Shanlin Xi High Mountain

Might be an off day for my palate? This is one I was anticipating enjoying quite a bit. 25 seconds for first steep, 30 second, 55 third. Just not getting much flavor out of it honestly. Think I need to try again another time. Will hold off on final judgement until then :).

UPDATE: Tried some again the following day and BOOM. Flavor hit me this time for sure! Adjusting my rating appropriately. My palate was not feeling it yesterday. Weird how that happens! I didn’t adjust brewing parameters or anything.

Anyways, this is mostly tropical fruit in smell and flavor and I love it! Not as rich as the Fushou Shan, but still fairly rich. Great value for the price. Would be interesting to do a side-by-side brew of this and the one from Eco-cha. Hard to say which one is better at the moment tbh.

Mild sweetness, no astringency or bitterness. Longevity is 4-6 infusions. Mouthfeel is creamy and rich. Notes shift more vegetal in the later infusions.

Harvest: Spring 2023
Cultivar: Qing Xin
Location: Shanlin Xi
Elevation: 1200 m

Dry leaf: Sweet
Wet leaf: Papaya, sweet, tropical fruit
Flavors: Sweet, vegetal, papaya, pineapple, tropical fruit, cream, floral, coconut, honeysuckle, creamed spinach.

Spring 2021 harvest.

If I were rating this tea based on the first 2-3 infusions, it’s close to a perfect 100. But longevity is important too and unfortunately, that’s where this tea is lacking. It peaks very early and the flavor drops precipitously.

The initial steeps are exquisite. Full bodied with a rush of complex florals and a texture that feels like liquid silk rolling around on your tongue. Notes of wildflowers, lily, and honeysuckle. This is accompanied by a juicy mélange of tropical fruit and nectar sweetness. However, the tea drops off quickly after the 3rd steep becoming more muted as the floral-tropical flavor fades into the background. After 5 steeps, it goes completely flat and has little if anything left to offer. Rather disappointing as most gaoshans give at least 6-7 decent infusions.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this Shan Lin Xi for a while, and finally finishing a 150 g pack of another Shan Lin Xi gave me the perfect opportunity. (I actually forgot to post a note on that tea, but fortunately, I have another bag.) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus several uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of pineapple, orchids, and grass. The first steep has orchid, pineapple, coconut, woodsy, and grassy notes, with some other unidentifiable florals mixed in. The next steep has a touch of astringency and the sappy quality I get with many teas from Shan Lin Xi. I also notice cream, green beans, and sweeter florals (narcissus?), and as Daylon said, it kind of reminds me of a fabric softener sheet. The aroma at the bottom of the cup is particularly floral and fruity. Steeps three and four are full of cooked pineapple, herbs, orchids, sweet pea flowers, beans, grass, and veggies, with maybe a hint of citrus. The tea is becoming increasingly vegetal and green. The next couple steeps feature more coconut and pineapple in the aroma, but more spinach and grass in the taste. The final long steeps are mostly vegetal with hints of florality.

This is a highly drinkable tea, as shown by the fact that I’ve had three sessions with it in the past few days and will finish my 25 g bag shortly. I love the tropical fruit and sweet florals, but the strongly vegetal flavours and lack of longevity bring my rating down somewhat. Nonetheless, this is a tea I will consider buying again, if only because it’s substantially more affordable than the SLX Wild Garden.

I was pouring tea for a couple of friends (outside! Socially distanced!) and this was a very lovely tea for a lovely Oregon spring day. The first infusion was extremely buttery and a very sweet and smooth finish. The second infusion, grassy notes mingled with the butter. But the third was a revelation, the grass was overshadowed by heavy floral notes that appeared. One of my friends thought I’d switched out for a jasmine tea! Really lovely, will drink again.

Love this tea, and one that I thought I added and wrote about on Steepster, but alas, no.

I am working with the same year, 2019, and it’s one of my favorites. It’s got all the notes I associate with Shan Lin Xi-coconut, pineapple, pineapple skin, fresh greens, creamy texture, lingering after taste, and floral aroma that’s so lush and soft that it’s akin to a fabric softener sheet. It’s a little bit more vegetal than some other Shan Lin Xi’s I’ve had, but it’s definitely sweeter and more floral. It’s got enough complexity to boot gong fu going from floral, green, woodsy (slightly), dew, mountain air, jasmine, hyacinth, fruity, to honey and more floral mid steeps, and then sweeter, and it’s well rounded western or even as tumbler grandpa fuel if you are light on the leaves. I got asian pear in steep three yesterday, and it made my easter morning.

What I like about this particular Shanlinxi of the many I’ve had is that it’s incredibly forgiving and has a great energy. The L-theanine-caffeine combo is great and gets me through my mornings. It’s also got decent longevity going up to ten or twelve brews if you really leaf it and flash steep it, but it’s better to have a medium approach and medium to longer brewing time. It’s rarely astringent or too green.

The only downside is price. It costs $10 American Dollars for 25 grams, and though the price is lower as you go up to $28 for 75 grams, it’s still an investment for a tea that is worth the amount, but something that will hurt the pocket if it’s drank daily. Although it’s been my regular ShanLinXi for the last year and a half, it’s mixed in with the other assortment of teas I spend too much money on just to try. I do want to at least keep 25 grams of it around at a time because I like it that much.