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This was another April sipdown of mine. I think I finished this one around the start of the third week of the month. I only had a couple of sample pouches to play around with, so I did not get a chance to spend an extended period of time familiarizing myself with this tea, but in the time I spent with it, I found it to be a decent though not exceptionally interesting Ali Shan oolong.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 7 grams of rolled tea leaves in 5 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of cream, custard, vanilla, sugarcane, gardenia, and grass. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of butter, spinach, honeysuckle, and orange blossom. The first infusion introduced aromas of apricot and cucumber. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of cream, butter, sugarcane, grass, spinach, and cucumber that were chased by pear, green apple, apricot, orange blossom, and vanilla hints. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of umami, green apple, lettuce, and honeydew. Stronger and more readily noticeable impressions of pear, green apple, and vanilla came out in the mouth alongside belatedly emerging notes of custard and hints of gardenia and honeysuckle. I also picked up on notes of minerals, umami, cantaloupe, honeydew, white peach, white grape, coriander, lettuce, seaweed, and orange zest. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, coriander, umami, green apple, pear, grass, butter, and spinach that were backed by hints of seaweed, cucumber, apricot, white grape, orange zest, and lettuce.

This was a fairly standard Ali Shan oolong. I found that it faded quickly, but for the most part, there was nothing terribly wrong with it. Unfortunately, I find Ali Shan to be one of the more overhyped and boring terroirs of Taiwan, and since this tea did not differentiate itself from the majority of the other Ali Shan oolongs I have tried, I very quickly reached a point where I was ready to move on from it. To be clear, this tea was not bad. As a matter of fact, I could see it maybe making a respectable introductory Ali Shan oolong for those who are curious about what Ali Shan teas have to offer. I just found it to be a bit on the bland side.