Taiwan Sourcing

Vibrant, medium bodied oolong that can wake you up in the morning.. I would recommend using longer infusions, I find that it can sustain them without getting bitter. On the other hand, that way one gets fuller, more complex taste with some astringency as well.

It is a fairly aromatic and balanced tea, with some chocolate notes in the aftertaste. All in all the price/quality ratio is exceptional, definitely worth trying out at least.

This is my second session with this tea. I was going to write about it before, but was overwhelmed by its complexity. This high mountain oolong from the Li Shan area performs well above its relatively modest price point. I steeped 5 g in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 205F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is a wonderful balance of floral, fruity, and vegetal. It has notes of peonies, sweet pea flowers, dried fruit (cranberries?), cooked spinach, arugula, and herbs, and is much pleasanter than that sounds. In the second and third steeps, nutty overtones become more noticeable and the liquor gets stronger and tangier. It also has the silky mouthfeel I associate with good Li Shan teas. I’m having trouble describing exactly what’s going on because this oolong is so complicated.

The next few steeps are nuttier and fruitier as the florals fade into the background. There’s a hint of grain, as mentioned on the website. If I were being fancy, I’d describe this as a cranberry-almond biscotti next to a receding bouquet of peonies. Even after nine steeps, this tea isn’t a sad vegetal mess like some high mountain oolongs, retaining its tangy, dried fruit flavour.

This is an exceptional oolong that I’m surprised is still in stock.

Half a year after I got this tea and more than one year after harvest, I can see some slight development going on. It has definitely darker yellow colour now, a little bit fuller body and for some reason I also got more flowery aromatics on the nose. This is a very pleasant and inoffensive tea overall.

The leaves are fairly unevenly oxidized, ranging from green to almost fully brown.

Liquor has dark yellow colour. It has medium body and the mouthfeel is buttery and mouth-watering. The taste is very light, being a mix fruity sourness and a little bit of sweetness with some hints of grass (but on the drier side, not so much of the fresh vegetal notes).

It has a decent astringency and a cooling effect. Overall, a good choice for a daily oolong.

Full-bodied tea with oily texture and beautiful golden colour with an orange tinge. The liquor is fairly clear and coats the mouth very well. It is also slightly mouth-watering.

The smell is not the strongest, but nice nonetheless. Overall it is a mix of floral and roasty smell not unlike with pour-ever coffee, but I also got reminded of apple pie.

The roast level here is mild, as a result of which the tea has a very good balance of sweetness and floral notes with the heavier roasted flavours. The aftertaste on the other hand is mostly a mix of sweet and sour.

I feel the best things about this tea are its texture and the perfect roast that gives it such a balanced taste. Oh, and it lasts for a while as well, one can easily get 10 nice infusions when brewing gong fu style.

The dry leaf aroma is almost non-existent, but once you start steeping… wow. It hits you with this very expansive fruity and floral mix that’s unlike anything I have ever smelled. I just can’t get enough of the wet leaf smell.

I would actually recommend to drink the first infusion already and skip the wash. It is lighter and more viscous, but delicious from the get go.

Progressively, the infusions become thicker and more “nectar” like with silky texture, great fruitiness and some sweetness. The taste is very balanced though, with pleasant sourness and very mild astringency that’s almost unnoticeable.

If you like fruity teas, then you really shouldn’t pass on this one, it’s a treat.

Medium bodied with beautiful fruity smell (passion fruit). It really makes you feel like you are in a fruit orchard and evokes the feeling of sunny days.

There are strong grassy and mineral notes in the first few brews. Generally I found it to be very mineral. The sweetness is mostly present in the smell, not so much in the flavour. The taste is a little bit more more on the savoury side, but fairly complex. It does have some subtle egg yolk sweetness though.

There is a noticeable cooling effect and the tea gives a buzz that builds up slowly but peaks fairly strong.

A very nice roasted oolong with a stewed fruit and citrus like aroma. The roast is a bit stronger than I would normally prefer, but I think it works well for this tea.

The taste is mineral and not as fruity as the smell and definitely more bitter than sweet, although there are some sweet and sour flavours in the background too. The taste profile is actually not too dissimilar from some lighter oxidation Dan Cong teas, with charcoal notes that are usually absent in those. In the aftertaste I get coffee notes as well as astringency that disappears soon enough and gets replaced by slowly increasing sweet sensation at the back of my mouth. The aftertaste is long and actually more like Wu Yi oolongs I reckon, not floral at all, rather quite sweet and roasty.

I like to do slightly longer steeps for this one, as it enhances the body. There is bitterness though, so depending on your preferences, you might not want to go crazy. The texture is bubbly, slightly sticky and milky with long steeps. I also get a cooling sensation in the throat while drinking that actually becomes warming later on.

