Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea

Sipdown! (I think). This was likely a free sample from Teavivre (thanks!) Unfortunately, the note I wrote about it when drinking it for the first time is likely lost in a work email I wrote to myself, which is where I put things when I couldn’t post to Steepster. Sigh. Anyhow, I’m sure it was quite delicious when I first had it; it was good this time but as the packet was opened, I can’t write an accurate review for it, but can just say yum, oolong.

Last sample of this. Now I’m kicking myself not adding an order of this to my most recent order. I bought TeaVivre Milk oolong with another tea table last night.

It’s such a pleasant tea. Slightly milky and buttery, mellow and floral, I love the mouthfeel and the light milk aroma. Reminds me of my childhood. (I was naughty but I had great memories, maybe my parents don’t agree haha). It’s so mild, smooth, nurturing. Easy on my borderline temperamental stomach and soothing on my throat.

Yixing teapot, 7g, 110ml, 212℉, 8 steeps: rinse, 25s,25s,30s,40s,60s,90s,120s,180s

This is a free sample I received with my most recent order. My web browser and TeaVivre’s shopping cart system do not get along, and I had to e-mail them my choice of samples after the purchase. Without being able to see the list of samples, I asked for their Li Shan, and they gave me this Ali Shan Jin Xuan instead. While I’m grateful to TeaVivre for their excellent customer service, Alishan is the white bread of high mountain oolongs and I would have picked something else if I’d known that the Li Shan wasn’t offered.

I followed their instructions and steeped 7 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at boiling for 25, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 180 seconds.

The first steep has notes of white flowers, peas, cornhusk, and cream. Even with 7 g, the liquor is sweet and pungent with no astringency. Subsequent steeps have notes of lettuce, kale, and more flowers. By the fifth steep, this tea is entirely vegetal.

Although the first couple steeps were pretty good, this Alishan faded quickly and was fairly uncomplicated. I imagine it would make a tasty cold brew.

Thank you to CrowKettle for the sample. I finished off my second cup of this and can call this a sipdown.

Roasty, a tendency towards bitterness, toasted rice and barley, mineral and metallic notes. It isn’t a great tea, I found it a bit boring and lacking in flavor. I probably should have done this in my gaiwan.

This is a very nicely done tea, I just don’t personally care for it. However, I do think it is high quality – so I won’t leave a numerical rating since it doesn’t seem fair to rate an objectively good tea low. To me, it had too much of the vegetal flavor, almost like (I imagine) toasted spinach tastes like. It was very smooth and somewhat sweet and toasty. Again, high quality, just not my…cup of tea.

Had a gongfu session. Prepared with a ceramic gaiwan. 5 second rinse. Steeping times from Teavivre’s website: 25 sec, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, 180.

I had a odd experience with the dry leaf aroma: it was vegetal like sencha, but after a letting the leaf sit in the bowl for a minute or so, I smelled orange juice. I’m pretty sure of it… It’s not I’ve had orange juice as of late.

Well, the aroma of the leaf – from the rinse – goes back to Taiwanese oolong. Ah, summer flowers. ‘Tis mid-summer, the day of Lughnasadh. You can’t go wrong with an Alishan oolong, for it’s essence is summer. The wet leaf aroma – which follows the first infusions – reflects the fact that these leaves came from a tree called “Jin Xuan tea tree”: the notes are quite milky.

When I read this, while waiting for the water to heat, my insides winced. Jin Xuan makes me feel a little ill. But this tea isn’t called Jin Xuan.

The leaf yields a light green gold liquor, which is clear and full-bodied, and has a thick mouthfeel. The floral notes are consistent and delicate. In the middle of the session, berry notes comet through – strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, and other goodies. Nothing other than flowers and fruits.

I wouldn’t call this everyday per se – in no way it’s so pedestrian. But it is something one can drink every day, to relax with all year around. Agreeable and pleasant, this isn’t something I’d tire of easily.

Thank you to Teavivre for the generous sample.

Teavivre’s description of this tea as gardenias and milk is on point. The dry leaves have a sumptuous floral fragrance while the taste of the tea liquor is buttery smooth. Not surprising considering its from a Jin Xuan cultivar. It doesn’t take too kindly to long steep times. I had the best results following Teavivre’s brewing method (rinse, 25s, 25s, 30s, 40s, 60s, 90s, 2m).

The first couple of steeps taste like green tea. Vegetal and a little minty/herbacious. A buttery body develops with successive steeps accompanied by faint floral notes and a hint of pleasant bitterness as it goes down.

