The Mountain Tea co

By far one of my favorite teas, and it gave me a new appreciation for Oolongs.

For the first cup, I would recommend washing the leaves for 1 minute before making it. As other have said, it takes the second cup before you get the full flavor.

I just received a bunch of teas from The Mountain Tea Co. and this was the first one I tried. I think lizeepea hit it spot on with her assessment. The second and 3rd steeps are the best and the it starts to fall off. I didn’t really time the steeps but they started at about 30 sec and added 30sec to each additional steep

The liquor smells predominantly of black tea and something I can’t quite place (it’s a really prominent smell, however, and I’ll edit this once I figure out what it is). Almost chocolate or coffee…but not quite. As it cools, it smells much more like a rich black tea. The liquor is a reddish amber, almost greenish on the edges. The flavor struck me as rather two-dimensional. It’s not a really simple flavor, but it definitely doesn’t seem particularly nuanced to me with this steeping. It tastes almost the same as sit smells, with more of a nearly-pine flavor, but in a not-quite-smoky way. I’ve seen it described as creamy or other such adjectives, and while I get that, it seems more sweet, but in a way that you might imagine old wood to be. At first, I cared for neither the odor of the dry leaves, nor for that of the liquor. I felt it tasted really…not off, but not really in a direction that I like my tea to go. As I sip it, however, it starts to seem much more drinkable. I think I’ll definitely enjoy what I have, but would choose something else in the future. Certainly an interesting tea, though.

The dry leaves are medium-sized (somewhere between Li San sized leaves, and those of smaller oolongs) and tightly-curled, with that nice color mixture of forest and grass green.
Absentmindedly almost drank all of it just now before doing a proper note. It’s definitely a very pleasant sipping tea; very reminiscent of tiekuanyins that I’ve had. Not floral, but warm and smooth. The liquor is an orangeish gold, and has a fair bit of tiny leaf ‘crumbs’ that slipped through the strainer. (I don’t mind those at all, and they collected mostly only in the last cup) It has a smooth mouthfeel and is quite easy to just keep drinking, as it tastes and feels nice, but isn’t so magnificent a tea that I’d feel guilty for just drinking it while doing other things.
Overall very pleasant, but my mind isn’t really blown. I am, however, a fan of the more green and floral oolongs, and this one is just a pleasant, very lightly bakey oolong.

Ordered this after seeing a post on r/tea. Very good tea. I ordered the standard amount of 5.8 g and I received a lot more tea than I was expecting, which was a good surprise. The 1st steep had a nice floral flavor with a touch of what I’d call cinnamon. It held up for 5 steeps and likely could have gone a few more. I’m quite happy.