Another point to note is the body sensation induced – very warming and somewhat rushy. This tea has an incredible price/quality ratio I would say. Overall, if you like roasty and bitter oolongs, I would suggest you pick this up. The tea doesn’t really lack in any way other than the taste. If it was a bit more aligned with my preferences, this would be a ~90 kind of tea for me.

I tried cold-brewing this tea today. It was very aromatic for a cold brewed tea with strong astringency, some umami and fruity sourness. Very refreshing and fragrant brew, I think next time I would use a shorter infusion time (was around 12 hours at room temperature today), and maybe do two cold brews, this one was a little too astringent.

I posted a review of this tea earlier this afternoon, but realized in retrospect that I’d used the wrong leaves. I have two tea clips that look exactly the same and all the packages from Taiwan Sourcing appear similar, and I was obviously not paying attention. The reason I previously compared this tea to a green oolong was that I was mistakenly drinking a green oolong.

I wanted to buy this oolong in 2016, but it was out of stock by the time I was ready to make a purchase. This year, I got as far as adding it to my shopping cart during the Black Friday sale, but when I pulled the trigger a couple days later, it had all been snapped up. Thankfully, the people at Taiwan Sourcing must have recognized how much I desired this tea, and included a free sample with my order.

I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

I’ve never actually tasted a longan, but gather that it’s similar to a lichi. The first steep has notes of roast, honey, cream, lichi, and banana bread. It’s very sweet. The second steep adds roasted nuts and sesame seeds to the mix. Later infusions are a beautiful red colour and have notes of slightly burned banana bread, plum, spice, and dried fruit.

This is a rich, comforting oolong. I’ll have to buy the 2018 version if I get the chance. And next time, I’ll pay more attention so I don’t have to rewrite the review!

For some reason, Steepster deleted the review I was writing, so this is just a recap.

Though I was underwhelmed by the two previous jade Dong Dings I’ve had from other vendors, the fact that this one was bug bitten and inexpensive persuaded me to buy it. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 30 and 25 seconds, then at 195F for 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first two cooler steeps were lackluster, with a strong vegetal presence. There was some Dong Ding creaminess and sweetness, but not much fruit or bug-bitten character.

However, increasing the temperature to 195F made all the difference. In the third steep, I got blackberry, citrus, peach, and nectarine, along with florals, honey, and a vegetal note that was still stronger than I’d like. The mouthfeel was heavy and buttery, though there wasn’t much of an aftertaste. By steep five, the fruit started backing down and the tea began to develop a Taiwanese jade oolong profile, which I can only describe as buttery, mineral, and floral, though the fruit and honey never entirely went away. This tea was strong until about the sixth steep, and only faded gradually after that.

With the addition of only five degrees, this oolong went from something I regretted buying to something I truly enjoyed. I was even more impressed by this dramatic improvement than by the complexity of this tea!

As my user name suggests, I love bug-bitten teas, and the roast on this one intrigued me enough to buy it. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 30, 25, 30, 40, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The first steep is pretty mild. The sweetness jumps out at me immediately, along with roasted sesame seeds and grilled tropical fruits. The mouthfeel is heavy and fuzzy, and there’s just a hint of astringency. By the second steep, I can tell this is definitely a “mi xiang” oolong, as the tea has the honey, florals, and kind of sour finish I associate with bug-bitten teas. The roast seems to be more prominent at the beginning of the sip, and the bug-bitten character at the end.

In the next few steeps, the roast is very well incorporated, really letting the fruit and honey shine through. I still can’t pick out individual fruit flavours, though grilled pear, pineapple, and other tropical fruits all make an appearance. If there’s one downside, it’s that this tea becomes drying easily, though that might be due to my brewing.

By the seventh steep, the fruit and honey begin to dissipate and the roast starts to take over. The tea gradually diminishes from here.

This is an interesting and complex oolong, and like most of the offerings from Taiwan Sourcing that I’ve tried, I thoroughly enjoy it!

The dry leaves have a very, very subtle sweet aroma.
This is a really, really good oolong! Kept steeping and drinking until it was little more than colored water, LOL!
The leaves expand quite a bit so I had to switch pots at some point to let the leaves fully open while steeping.

Lightly toasted, sweet, very pleasant aftertaste. I’m wondering if the leaves having a few months to rest has helped with some of the unpleasantness experienced by the previous reviewer. The smell of the steeped leaves do still smell a bit like burnt food… or at least I can see how that description came to mind, lol.

I’m not using a lot of leaf because while I brought a teapot with me I’m not at home so I’m having to opt for less leaf, longer steep and that probably has a big effect on taste.

