Phoenix Mountain Oolong (#25)

I decided to do a little nice thing for myself and join the Insider Tea Club at Golden Moon Tea. You get a delivery each month of a rare, not usually imported to the USA tea. It’s a surprise (fun!) and I also thought it would expand my horizons a bit — left to my own devices I tend to choose black, black, and more black tea, and the previous selections for the club were of a great variety.

This may have been the best decision I made in 2013! I am drinking the second selection today (the first is a beautiful looking Tie Guan Yin that I’m saving for slightly warmer weather) and it is astonishingly good. Pale greenish yellow. Slightly floral. Gorgeously present mouthfeel. Buttery. nutty. I’m brewing it Western style and am on the second steep — rumor has it that it is wonderful through steep 12 Western Style (through steep 20 gong fu!) so I have quite a day ahead of me! Next time I’ll try it gong fu and bring in a glass cup because the color is truly something to behold.

I also must give kudos for the packaging (screw top tin), informational postcard with brewing instructions, and just general all around attention to detail. My little $20 a month spurge is making me feel like a millionaire! An INSIDER millionaire! ;)

These are crazy sturdy leaves! Long and winding, stiff and artistic-looking. It’s a lovely Oolong. Somewhat floral-sweet, nutty, a little buttery. The end sip is somewhat like a gentle Jasmine in comparison to give you an idea of flavor.

Delightful!

This was fantastic. I will resteep to give it a proper review later, however, for starters, this was amazing. I am very upset that there isn’t a lot of this to go around, this is something I could drink every day for the rest of my life.

The scent of the leaves is slight floral, a little nutty, smells divine. The liquor is a pale yellow with similar aroma. The taste is delicious.

Ah, the reason I rejoined steepster. I spoiled myself and signed up for Golden Moon’s insider tea club, and already it’s off to a fabulous start.

This isn’t a tea you make with the “hot water” of the work water cooler and forget about as it sits on your desk. This requires precision and adequate time to prepare and savor. And a proper cup—I broke out my porcelain for this one. This tea is SO smooth. I didn’t catch that the first few steeps, since I oversteeped it, but my fourth attempt is perfect. (The steep time is incorrect on this review, since 15 seconds is the shortest it will go. It’s actually five. Yes, seconds. That’s just enough time to pour in the water and pour it out again. It makes me feel like a scientist.)

This tea was grown on a private lot in the mountains of China, and you can almost SMELL it. I don’t know what standing in the middle of a tea farm smells like, but I’d bet this is it. Smooth, fresh, with a scent of dew-dropped grass. This tea deserves a porch on a mountain overlooking China. Unfortunately, I’m in New Jersey, but the Hudson River is pretty, too.

It’s sweet and buttery in your mouth, and smooth on the way down. There’s no overwhelming aftertaste, just the slightest hint of that dew-dropped grass. I intended to make my current cup last long enough to finish this review, but… well, I don’t have to tell you how THAT went.

A side note: this can be stepped up to 20 times (!), and is thus far the only tea I’ve dried out between steeps to keep for future use. And it just gets better each time. (I’m responsible for the photo here in the swanky glass teapot, because why wouldn’t I use a swanky glass teapot?)