Taiwan Sourcing

This is a gorgeous bright sunshine yellow tea that reminds me of early summer.
The color is that of sunshine yellow as it moves through the day. The first infusion was a summer morning, 2nd infusion moved to a mid-morning yellow, then lightened up by the 4th & 5th infusion.

I brewed this gong-fu style, despite TS’s recommendation of brewing for a longer period of time. Start @ 20 seconds at 208 deg F, then increased 5-10-15 seconds per infusion

It smells of cream and light florals.

#1-2 infusion: Light floral notes of chrysanthemums. It’s a very bright team with a light cream & citrus aftertaste. It has a short-medium clean finish. There’s hardly any drying sensation. It has a nice light mouthfeel.

#3-4 infusion The aroma starts off citrus then finishes milky. This infusion starts off with a light astringency that I associate with most oolongs. It still has a lot of bright notes of florals, citrus…it has a nice light cha qi. It finishes with that nice creamy aftertaste.

It’s quite an enjoyable oolong for those days you want something bright, not too heavy, but a nice finish.

First, I don’t know if this is Summer 2017. There’s nothing to indicate harvest time or year on my sample.

Second, I brewed this per their recommendations. 100ml-5-6 grams @boiling water temp, with steep times of 3 min/3min/4 min respectively.

1st brew: the aroma is of mossy wood but the flavor is bitter dark cocoa nibs — no sweetness just the bitterness of the nibs. There’s a mild astringency aftertaste and medium mouthfeel. Overall, it has a good medium mouthfeel and is very smooth.

2nd steep @3 min: I smell camphor and mossy wood. The flavor is a milder bitter note that evens out towards the end. There is a slight astringent finish but still a good viscous mouthfeel. The tea soup is very smooth and not harsh.

3rd steep @4 minutes. I had to reboil water for this steep. I am unsure if it’s the water temp (I suspect that the water temp might have been slightly higher this time around) or if it’s the 3rd but this one is the most balanced of all three brews. I still smell the camphor and mossy wood aroma, but the bitterness has softened as the astringent. The mouthfeel is still good but the flavors are balancing themselves out.

Overall, I’m on the fence about the tea. It’s a good tea but different from what I normally prefer in its tasting profile, but it’s very smooth and has a really good mouthfeel. Others might enjoy it better. I’m going to play with different brewstyles to see if it speaks to me more in other ways.

Reviewing Winter 2018 harvest. An old Southern tradition is to mash butter and sorghum molasses together with a fork until creamed and eat with buttermilk biscuits. The dry leaves of this Alishan reminded me of the smell and taste of buttered molasses. Once the leaves were wet, there was a definite fruity element to the tea. I could never quite put a name to the fruit. It was sort of like blackberry, sort of like black current, but not quite those. After the third infusion, I got a very distinctive smell or flavor of green banana peeling. If you’ve peeled back a green banana, it was that smell more so than the banana itself. As the infusions went on, it turned more into the sweet potato flavor we often get with black teas. Finally, this tea got fruiter again toward the end. That was a fun ride. I look forward to trying it again and seeing if I can detect any effects from the GABA in this tea. I was in a hurry to get out the door this session.

After a visit to the doctor, I was informed there was a stomach bug going around, and that if anything, the white tea I had been drinking probably helped ease my symptoms. So, I went back on the tea last night. I had never had this type of oolong previously. I brewed this in a clay teapot. I found it to be one of the sweetest oolong teas I’ve experienced so far. The dry leaf smell had a nutty aroma that came out even more after it was in a heated teapot. I didn’t detect any burnt smells or notice any smokiness to the dry tea leaves that a reviewer had posted for a previous harvest. After a quick rinse and in further steepings, the wet leaves smelled fresh and green and never took on a vegetal, stewed spinach smell, which is a plus for me.

This is a delicate tea. The flavor is very delicious, but it is not strong and could be overwhelmed, so choose any food pairings wisely. I was using our well water, which has some mineral content, and it really worked great with this tea. I asked my wife to taste it, and she agreed that it was exceptionally sweet. It was sugary in the front of the mouth and on the teeth. I went through about 3/4 of a liter of water using a 70 ml teapot, so it went around 10 infusions and held up well. Interestingly to me, if I pushed the tea or kept the steeps short with hotter water, the strength changed, the liquor was darker, but it really did not change the flavor profile of the tea. This would be a good tea to serve with a bland meal, with a light dessert, or solo.

