This is a tea I have been meaning to review for a while now. I kind of have this goal of reviewing at least three examples of each Wuyi oolong cultivar I can get my hands on, but had always put off reviewing a Shui Xian because they tend to be so easy to come by. Well, I finally got so sick of seeing this shiny silver sample pouch staring at me each time I opened the kitchen tea cabinet that I decided to gongfu it after work yesterday evening. I found it to be a truly exceptional tea, though I am not certain the price I paid for it was justified.
As mentioned above, I gongfued this tea. I only had 5 grams to play around with, so I worked with what I had. After a quick rinse, I steeped the full 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.
Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of char, wood, rock sugar, and saffron. The rinse brought out touches of jasmine, chicory, moss, damp grass, cinnamon, and aloe. The first infusion brought out enhanced floral and spicy characteristics on the nose, as well as touches of moist earth and cream. In the mouth, I picked up nice and surprisingly robust notes of cream, aloe, jicama, chicory, damp grass, char, wood, rock sugar, cinnamon, saffron, and moss. I didn’t pick up any jasmine-like flavor, but jasmine was indeed there on the nose. Subsequent infusions brought out cannabis, burdock, dandelion, wet stone, mineral, roasted almond, stewed apricot, and butterscotch notes. The later infusions were heavy on mineral, stone, moss, wood, and damp grass flavors, though I could still pick up some cream and some vegetal touches. I also noted the emergence of a buttered popcorn note, which I often find in many Wuyi oolongs.
This was an interesting and very enjoyable tea. Unlike a lot of oolongs, it let me know what to expect up front and then only changed subtly afterwards. Still, there was a lot going on with it and a lot to appreciate about it. If the price were not so exorbitant ($25+ for 25 grams, nearly $6 for a single 5 gram serving), I would probably order more. Overall, this was definitely worth a try, but I’m not at a point where I can once again justify spending so much on such a small amount of tea.
Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Butterscotch, Cannabis, Char, Cinnamon, Cream, Dandelion, Floral, Grass, Jasmine, Mineral, Moss, Popcorn, Saffron, Sugar, Vegetal, Wet Earth, Wet Rocks, Wood