Personally enjoying this first experience from Taiwan Sourcing. Sweet upfront with this slowly blossoming floral and sweet potato aftertaste. The other thing that really, really stands out from the very first sip is how creamy this tea is. Very smooth, thick mouth-feel.

This is a good one! I’ve had it before and was impressed by its complexity, so I thought it would be the perfect sendoff before my weekend away with no gongfu equipment. I used around 5 grams in a 120 ml teapot, with steeps of 30, 20, 25, 30, 45, and 60 seconds, followed by steeps of 1:30, 3, 5, and 10 minutes.

Many oolongs have a faint first steep, but not this one. I get aromas and tastes of citrus and dried fruit, florals (Lilacs? Gardenias? I’m bad at picking out floral notes.), butter, menthol, spinach, and lots of other things I can’t put a name to. This tea is remarkably smooth and has an aftertaste that lasts several minutes. By the third steep, I’m just sitting and savouring that aftertaste. Caramel notes also seem to be emerging, and the dried fruit and citrus are getting stronger.

The fourth steep starts to move into more vegetal territory, though all the other flavours are still distinct. This tea also keeps getting sweeter, though the nuances are beginning to fade by steep six and the gorgeous aftertaste is gone. Even after ten steeps, it’s worth drinking.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tea, and while the price is a bit high, it’s a wonderful occasional treat.

Just finished the last of my Rhythm 21. Brewed at 200˚F and it was probably the perfect temperature. Just on the edge of bitter, with a lot of astringency (due to the last dregs in the bag) but full-flavoured with the malted sugar aroma mixed with earthy funkiness reminiscent of a Yunnan black tea like Fengqing Dian Hong.

Dry leaves in a warm gaiwan smell like rich dark chocolate / cacao with a hint of cherry liqueur.

First brew at 195˚F but that was clearly not hot enough. I’ll start at 200˚F next time. The liquid is a light amber colour and has that sort of sugary GABA-oolong taste but is delicious.

Second brew at 204˚F, much better.

This is my first time trying this oolong. Scott recommended it to me as fruity, so I’m hoping for the best. I steeped 6 grams of tea in a 120 ml porcelain teapot.

25 and 20 sec steeps at around 195F: I really had to work to detect the flavours here. Vegetal, heavy bodied, no astringency, that “jade” type of taste. There’s some sweetness if I squint, but nothing I’d say is fruity.

40 secs with boiling water: I upped the temperature to try to pull more out of the tea. There’s a tiny bit more astringency, but it does have a stronger vegetal flavour and a nice aftertaste that could be guava or some other tropical fruit. The sip itself doesn’t taste fruity though.

50, 60, 90 secs with boiling water: I let the leaves cool after the fourth steep and they smelled like marjoram or some other herb. Wish I had names for all these flavours/aromas! The taste and aftertaste remain pretty consistent. One thing I like about the oolongs I’ve tried from Taiwan Sourcing is their consistently long aftertaste.

So is this tea fruity? Kind of, though I don’t think that’s its primary attribute. I’ll need to experiment with the rest of my sample.

This is an oolong from an area best known for producing black teas. The first things I notice about it are its honey-like sweetness and buttery mouthfeel, combined with a mild astringency. It has a long, floral aftertaste and seems to pack quite a caffeine punch. In later steeps, I get umami and spinach notes, but the sweetness never really goes away. This is a good tea, though it lacks the fruity flavours I look for in jade oolongs.

The smell of this tea is very roasted charcoal malt, but the taste in the cup, is much lighter and more vegetal. Along with the malt flavours, there was something familiar that I just couldn’t put my finger on. It has a sweetness, but it wasn’t caramel or honey. On about the fourth steep I finally identified it as red bean paste.

This is a really unique Tie Guan Yin, and very different to those I’ve tried from China.

Shan Lin Xi is one of my favourite oolong growing areas, so this tea from the top of the mountain appeals to me. It’s on the floral rather than the fruity end of the jade oolong spectrum.

For such a good tea, I’m having trouble describing exactly what’s going on. It has a noticeably heavier body than other green oolongs I’ve had recently. It’s sweet, floral, grassy, sometimes with a hint of stonefruit, and though these are the typical descriptors for this style of oolong, it’s somehow just a bit better. (The empty cup also smells like fabric softener in the best possible way.) It’s a comforting and refreshing tea for a Sunday afternoon.

Great tea. Lovely smelling wet leaves, fruits, toasted sesame, smells like someone’s cooking something good. pie maybe. brews a really nice amber liquid. has a pretty good mouthfeel actually. to my untrained mouth.