[Winter 2017 harvest]

It might be because it’s more than one year old by now, but the aroma of this tea is very weak. It does kind of make up for it in the aftertaste, which is strong and interesting.

The flavours are mostly vegetal with light bitterness in early steeps and floral notes developing in later ones. There are notes of grass, dandelion flowers and spinach. The aftertaste is sweet, spicy and very comforting, definitely the highlight of the session for me. It induces a somewhat tingling sensation in the throat. The liquor texture is between silky and creamy, but not very thick.

Even though it’s not a bad tea at all, I cannot recommend it because of the high price.

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFtRq6t3jOo (listening to her after the sublime concert last night)

This is a red oolong. I added the description from the YS website. It’s an interesting process to produce this tea. I’m having the light roasted version. When I opened the vacuum sealed bag, I took a sniff and didn’t smell much of anything. I let it air out for awhile and still not much smell in the dry leaf. It’s rolled very tightly and is very dry, so that’s probably why not much smell comes through. Each rolled leaf is about half the size of an M&M. Once it was placed into a heated Jianshui Zitao red clay teapot, the dry leaves released their aroma. This would be a fun blind tasting tea. I’ve never smelled a hibiscus, so I can’t comment on the Roselle Nectar notes. It did have a floral/fruity scent but it is also very much like a black tea in that it has some sweet potato and chocolate notes.

This is a tea to experience. It has some really interesting things going on. If you’ve ever had a Laoshan black tea, you know the dark chocolate brownie, sweet potato taste that comes through. It’s as if someone brewed a light roast fruity non-green-leaning oolong, and when no one was looking gave it a shot of Laoshan black tea. It’s a very unique experience. I love it. It’s a sweet tea. It has a good lasting aftertaste. No bitterness. There is a little astringency in the longer steeps, but not much. In the mouth, it has a lightness. It performed well with short steeps of a few seconds. I also pushed it out to about 2 minutes in a later steep, and had an interesting experience. The taste was similar, but there was a tingling sensation at the tip of the tongue and a sweetness. It was like having carbonated bubbles from Sprite dancing on the tip of my tongue. In the final steeps the sweet potato fades and is replaced by a sweeter taste that is similar to a yellow musky peach. The cooked tea leaves and tea liquor matched the photos posted.

This one is a winner! Quite a unique experience, and it won’t break the bank.

There are two versions of this tea available. One is a light roast, and the other is a run dry. Run dry is a refining process where the tea is roasted, but it is roasted so lightly over charcoal, it is more like a drying/refining step and imparts no smokiness or roasted taste to the tea, but is considered preferable to machine drying. It is described as being more gentle and preserving more of the more subtle elements in the tea. This method of processing was thought to be lost to time as most processing went to jade oolong in Taiwan, but Mr. Zhuan processed this old-school style, and the folks at Taiwan/Yunnan Sourcing have brought it to us. It is a tightly rolled. I went for the “run dry” version. This tea is not cheap, but I was highly curious after reading the backstory on the tea.

When smelling the dry leaves, I don’t get much citrus from it. Maybe it has lost some of that since it was produced. I tried really hard to detect it. Even looking for it and trying to force my nose to pick up anything citrus-like, I can’t get much. It would be like rubbing a lemon on a sheet of paper a month ago. That’s about how much citrus I detect. I then hit the leaves with water, and it smells a lot like stewed spinach. Hmm. That’s not a big plus for me. Just my personal preferences against this smell.

Tasting the tea, it reminded me of a milk oolong. Maybe I’m crazy. I don’t think it is supposed to taste like this. It was like oyster stew without the oysters—milky, buttery, and an Anxi-like green oolong taste. It is less umami/seaweed than many green Taiwanese oolongs I’ve had. I’m really questioning myself on this tea, because my experience seems so different from what I’ve read. The color of the tea liquor was bright yellow.

This one liked short steeps of a few seconds. It had some mild astringency no matter how I steeped it, but it did not like being pushed.

I’m glad I had a chance to try this. I wish I could have tried it sooner when it perhaps had more citrus notes. I drank through about 7 infusions of this. It just wasn’t for me. I’m not going to rate it, because I think it is a unique tea and hits some notes that just happen to not be my favorites.

