Lishan, Winter

Mmmmm I needed to open something new I had been holding back in my stash for inspiration. Needed a pure unadulterated tea. This is an absolutely stunning oolong!
Fresh, sweet, refreshing, delicious notes.
Going to go do a full review for sororitea sisters now.
I love The Mountain Tea Company – everything from them this far has been excellent.

Thank you Nicole! I wanted a nice oolong tonight. It was time for the brew basket for this one! The dry leaves are so bright green and lovely – it had to taste just as nice. I really had no idea how long or what temp to steep this one at. I really wish companies did a better job of mentioning that (like on their websites).. I don’t really want to ruin their nice teas!

Steep #1 // waited a while after boiling // 2 or 2.5 min
The steep color is a light buttery yellow. The dry leaf and the steeped tea fragrance smells like something very sweet and fruity – pineapple? But the flavor is like a lighter milk oolong. Creamy and sweet. I wasn’t expecting that, as this isn’t actually called milk oolong.

Steep #2 // waited a while // 3 min
Over steeped! I was going for 2-2.5 min. It still tastes fine, but there is a tanginess that wouldn’t be there if I didn’t go for three minutes. There is less butter this time around and more pineapple with a hint of lemon. Interesting.. I’ve never noticed lemon in an oolong before. The little bright green bundles have turned into unraveled tiny branches.

An exceptional ever-changing oolong!

Hello friends I am here, I could not last very long..of course the dashboard is busted right now. Things still suck A LOT but other than finding a job (hahahahahaha I thought this was going to be easier, I have lost count of applications, have only had one interview, and was turned down for it which I don’t mind because it was 6am-2pm or 2pm-10pm and no thanks..), I’ve done all I can for right now. I still have a lot more tea to let go of. I just still can’t bring myself to do it.

So because I get incredibly hot even with it being 77 in my apartment, I have become a creature of the cold brew. It’s been awhile since I cold brewed an oolong and I thought this one sounded like it’d be a good choice. And it is!

It reminds me a bit of the oolong base of the Lupicia Pineapple Oolong, but maybe much more subtle on the orchid notes, or at least easier to drink. It is overall pretty floral, but not like undrinkably so. It almost reminds me a bit of a white tea, there’s something like sweet hay to it. The sweetness also seems like some kind of light fruit. Pineapple’s in the description on here but it’s something a bit more subtle that I’m getting.

I’m not like a huge, huge fan of it, for some reason I’ve had a falling out with oolongs like this even though they used to be my favorite thing. I was hoping coldbrewing would bring the love back or something.

Just for future reference also since I used probably half this tea and might want to do this again: I steeped it for roughly 18 hours before first drinking, but left the tea in there for another couple of hours. It didn’t make much of a difference, but 18 was good. The other time I cold brewed an oolong I went a full day, but I think this was definitely full of flavor at 18.

I received a very generous sample of this from Nicole. Thank you!

I am in oolong heaven. I brewed this to drink with lunch and lunch is now shoved aside so I can focus on this tea. This is handsdown the best oolong I’ve ever tasted. It hits all the points I love in oolongs, and surpasses all other oolongs I’ve had so far.

It is smooth, buttery, and rich. Lightly floral, and almost syrupy in taste at the same time. I cannot wait to see how this tastes in further steeps. This is so so delicious.

Flavours of honey and flowers pervade all infusions, with the former more prominent initially and the latter to the fore subsequently. Too light for my taste. The leaves, however, are stunning to behold.

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, 90 deg., 3 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 5 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 10+ min.

Definitely one of the more green oolong teas I’ve had but still oxidized enough to cut back on the vegetal/grassy taste. Really nice clean taste, especially after a few steeps.

Another tea from the puerh plus box. This one is just amazing, its smooth sweet buttery, with a tiny touch of spice. Clear light and very flavorful, it has that high mountain taste you get from the really good Taiwan oolongs.

I brewed this tea in my yixing, with 205 water. Starting with a rinse I got a very light clear liquor that produced a wonderful aroma. The first infusion was light and the flavors still hadnt popped yet.

In the second infusion I got the intense honey, spice, pear and peach flavors you get with the high mountain oolong. This continued in the third and fourth, with a slight drop off with the fifth. Though the flavors remain mostly consistent.

