Taiwan High Mountain Oolong Tea

We had a few people absent from our writers’ group tonight, and since several of the attendees have really been loving the tea, I offered to use the extra time to do a gong fu tasting of this tea.

The tea was passed around the circle in the display dish. One of the younger members has been to China a couple of times and she really loved the aroma of the dry leaf. These are tight, hard pellets. When I poured them in the pot, they barely covered the bottom of the little 8 ounce vessel. It was going to be fun to watch their reaction to the unfurling of the leaves.

I did a quick rinse and then a short steep. The liquor was a nice solid yellow and the taste was smooth and buttery with a light floral taste. The girl who had been to China said it was nice, and she liked it, but it wasn’t going to be a favorite. Knowing the flavor profile she has liked in the past, I made the next two steeps longer. Now the tea had that little bite with the sweet aftertaste that is found in some green teas like Chun Mee.

As I expected, she said those were her favorite steeps. We made about 35 ounces in all tonight and there are still some good steeps left in these leaves.

Thank you, Teavivre, for the wonderful samples!

A huge thank you to Angel & Teavivre for sending me some oolong samples! It was perfect timing, since I have just been refining my ability to taste the differences between different oolongs (instead of saying they all taste oolongy) and be able to figure out which ones are floral (not my favourites), creamy (yes!), roasty (even better!), or various other flavours.

I kind of randomly selected this tea as one of the first two I brewed up (I couldn’t choose…) I was expecting a tea on the lightly creamy side, since it’s a high mountain oolong and that’s the association I have in my head, but instead, it had much more of a green, floral profile, like a tieguanyin. There was perhaps still some creaminess, but floral notes definitely dominated. As I’m not the biggest fan of floral teas, this wouldn’t be one I’d purchase myself, but it’s pretty tasty if you do like that sort of flavour profile. If, however, you want a milk oolong-type tea, my first experience with this one makes me think that you should try something else first!

I don’t drink oolongs often. It isn’t that I don’t like them because I definitely love them. The problem for me is they resteep so well that I feel like I am abandoning them if I stop before the leaf does, which is almost always.

Accepting my lack of ability to commit to the entire journey – I opened this sample and prepared 12 ounces of water for my mug. Once steeped, I could catch the floral aroma across the room. The sip is different than the aroma. It is like sipping buttery vegetables (spinach?) with a hint of bite. This is definitely oolong tasting and not like a green tea despite the similarity of my description.

Initially it only seems slightly sweet. The floral aspect swells late in the sip then recedes into a long nice lasting fragrant much sweeter aftertaste. The second mug (also 12 ounces) was as delicious as the first. It would go at least once more mug (probably more) but I am walking away. But hey, if this were gaiwan style brewed I would be like eight cups in, so forgive my poor bladder.

The pellets become full leaves after they have relaxed. They look so fresh and green I could almost imagine they were just picked for this very mug.

Teavivre says this is a beginner Taiwan oolong. Obviously Angel has access to far better tea than I can buy locally as none of my beginner oolongs ever approached this level of depth and flavor. Yes, I have had more complex teas but that takes nothing away from this excellent everyday version.

And here’s another sipdown! That puts me at 100 tea! (And sadly, I look at my cupboard and think I need more. Maybe 10 different samples from DAVIDsTEA? /o\)

Anyway, this was from one of the oolong samplers from Teavivre that I’m happy I picked up, although I’m worried I’ll get all these oolongs mixed up. I think the Taiwan Dong Ding is my favourite so far.

And this one? It’s described as a beginner oolong – I’m comforted. It’s mostly floral, and a little creamy, and I think it reminds me of the monkey-picked oolongs? Hmmm. I think there’s a jasmine aftertaste to it as well.

Does anyone know which of teavivre’s oolongs are roastier than the others? I think I like roasty more than floral with oolongs. Thanks!

Ooh, a Fujian oolong! I have developed a serious love for this tea region over the years. One might say almost a fetish.

The leaves are rolled up into much tinier nuggets than the other two I’ve tried in this tasting. They are of the same consistency, however. Mottled dark green and lightly floral scented. I copied ashmanra and gave the leaves a quick rinse before hitting them with boiling water. Even though I’m coming down with a cold, I could smell with delight that this was going to be another creamy oolong.