Harvest: Winter 2018
Varietal: Jin Xuan / 金萱
Elevation: 450 M / 肆佰伍拾 公尺
Region: Mingjian / 名間
Fermentation Level: 25% / 分之 貳拾伍
Roast Level: 0 / 無
Certified Organic

Spring 2018 harvest.

This is a tea that I just could not get to taste right no matter how much I tried. Tried gongfu, grandpa, and western steeping and all I got was a very pale, tasteless liquor.

Although this is classified as a green tea, it looks and smells like an oolong with its balled up leaves and rich, buttery aroma. In a heated vessel, it emits a sweet, pastry-like aroma which turns to toasted nuts when the leaf is introduced to hot water.

The flavor though is a different story. The brewed tea is colorless and nearly tasteless with a vague vegetal flavor. It feels like drinking hot water. Upping the water temperature and steep times made it taste like russet potato skins. Unlike other GABA teas I’ve had, it doesn’t produce any feelings of calm or relaxation.

However cold brewing was the saving grace for this one and prevented me from throwing it out. When steeped overnight in the fridge, it transforms into a different tea – sweeter, more robust, with a fruity freshness. There’s a chestnut like nuttiness and sweet potato in the finish.

The lone bright spot from my Taiwan Sourcing order. This is an excellent dong ding with a salted caramel and pumpernickel bread aroma and a subtle roast that brings out a crisp, light character. It starts with floral notes and then quickly transitions to a smooth toasted pecan flavor with a little fruitiness kicking in later. It’s a great tea for grandpa steeping. Never gets muddled or bitter as long as you don’t hit it with full boiling water.

Meh, yet another let-down from my Taiwan Sourcing order. So far I’m 0 for 3 with their green oolongs. All of the ones I’ve tried have been incredibly underwhelming. This one has a flat, nondescript oolong flavor. It’s brothy and mostly vegetal with a touch of green apple. There is a lot of broken leaf and dust in the bag leading to messy and uneven infusions. It only goes for about 4-5 steeps. Pretty disappointing overall.

Arrgghhh, I hate to write this review but there are few things more aggravating than opening a brand new packet of tea only to discover that it has gone stale. Shan Lin Xi rarely lets me down and I’m sure this one was good when fresh, but after a few steeps I could tell something about it was off.

The smell was promising enough. Out the bag, it smelled buttery sweet with a touch of vegetation. A rinse brought out fruity aromas of pear and banana along with a hint of marzipan. The brewed tea though was a different story. It tasted vegetal and musty like old books. There was none of the characteristic sweetness or minerality of oolong. The taste was more akin to a green tea. I’ve had two sessions with this tea and both times I gave up and ended up chucking it.

There’s a difference between a tea that doesn’t taste good and one that’s lost freshness. This belongs to the latter category. It’s the second tea from my Taiwan Sourcing order to suffer from this problem leading me to believe there’s a packaging issue. I noticed the pouches I’ve opened so far were missing those oxygen absorbing packets. These little things are critical to removing humidity and preventing spoilage, especially with green oolongs which don’t hold up as well as their roasted counterparts. I can always detect staleness in unroasted oolong that’s not vacuum sealed and/or doesn’t have the oxygen absorber inside.

I seldom throw out tea, especially costly ones, but sadly this one is going to hit the bin because it’s that bad.

Winter 2017 harvest.

Forgettable is how I would describe this tea. I was excited by the flowery description on the website and positive reviews, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype. It’s fairly vegetal throughout with some honeyed notes and a mouthfeel on the thin side. By playing with the brewing parameters, I did manage to coax out some florals and little buttery flavor. It peaked around the 3rd steep and then tasted like an average green oolong.

For a high mountain tea, it had little to no depth of flavor. I don’t know if something was lost with age or what, but overall it tasted mediocre and kinda bland to me.

~5g/100ml

Dry leaves appearance – in between modern, bright green TGY and typical roasted ball-rolled oolongs that I’ve had, though it means closer to the former. There is a beautiful orangey-red tint.

Dry leaves smell – right away, I got the overpowering scent of Rice Krispies right after they’ve had milk poured over them. It reminds me of my bad childhood breakfasts lol. Strangely enough, I also got a slight, slight hint of sun-dried tomatoes.