This is really nice tea, and Im glad I got to taste it, I havent gotten to taste many lishan oolongs so far. They seem a tiny bit more fruity and spicy than the Alishan oolongs. The type of Taiwan tea , ive tasted most often.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes high mountain or Taiwan tea.

I’ve seen Mountain Tea’s LiShan name-dropped a few times on Steepster and r/tea due to its abnormally cheap price. With 5 ounces going for only $25, could it actually be any good? Well, judging by the reviews on Steepster and r/tea, people seem to be quite impressed.

Mountain Tea recently started selling a Spring LiShan that created a bit of a buzz on r/tea, which reminded me that I had a box of the Winter LiShan still sitting on my tea shelf. I figured it was about time that I got around to writing about it.

LiShan is probably my favorite type of oolong tea, so I couldn’t wait to try Mountain Tea’s version. LiShan is a mountain in central Taiwan. Its name translates to “Pear Mountain,” which conjures up lovely images of pear orchards and tea fields. And from what I read online, that image is quite accurate. LiShan is home to many pear and apple orchards, which require the cool mountain temperatures in order to thrive.

This is the last Mountain Tea I have to review, so there won’t be any more in the future….sorry if I’ve been reviewing too many of their products lately! For the next few weeks, I’ll be focusing on White2Tea’s newer offerings.

I drank this tea while constructing a tea table, so pardon any messiness or sawdust.

Dry Leaf

The dry leaf looks like a standard rolled oolong. Most of the leaves were a dark grey-green color, but there are also a few bright green leaves floating around. There are a few stems thrown into the mix.

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These leaves certainly smell like high quality LiShan. They give off a very grassy and floral aroma, but with a certain richness to it that is very hard to put into words. The closest thing I can think of is perhaps a roasted nut or coconut aroma.

Teaware

I got to break in my beautiful new teapot for this review. I just got this Ruyao Triad Teapot from White2Tea.

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I’ve had my eye on this teapot for several months since I’m such a huge sucker for ruyao teapots and it matches my ruyao teacup perfectly. After gushing about this teapot to all of my tea friends, I finally received it as a gift. There is a lesson to learn here. If you drop subtle hints about a teapot long enough, somebody will buy it for you (sarcasm).

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I used 9 grams of leaf for this 150 ml teapot.

Brewing

I started out brewing this tea at 190° F. The first steep is a light buttery yellow color with a touch of green.

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The upfront taste is light and extremely floral, somewhat similar to a Jin Xuan milk oolong. However, the herbal notes take over quite quickly and begin to dominate. The mouthfeel is very thick and pleasant, which is a feature that I really enjoy in high mountain oolongs.

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The aftertaste is very sweet and floral, and left my mouth feeling clean and refreshed.

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The second steep is a bit lighter in color. The mouthfeel is still very thick, but the flavor profile changes. The herbal flavor fades away and is replaced by a sweet and fruity flavor, perhaps pineapple as other reviewers have mentioned.

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I think I left the third steep to sit a bit too long, so it came out noticeably darker. This tea is still very pleasant when oversteeped.

I continued to drink this tea for about 7 or 8 infusions, so it can certainly last through a longer tea tasting session. After finishing this session, I felt extremely relaxed and calmed, perhaps even more so than I usually do after sitting down to drink tea. That’s a good sign I suppose!

Finished Leaf

The finished leaves were very large and full. It looks like there are more stems than I noticed before, so perhaps they were curled into the balls.

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Conclusion

This LiShan may not be quite as good as the super duper top-notch stuff you can find in high-end Taiwanese tea stores, but it is still a wonderful tea. I would definitely recommend grabbing a bag of this from Mountain Tea. As far as the quality to price ratio goes, you can’t do much better than this LiShan.

I am elated to have found this tea, because I can now drink quality LiShan on a regular basis without breaking the bank. This tea is cheap enough that I can drink it regularly without feeling guilty about the ridiculous amount of money I spend on tea every year. With 5 ounces of this tea only going for $25, I wouldn’t pass it up. I will definitely be buying this tea again, and I can’t wait to try the Spring LiShan to see how it compares.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be focusing on White2Tea’s newer offerings. It’s been a while since I’ve tried any new and interesting puerh teas, so I am looking forward to it!

http://mountaintea.com/collections/green-oolong/products/lishan-winter-1

Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.~Ralph Waldo Emerson