A serviceable tea though I wished there was more of the gardenia in the tea itself. Not really a fan of the milk tea flavor profile either. I like my gao shans floral and nectary sweet.

First steep smells like french toast, tastes softly floral and vegetal, a little buttery. The second steep had more pronounced and recognizable but still soft gardenia fragrance, just lovely, and the flavor had more personality, floral/vegetal with a bare whisper of vanilla. Third steep was unremarkable, too subtle for me. But there, I remarked it.

This tea is calming both physically and psychologically… like a very gentle cuddle. Understated elegance. It would be a great one to serve to someone who would prefer subtlety to a frank, full-disclosure tea… it retains an air of mystery.

Thank you so much for the samples, Angel! I am floored by how grassy this oolong smells. As the tea was finishing steeping, the grassy aroma morphed into buttery green vegetables.

This first steep tastes on the grassy side, but it has a smooth, buttery mouthfeel. There’s a touch of bitterness (one-minute first steep after I let the water cool for a minute or two) but overall, quite delicate.

The second steep, with the same steeping parameters (maybe under a minute, however), yields an even grassier profile in both scent and flavour. The butteriness hath faded from this one. The bitterness, on the other hand, has amplified.

I’m grateful that I was able to try this one, but I’ll refrain from rating since I don’t really care for these types of oolongs. That is, grassy/vegetal teas aren’t up my alley.

Hey all, still not feeling 100% yet, something about the transition from moderately warm and cold to full on constant cold winter always throws my body for a loop. Luckily taking a chill and getting some much needed sleep last night definitely seemed to help, along with a little thrift store therapy. I found some adorable new tea gear for an amazing price, I will have to have another tea gear show off soon! I am hoping after the ‘Christmas rush’ slows down I can get back to reviewing tea gear and tea books, but for now it is all tea all the time. I hope you all do not mind too terribly much.

So for today we are finishing up the Oolong tasting event from Teavivre with Superfine Taiwan Ali Shan Oolong Tea! This Gao Shan is from the 1,000 meter zone of Ali Shan, this particular tea is a Jin Xuan varietal (one of my personal favorites, in case you were curious) and apparently irrigated with fresh spring water. I want to be irrigated with fresh spring water, that stuff is delicious and so clean tasting, but I am not a plant so I must live vicariously through tea. The aroma of this tea is really quite sweet, like sesame candies with honey (ever had those things, they are delicious!) along with a touch of honeysuckle nectar and sweet cream, the cream notes border on buttery. Ok, so this just might be a Southern thing, but it reminds me a little of that super creamy honey butter for biscuits, yes I have been guilty of just eating the butter and forgoing the biscuit.

The aroma of the brewed leaves is unsurprisingly very sweet, they smell like a blend of honeysuckles and fresh growing things in summer. There are also notes of yeasty baking bread and a touch of chestnuts. The blend of bread and chestnut makes me want to bake, I absolutely love chestnuts, but they are obnoxiously expensive and I was spoiled as a kid since I lived near a chestnut tree. The liquid is no where near as intense as the wet leaves, it is mild and sweet with baking bread notes and a touch of slightly creamy honeysuckle.

The first steep is light in taste but powerful in mouth feel. It is so smooth that I will go out of a limb and say it is silky, it does not fill the mouth, it caresses. The taste is sweet, blending yeasty bread and honeysuckles with a distinct green quality, not vegetal, just green. I find myself wondering if the taste is really that mild or if the sensation of the tea is so intense that I am distracted by it, a very real possibility.

Whoa, the aroma of the second steep really steps up its game, where the previous steep was pretty mild, this one is sweet and yeasty with flower notes and a touch of sweet cream. Surprisingly, the taste is not really sweet, it blends notes of spinach, growing green things, and bread. Specifically either a really mild sourdough or country farm bread. At the finish there is a hint of sweet flowers and chestnuts. I love how bread like this tea tastes, I do not run into a more savory green oolong very often, so it is a bit fun!

The third steep is similar to the second with its delightfully sweet and floral aroma, specifically it is the aroma of honeysuckles, one of my favorite summer flowers. The taste surprises again, it starts off similar to the second, not as green and primarily yeasty. Then it blooms into honeysuckles and honey which lingers to the finish where it is joined with chestnuts at the aftertaste. This is not my favorite ever Oolong, but it is quite enjoyable.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/12/teavivre-superfine-taiwan-ali-shan.html