Wet leaf smell – Rice Krispies again, but this time the milkiness is much more pronounced and there is a lovely undertone of spring wildflowers; there was also a slight hint of cacao from the second infusion onwards

Liquor – a bright yellow on the first infusion that gradually evolved into a lovely sunset orange as the session progressed

Texture – somewhat thin in the mouth, but extremely soft and creamy

Taste – the taste really translates to the smell on this one, and I can barely sense anything else, besides a sweetness as though I added sugar to the milk in the Rice Krispies. The taste takes me right back to drinking the last bit of sugary milk from the bowl. This is an interesting one.

Empty cup – a light creamed corn scent like good Ali Shan, but not quite as potent and obvious

Mouth finish – very, very lubricating; as soon as the sip goes down, the milkiness explodes on the palate and leaves a lingering sweetness

Wet leaves – beautiful and full rusty-red leaves that look thin and delicate, but are actually quite hardy. They almost feel like wax paper between the fingers.

Body feel – a strong, grounding qi that came on midway through the second cup; very calming and centering; a good tea to drink if you need to take a step back from life and reset yourself.

This tea is right up my alley; in fact, it may even be my favourite ball-rolled oolong I’ve ever tried – and that’s saying a lot. Though it’s a pretty straightforward tea that doesn’t evolve too much throughout the session, every aspect of it is so enjoyable that I don’t mind at all. I’m kicking myself for only getting 100g of it.

I received a sample of Mingjian Organic #18 “Red Lion” with my oolong order.

Brewed in a large gaiwan I immediately noticed a fresh minty aroma and taste.

I have had other Ruby #18 teas but this was the first time I experienced this. Perhaps my taste buds were off before, who knows but finally …

Usually I buy Chinese blacks (reds) but enjoyed this fresh clean Mingjian Ruby #18 enough that I will place an order.

First I want to try their Yuchi Organic Ruby 18 “Agate Pond”

This is not a review of the tea, but I used it for a little water comparison today. Having returned from Europe recently, I received a bottle of water from Iceland on an Icelandair flight, which I noticed had interesting parameters – high pH and low minerality (about 65 ppm). I decided to keep it and do a side by side comparison with the water I normally use. Unfortunately, I don’t really have any specific parameters for that one, but I expect it to have a fairly neutral pH and dissolved solids between 50 and 150 ppm.

Overall, I can’t say I preferred one over the other, but there were some noticeable differences. The Icelandic water produced a harsher, more vibrant and bitter brew with softer mouthfeel, while my regular water gave rise to a more acidic, fruity and rounded tea with thinner and more powdery texture.

It’s hard to make any conclusions because of the lack of information, but it was interesting little comparison nonetheless :)

This is probably the most floral black tea from outside Darjeeling that I have tried so far. The leaves in a preheated gaiwan smell of rosehips and orchids, while the wet leaves have a distinctively herbal, sweet, cooling and medicinal smell. I am tepted to say it’s like a mixture of sage and fresh fenugreek, but that’s not quite right. There is some tomato leaf smell though.

The taste is also fairly unusual. It has some malt notes, sure. However, the dominating feeling is that of tart fruitiness at the onset, followed by biting herbal notes and a smooth, creamy and floral finish. The aftertaste starts kind of astringent, but very quickly transforms into a little sickly sweetness, allowing the florals to take over and stay for a long time. The liquor also has a very good bitterness, something I lack in many black teas.

I am very satisfied with this tea. It is comparable in quality, price and taste profile to second flush Darjeelings that I have had.

Oh, now I know what the wet leaf smell reminds me of. It’s that of an unscented massage lotion/cream. Now, I don’t know which (combination of) ingredients in them is it that creates the characteristic scent though.

I would describe this tea as light in many respects – the body, colour, smell and taste. The mouthfeel is kind of sticky with little astringency. Aromas of the tea are in the vicinity of sweet potato, honey, cake and a general fruitiness. The taste is very sweet and a bit tart with a floral finish and an almond note. It’s not the most exciting tea, but a decent one as far as GABA black teas go.

Blah I feel like crap today, currently taking a break from work and just so thankful I’m allowed to have a proper tea station set up at my work bench. It really makes a huge difference on days like today. Creature comforts and such.

Anyway, I’ve broken into this 15 gram sample of oolong and I’m quite pleased they included it. I like it significantly better than the jade oolong I purchased. Although it’s a rather green “high mountain” oolong, it’s super mellow yet somehow rich, fruity, and sweet. Not at all brothy and umami like some of the other oolong in this order. The citrus notes are enjoyable, but they’re actually not the flavours that stand out the most to me. There’s something like vanilla or white chocolate coming through, and a gentle floral sweetness too. The liquor is thicker than the other oolongs from this order as well. Amazingly smooth mouth feel, with some light astringency after a few cups. A distinct floral and vegetal aftertaste is present. Really quite impressed with this to be honest. I’m going to order more when I restock for an every day tea.

