Shan Lin Xi Premium High Mountain Oolong

Another dud from Green Terrace Teas. This tea is kinda just meh all around. Stale and flavorless with a muted brothy taste. Doesn’t have those luscious tropical-floral SLX aromatics or flavor.

Once again, cold brewing came to the rescue and made this tea drinkable. I’m puzzled as to why it was stale when the tea was vacuum sealed. A little nervous about trying the remaining samples from this order.

Had this as my first cup of the day and I found it pretty unremarkable. There’s a nice floral note on the nose, but I’m not getting any distinctive flavours on the palate. Maybe a hint of butter right on the finish, but even that is kind of muddled.

From the Lewis and Clark TTB.

Brewed gongfu-style with gaiwan. 5 second rinse. Steeping times: 5, 5, 5, 5, 10, 10, 10, 10, 30, 60.

The wet leaf offers a buttery and floral aroma. The liquor is pale yellow, clear, thin in texture, and medium-bodied. Not a complex flavor profile. The main note is flowers in most of the infusions – it seemed like I was drinking their fragrances. Towards the end of the session, the texture is a little creamier, and I taste a little less floral and more mineral, with a peach and apricot aftertaste.

Upon brewing this tea up and tasting it for the first time, all I could do was whisper a quiet, “Oh no,” into my cup. This is pretty much everything I love in an oolong: buttery, creamy notes against a strong, vegetal background. The mineral hints toward the end are different, a little more astringent than I’m used to, but very complimentary to this Shan Lin Xi overall. So why the overdramatic cup-whispering? This was a sample that Green Terrace sent me. Had I but known what a delicious little cup you make, my darling, I would’ve bought bulk in a heartbeat. Sadly, I will have to go without until my next order, which will likely take quite some time, given the amount of tea in my cupboard. I’ll savor every sip until then.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

So I sniffed the Green Terrace Teas oolongs, and this one smelled delightful! :P The tightly-rolled pellets are yellow-green. Their dry scent is very sweet and creamy with stonefruit notes. I was unsure how to steep this, but I went with 190 degrees for 3 minutes. I underleafed it a little bit because I wanted to make sure there was a serving left for someone else, so I used a little bit less water as well. :)

Brewed, it smells sweet and somewhat vegetal with nice peach notes. Yum, this is very tasty. It seems quite similar to a buttery, vegetal green tea to me, which is nice because usually green oolong is too light-bodied for me. It definitely has a touch of lovely peach flavor that I pretty much always find in green oolong. The texture is very creamy and mouth-filling, and there’s the tiniest flourish of floral at the end of the sip, as well as stronger peach notes. This is definitely my kind of green oolong, yum! :)

Edit: Do not let this one cool, lol. The floral takes over and it becomes quite soapy… :(

If you want a super creamy mouthfeel, this is the tea for you! It’s so thick that pudding mouth doesn’t really cover it….maybe custard mouth. I do enjoy that a lot in an oolong, but unfortunately other than that it’s a bit boring. It’s mainly creamy feeling without venturing into milk oolong territory in terms of taste with a mineral quality to it and a sweet finish. It’s nice but bland. I’m glad though because I can’t be in love with ALL of the green oolongs.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

Ok, so after the last surprisingly weak tea, I decided to try another green oolong from Green Terrace Teas to see if it was just a fluke. This time I also increased the steepings.

I did 2 10 second rinses, and 15,15,30,30,60,60 4g 4oz

The first two steeps were stronger than the last tea. Nice butter aroma, but not much in the front and mid sip, and then some floral and astringency at the end of the sip.

I caved and added sweetener. I don’t usually sweeten straight greens or oolongs. It does enhance the flavors a bit. I’m getting some cream and butter and some floral and mineral notes. I didn’t really notice any astringency, but I’m not sure if that was masked by the sweetener or what.

I did something silly. I wasn’t paying attention and added water to the cup holding the fifth and sixth steeps, maybe about 4oz. I was spacing and poured it into the cup instead of the pot. As such I’m not getting much from this. Some very subtle butter and floral notes.

This seems to suit me better than the last one did. I’m getting a lot of buttery notes from it, which I prefer over floral, which is a plus.

The last of my samples, another Green Terrace chose for me. It smells nicely floral (maybe orchids). The flavour is light, buttery, and green. Teas like this are trying to make me prefer green oolongs (which I do like, but usually after lunch.)

I haven’t been leaving too many tea reviews lately. My asthma has built up so bad over the last few months (little by little). I have started a special diet to help with that so that’s one of the reasons too I’m not drinking much tea. I’m not supposed to have any tea at all in the first part of the diet but this morning I’m so groggy and congested I need just a little to get going. Thought I would try this tea.

I did a quick rinse on the leaves. It has a wonderful floral aroma ( I wonder how much better that would be if I could breathe right?) of orchids. There is light butter/honey notes. Only did 2 infusions. I read some of the other reviews and see this tea changes from more infusions but I have to watch my caffeine intake. Will maybe leave the leaves for another time.