Organic Shui Xian Oolong Tea

It seems like I go through lots of phases in my tea drinking journey. For whatever reason I have not been drinking too many oolongs lately but I’m having this one this morning.

It definitely seems typical of a wuyi type of tea, nice mineral quality with sweet roasted plum type of aftertaste. I really do like this a lot and wonder how it would be as a cold brewed tea. The wet leaves smell of burnt toast and jam.

see my previous notes for more info…

Enjoying a nice cup of this tea right now – plum and woodsy notes are primary.
Very juicy – I almost choked on my first sip due to the bursting effect it has.
Very delightful and not too drying.
Roasty and calming on a cool evening.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this Oolong. It’s really nice.

Yesterday’s Oolong was also a Shui Xian and that was purely by coincidence. I did not even realize that this was a Shui Xian until I started to put it in my gaiwan. Sure, the label said Shui Xian but what I was really focusing on was the “Oolong” part.

And as I’m tasting this, I do note similarities between this and the tea that I had last evening. They possess similar honey-esque tones and fruit notes, as well as roasty, charcoal-ish, nutty flavors. I notice a little less creaminess with this cup than I remember from last night, but that would be the only real notable difference. Then again, I’m not drinking them side-by-side so I can’t do a very accurate comparison … this is all based on my memory of the tea that I had last night (although I will say that it WAS a memorable tea) versus what I’m sipping right now.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed both teas.

Arbor Tea is one of my favorite companies if for no other reason than the fact that they are very dedicated to preserving the environment and that is important to me. But on top of that, they also provide excellent quality, fair-trade, organic teas.

Smells like your good ole standby roasty/toasty oolong!

It infuses to a medium brown/grey color.

It’s a rich woodsy-sweet type taste with a nice roasted-goodness to it. The aftertaste is satisfying as well :)

This is lovely, light and slightly toasted. Smooth.

This tea is almost comparable to the Wuyi oolong from JK Tea Shop. I say almost as this one seems to have fewer infusions…BUT, the advantage is this one is organic.

It was a snow day for me….well, I worked from home because we had over 16" (42cm) of snow yesterday, ending sometime well after I went to bed. Staying home from work was definitely the right idea.

So I had this tea today. I’ve been looking for a tea to use for my planned American wheat with blackberry and oolong beer that I’m going to make. I think this is going to be the tea.

It’s got some great mineral qualities to it. It’s sweet. It’s easy drinking. It stands up to multiple infusions, which means it should handle the boil pretty well.

And, it’s a great price to buy bulk! Plus, they deliver free in Ann Arbor, which makes this super affordable.

Difficult taste to describe – it’s like tea with honey already added. Slight dryness, it tastes like what I always wished coffee would taste like… Some sort of dark, licorice smooth flavor. Sweet. Good to drink at night.