Here is another tea I have been working my way through over the past couple of days. I expect to finish the remainder of it this afternoon. I think I ended up purchasing this tea because I was going through a phase where I was obsessed with trying oolongs from each high mountain terroir of Taiwan. I don’t recall ever trying a proper Mei Shan tea prior to this one, and if this one was anything to go by, I am not certain that the Mei Shan terroir does it for me.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were a follows: 12 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, and 3 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted subtle aromas of butter, cream, and bread underscored by a vague floral quality. After the rinse, I began to pick up on hints of vanilla, custard, and sweetgrass. The first infusion brought out pronounced lilac and orchid scents as well as touches of orchard fruit. In the mouth, I picked up on mild notes of cream, butter, custard, vanilla, bread, sweetgrass, lilac, and orchid undercut by a touch of green apple. Subsequent infusions better brought out the green apple, although I also began to pick up crisp hyacinth, mineral, pear, sugarcane, spinach, nectar, cucumber, honeydew, and daffodil tones. The later infusions were very quick to wash out, as I had to focus to pick up lingering traces of minerals, sweetgrass, green apple, spinach, pear, cream, and butter balanced by ghostly floral impressions.
As high mountain oolongs go, this one was very crisp and light in the mouth. The aromas and flavors did not separate all that much until close to the end of the session, and even then, they were not as distinctive as other high mountain oolongs I have tried. Overall, this was an extremely light, sweet, and vegetal tea. It was not really my thing, but it wasn’t bad. I could see it being a decent introduction to high mountain oolongs.
Flavors: Bread, Butter, Cream, Cucumber, Custard, Floral, Grass, Green Apple, Honeydew, Mineral, Narcissus, Nectar, Orchid, Pear, Spinach, Vanilla