The water was a light greenish yellow after two and a half minutes. When I put the leaves in my mesh infuser, they were barely enough to cover the bottom. Steeped, they practically fill it to the top! They fluffed out much more than I thought possible. Each leaf is whole, hardly damaged at all by processing. They’re narrow and pointed at the end. Maybe an inch long.

The flavor is definitely buttery and a tad vegetal. I’m getting hints of flowers, too, especially in the finish. Is it possible for a tea to be floral and vegetal at the same time? Because I think it is. It’s not as creamy as the Ali Shan, but there’s definitely some cream flavor there.

Sipdown #70, another oolong from KS. I’ve been sipping these oolongs all afternoon. I set up 3 gaiwans side by side, because I wanted to compare them, but it didn’t really happen, at much. This one reminds me a bit of sourdough bread, & is also lightly vegetal & floral. Of the 3, I think I like this one the best, although, as I said before, I will always prefer the more roasty oolongs. Still, I’ve enjoyed sampling these. Thanks KS!

Sipdown, 123. This is an oolong that I haven’t yet tried from Teavivre, yay!

Wow, this one smells amazing! I guess I didn’t know quite what to expect, but yum. It smells like floral candy. Not just sugary, but like actual boiling sugar, with the slight hint of caramelization and everything. My mouth is watering!

It is less candied and more leafy in flavor, although there is certainly a lovely sweetness that lingers in the aftertaste. I do get a hint of a bite, although it is different from typical bitterness/astringency. It is a sharpess, almost spicy like arugala. I brewed it fairly strong, so the bite may be a factor of that as well. The beginning of the sip is buttery and slightly floral. I really like this one and find it more interesting than most Taiwanese high mountain oolongs that I have tried before. I may have to pick up more of this to play around with eventually. What can I say, I’m a sucker for sweet green oolongs with interesting layers of flavor.

Received this one from Teavivre’s Autumn tea contest.

This is a nice, light green oolong. I brewed it western style, for 2 minutes. It was still very light at 2 minutes. It is very lightly floral. There is a slight spice to it, but it not overpowering. There is also a bit of natural sweetness. Very smooth. No aftertaste. I think this one would be great iced.

Like Teavivre says in the description, I agree that this would be a good beginner oolong.

Thank you Angel at Teavivre for this sample! My last selection from this bunch of samples.
This is a lovely, floral, green oolong with a hint if creaminess. There is a sweet aftertaste which I am fond of. Overall, very enjoyable
3 tsp of leaf, boiling water, 1 minute
I didn’t get around to a resteep unfortunately

This is the last of the teas for me to try from the Taiwan Oolong trial pack that I won in Fall (thanks again Angel!!) and I’ve pretty much enjoyed them all (some more than others but that’s to be expected.). It’s surprising to me since I would never have considered myself an oolong lover previously but I’ve found that I really do enjoy them.

Dry this tea presents a fresh green scent with many sweet floral notes and a slight roasted (almost nutty) undertone. A quick rinse, followed by a 25 sec steeping gave me a bright yellow-green colored liquor.

With my first sniff of this freshly brewed cup I got so many warm, roasted nutty (but sweet) notes that I was truly surprised. Given how fresh and floral the dry tea was I couldn’t believe that this was the same tea. I will note that as it cooled those sweet floral notes started to shine through. The flavor was sweet and mellow, with just enough floral notes to give some nice highlights to the flavor profile with some deep roasted notes underneath.

The second steeping was also for 25sec, and while the color and scent profile were similar the flavor had deepened in this cup. My first few sips tasted of roasted nuts with the floral highlights only showing up in the finish. As it cooled the floral notes started to come forward sooner but this cup as significantly deeper and darker in flavor than the first. The mouth feel though, still light, was creamier too.

The third (30 sec) and fourth (60 sec) gave similar cups, gold in color with a sweet rotated aroma and a few fragrant floral highlights. I noticed a few dark vegetal flavors in these steepings which mixed well with the sweet floral notes that have been consistently present in this tea. The mouth feel while full and creamy was still quite light.

The last two steepings (70 & 80 sec) also gave similar cups, light gold and subtle in fragrance and flavor. A nice balance mix of floral and vegetal, roasted yet sweet; not overly complex but at the same time not too simple either.

I found this to be a lovely, well rounded oolong; definitely a good introduction to this type of tea. Though I still prefer the Oriental Beauty I could see keeping some of this on hand when I’m looking for something floral.