brewing brings out new characteristics and flavours.
New 2010 spring season tea. This is a very good example of one of Taiwan’s most celebrated high-grown oolong teas. The fresh, clean almost creamy taste makes it an extremely refreshing and satisfying tea to enjoy at any time of day.
Our Buyer’s notes
“This tea is produced by an old friend of mine on a small tea farm in Ali Shan. He is a skilled tea maker and only uses the best leaves processed in the old-fashioned way to ensure a sweet taste.”
Canton Tea Co is a London-based tea company trading in high grade, whole leaf Chinese tea. We have exclusive access to some of the best jasmine, white, green, oolong, black and authentic puerh teas available. In our first year, we scooped Six Golds at the 2009 Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards. Our Jasmine Pearls won the top three star gold award, endorsing it as the best available in the UK.
This offered some pleasant surprises.
The tea starts as very bright green “nuggets” with a literally sweet, mouthwatering fragrance of honeydew, cucumber and very subtle sweet hay.
After brewing, the leaves were completely unfurled and had expanded to fairly impressive proportions. (My gaiwan runneth over.) The tea was more golden than I’ve seen in other oolongs and was subtly floral and grassy in fragrance.
In taste, it was very light and I picked up buttered squash and a touch of vanilla. The first infusion had a slight tartness, but I think I went too long. Next time, I’d probably start with only a minute or so and work back up.
I liked this one. It had a lot to offer and was really enjoyable. I seem to be building quite an affinity for Taiwanese teas as I haven’t really found a bad one yet.
Creamy and substantial, pushing into a sweet milkiness spiked with a heavy “green” taste that anchors the liquor and keeps it from floating off into marshmallow land. The leaves unfurl wonderfully and appear thick and healthy. Good for quite a few infusions.
Very clean and rich, a good everyday “greener” style oolong that teeters on the sweet side.
This week’s Canton Tea Club offering had participants trying to decide a victor between Li Shan and Ali Shan oolongs. For an indecisive Libran like me, this was going to be difficult. Why? They look, smell, and (from what I recalled) tasted the same!
So, I subjected both to a Western-style pinting to determine a victor. Ali Shan won by a hair, thanks to appeasing my sweet-tooth. However, the best results came when I combined the two. I was downing the mixture by the pot as a wrote this: http://steepstories.com/2012/11/27/throwing-in-the-towel-after-a-tea-fight/
While listening to M.C. Hammer.
No, really.
This is awesome.
The smell of the leafs before steeping is amazing.
The second infusion is the one I like more; the most balanced one. I’ll review it.
The color is quite limpid with emerald green shades.
The smell is full of floral notes; but it is not aggressive.
It tastes gentle with floral and some spicy notes in the end.
The persistence is really long. This oolong will leave your mouth with a really soft aroma and you will not want to drink (or eat) anything for at least an hour.
In conclusion this is my favorite oolong; and one of the few that I would replace with water.
WTR score of 88. Lighter in aftertaste (sweetness). Norbu has generally performed better in consistently sourcing ali shans.
compare to other ali shans on Walker Tea Review: http://walkerteareview.com/http:/walkerteareview.com/tag/ali-shan
Sipdown no. 3 of 2021 (no. 623 total). A sample. Backlogged from yesterday.
I rated this one pretty high when I originally put it through its paces, and I’m not going to second guess myself. Particularly since, though it appears I tried hard to preserve enough for a second serving, I failed. I had to add some tieguanyin from the defunct Chicago Tea Room to the mix to have enough to steep western style in the Breville.
Certainly, a nice final caffeine infusion for the day. I’m reminded that I need to drink this sort of tea not on the heals of a stronger one, though. Definitely need more than just a palate cleanser to fully appreciate the subtlety of this one — need at least half a day without other tea flavors. I described this in the original note as a light, by which I don’t mean in flavor, but in the emotional state it induces. To fully appreciate that, I’d need more of a time break between the last heavier tea and this.
I look forward to trying this one… I love Ali Shan Oolongs … I even just purchased a new Yixing mug for my Ali Shan Oolongs…