A few days ago, I wanted some green oolong without having to open an entire 150 g pack, so I raided my tea museum for this small sample bag. The label doesn’t have a year on it, but I suspect it’s from 2021 or 2022. This Lishan deserved a better fate! I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.
The dry aroma is of peaches, orchids, other florals, cream, mung beans, and grass. The first steep has notes of underripe peach, cream, orchid, sweet pea, mung beans, and grass, with a nice, thick texture and a peachy aftertaste. I notice a bit more grass than is usual in Wang’s teas, though that could be due to age. Steep two is grassy peaches and cream. The next couple steeps are more floral, with notes of cream, custard, and sadly, more grass. The next few steeps retain the ethereal floral, peachy aroma, but the taste increasingly features spinach and grass. Still, I continued to steep the leaves several more times to extract those lingering florals.
This is a good oolong that might have been fantastic when it was fresher. I’ve added it to my list of great teas from this company, which also includes their SLX Wild Garden, Da Yu Ling, Fushoushan, Osmanthus Alishan, and SLX Small Leaf Black Tea.
Flavors: Beany, Cream, Custard, Floral, Grass, Orchid, Peach, Spinach, Thick, Vegetal
Literally a top 3 tea all time for me! I freaking love this tea so much. I haven’t had it after 2-3 years of age, but fresh it is out of this world!