Shanlin Xi Wild Garden High Mountain Oolong

Finished this one up a couple of months ago. Another very nice Wang family tea that offers a lot of florals that shift and evolve from steep to steep.

The rolled tea leaves are gigantic and dark green in color, emitting an aroma of apple and flowers. Following a rinse, coconut and tropical fruit emerge. The tea begins with creamsicle, flowers, and mineral accents. Lily of the valley and daffodils bloom in the second infusion. This is followed by more floral notes of gardenia, perfume, and a little honey. It begins fading after the 5th infusion but still offers a pleasant syrupy flavor.

I also prepared this by combining / stacking the infusions together. The result was a sweet and rich floral bouquet. Not as thick though and lacks some of the top notes. Nevertheless still full flavored and tasty.

I just got a big order from Wang Family Tea, and I couldn’t be more excited! This was one of the teas I was most looking forward to trying. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot in boiling water for the recommended 55, 45, and 55 seconds, then had to guess about subsequent brews because the vendor doesn’t provide any instructions. I chose to steep it for 1:15, 1:30, 2, 3, and 5 minutes.

The dry aroma of these big tea nuggets is of orchids, brown sugar, and stonefruit. The first steep is surprisingly sweet, with orchid, brown sugar, butter, other florals, lettuce, and lots of peach. I still don’t really know what osmanthus tastes like and haven’t knowingly had mung bean paste, though I have had red bean buns, which may or may not be relevant. The second steep has more orchid, butter, grass, that other flower that I suspect is osmanthus, beans, and lots and lots of peach, especially in the back of the throat and in the aftertaste. The next couple steeps have a little less stonefruit and more florals and beans, but are still very smooth. I also get a hint of sap that is typical of Shan Lin Xi. The sappy character continues in the next two rounds, along with peach, beans, orchids, osmanthus, and grass. Near the end of the session, the stonefruit and florals fade and I get grass, beans, and spinach.

As Daylon states, this oolong isn’t complicated, but the flavours come through beautifully and there’s virtually no bitterness. I value these things highly in green oolongs and my rating reflects that.

I wish this site would actually save my notes….

Okay, I need to let out some tea verbiage confetti. Before I do that, I will say that the majority of the teas that I’ve drank so far and have mentioned are not on steepster yet, so it will take some time for me to put them up. I missed it when companies used to put the teas on here themselves. Oh well.

Moving onto this one, Wang Family teas never dissapoint. Oolongs dominate their catalogue, but they are all different, but they are all smooth and easy to drink. Gaoshan’s are usually smooth by default, but Wang’s teas smoothen out the rougher edges of their teas, whether that edge is the nuclear spinach quality of most high mountain green oolongs, or the smooth out their roasting edge by relying on charcoal, or at least roasting the tea to caramelize the sugars evenly in their tea.

The Dragon Boat Festival brought up a few new finds on their website that I had to try. I was already scouting out their Oriental Beauty, and thinking about getting more of their Shan Lin Xi because it works as a good morning tea, but then they had to add a few more interesting additions, including this fine tea.

It’s a wild grown one, so I expected some heavy florals, maybe fruitier qualities. The companies description is vivid, breaking it down session by session after the rinse and the 55, 45, 55 second pattern. They describe sweet orchid coating the tea’s flavor, and then detail osmanthus and mung bean in the middle steeps. They found stonefruit and brown sugar in the aroma of the later steeps.

I personally got it in reverse order, and used around 5-6 grams instead of 7. The dry leaf is extremely sweet, having some stonefruit and brown sugar qualities with the already in the dry leaf. I also got more of those notes in steep one after the rinse rather than the third ones. Orchid, followed by osmanthus were obvious. Mung bean and orchid described the rest of it. It was not as vegetal as other Shan Lin Xi’s I’ve had, which is nice given how sweet it is. I also find that it did not evolve to much in the later brews up to brew 7, but they were balanced, sweet and refreshing.

I really enjoyed this one, and the leaves were huge. Even the dryleaf looked like oversized dragonheads. My only nitpick is the price, since it was $16 per 25 grams. I usually expect a little bit more complexity with that price point. It’s a quality tea for sure with a sweetness that stands out against other Shan Lin Xi, but it still has the flavors you can usually expect from this quality tea. I don’t regret buying it for a minute, and I recommend Gaoshan devotees to try it, but I can also see more people being picky about the lack of complexity.

I’d like to see if someone has a similar reaction, though I have a feeling I’d rate it on the higher end than some people just because of my preference for easy going teas. I’m tossed up between 87-92 for the rating.