I’ve become entirely enamoured by oolongs. The range of flavours is outstanding. I love a good pu-erh too, but the majestic oolong has stolen my heart. Aside from flavour, I actually managed to brew the same gaiwan of Cape Jasmine two days in a row! Amazing.

I’m trying the third tea from that order today. Although this high mountain jade oolong was made in 2014, it has a very young appearance and overall tastes a bit closer to a green tea than a darker oolong (I suppose this is why it’s called “jade”?). It actually reminds me of another green tea I reviewed a few weeks back from Yunnan Sourcing, ironically called “Yunnan Jade Dragon” as well (although more brothy).

The flavour profile is a really nice balance of soup broth, spinach, cream, and gentle floral notes reminiscent of King of Duck Aroma, but nowhere near as in your face. I think I prefer the aroma better than the taste though.

In conclusion, I won’t be buying this again. I definitely prefer oolongs that are sweeter and more fermented, this is too green for me. It’s still a great tea, but I’m happy I only purchased 25 grams.

If anyone makes it this far down my review, please recommend me some of your favourite oolongs! Even if it’s a “green” oolong I will still try it, I’m sure many of them do not taste like this.

Today I’m sipping on another Taiwan Sourcing oolong, blended with jasmine this time. Before I even brewed this tea I was taken aback by the epic bag appeal. The scent is otherworldly, it smells more like jasmine candy than tea!

For this session I used a 180ml gaiwan with 8 grams of tea in 90°C water.
A quick wash was followed by a 10 second steep, working up to 1 minute brews.

I’m a huge jasmine fan and pretty much instantly fell in love with this blend after the first brew. I think oolong is a much better base to use jasmine with than green tea, it makes the flavour more balanced and richer. Aside from the floral notes I’m also getting a bit of citrus and slightly roasted/nutty umami. The liquor is smooth and almost creamy, and yet again more thin than other oolongs I’ve had. It makes me salivate and there is very light astringency to the after taste (I find this pleasant though). I love everything about this and intend to keep it in my regular rotation.

It’s obvious this tea is clean and true with very high quality jasmine flowers. It’s night and day compared with jasmine scented teas. This is the first time I’ve ordered from Taiwan and I have to say I’m extremely impressed with the quality. I think its obvious they grow their teas with love and passion. I’m going to keep buying from there instead of China (excluding pu-erh, of course).

A few weeks ago I placed my first order with Taiwan Sourcing and was nervous it would take months to get here as there is a country-wide postal strike currently ongoing in Canada. To my pleasant surprise it arrived yesterday and it couldn’t have come at a better time because I am running extremely low on tea. Praise the tea gods!!!

For this session I used a 180ml gaiwan using 10g, one initial 10 second wash followed by a 10 second brew, increasing by 10 to 20 seconds for each additional infusion.
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Mmmmmmmmm. Mm. This is way more delicious than I thought it would be. I wanted to try some teas high in GABA for a few different health reasons and was expecting the value to be in the medicinal effects rather than the taste and experience. Clearly this tea provides both, and it’s absolutely glorious.

As described by TS themselves, this tea has a very strong sweet potato flavour. It actually tastes remarkably close to a classic holiday dish my family loves which is a sweet potato and marshmallow casserole (mashed potato on the bottom, baked marshmallows on top). After that first impression though the sweetness tastes less sugary and more of wildflower honey which makes sense given this is blended with osmanthus flowers. The liquor is a lovely shade of yellow, almost peach-like, and quite thin compared with some other oolongs I’ve tried. There is just absolutely no astringency, it’s smooth, and almost a bit cooling down the throat like mint in terms of sensation.

Later infusions of this tea bring out more savoury notes, still heavy on the sweet potato though. Remarkably there is a general pumpkin spice flavour towards the end, maybe cinammon and cloves or something. The overall taste is extremely clean with loads of depth and layers.

I can’t yet attest to the effects of the GABA as I imaging it takes a few days or weeks to build up in your system to have long lasting effects, but I will say this cuppa makes me incredibly relaxed, sociable, and feeling good. Highly recommend trying it!