Li Shan

Gongfu!

Enjoyed this session paired with some bright red cherries!! Though the cherries aren’t quite as juicy and sweet as they could be, they still work quite well with this fresh, aromatic oolong. Though the mouthfeel of this oolong is rather soft and buttery, it still has a fair amount of body and a wide array of tasting notes ranging from sweet corn and silky smooth coconut milk to more perfumed florals such as violets, magnolia, and lilac. It’s even a little fruity and tropical, with an aftertaste that reminds me of the lingering sweetness left on the tongue after eating a large slice of ripe mango or pineapple. More pineapple than mango go, I think. I managed to stretch out this session quite a long time while enjoying the gentle breeze and sunshine; maybe in part because I packed this gaiwan with so much leaf in the first place. Such a great session to kick off the week with, though!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7NEUDHuh7n/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlh6Df0MT8g

I’ve had previous iterations of Camellia Sinensis’ Li Shan and enjoyed them, so I picked up this spring 2020 harvest in their September sale. I’ve had it three times now and have gotten slightly different flavours in each session. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of brown sugar, coconut, spinach, honeysuckle, and lilacs. In the first steep, I get lilac, sweet pea, gardenia, butter, coconut, grass, spinach, and pastries. It has a nice, viscous texture. The second steep is sweeter, with custard, cream corn, green apple, and honeysuckle. Steep three offers more honeysuckle/gardenia/other florals, particularly in the aroma, and the veggie, grass, and spinach notes become stronger. (I also got pineapple in previous sessions, but sadly, not in this one.) The next couple steeps display more of the cream corn sweetness, which I guess could be interpreted as custard or condensed milk. The tea is also still very floral. The steeps become more vegetal after this point, but with lots of floral sweetness to balance them out.

This tea is full of florals and is sweeter than many Li Shans, with some of the tropical fruit flavours I like when I leaf it heavy. I agree with Daylon that it’s kind of midrange, and I also prefer their less expensive Shan Lin Xi. Still, I might pick it up again if it’s on sale, simply because of the relatively reasonable price and the convenience of buying from a Canadian vendor.

Dirty quickie note before I do some gymnastics tomorrow morning.

Thank you Leafhopper! So, the site is surprisingly sparse on the description of this one, and cranks up the floral profile on their tastometer. I’m sorry, that was too American of me: “flavOUR wheel.”

Onto the tea-it’s good. I gong fu’d it in my Manual Tea brewer (essentially, a gaiwan with a double walled glass vessel) in a rinse. Mostly green, and soft. Texture is oily as expected.

First steep after 25 sec, honeysuckle, lettuce, a little bit of apple skin, though crisp more than fruity. Boomin aroma.

Second steep, 35, more floral, a little lighter, but still refreshing with the lettuce. Gardenia.

Third after 25, gardenia and honeysuckle dominant aroma, more florals in flavor, lettuce, green bean in a short aftertaste. Aroma is more pronounced than taste.

Fourth, honeysuckle, lilac, some greens.

Fifth, more green. A little bit of lime, but mostly green and viscous.

6th, florals, spinach. I lost attention while helping my brother out with his college paper.

7th, flash steep, osmanthus aroma, osmanthus in the taste, but a little grassy.

Pause.

Mini-reflection- good one. I am already biased, and like Shan Lin Xi from the company more. Tea is very smooth and nicely vegetal, but I personally could use a little bit more flavor. Mid-tier in my personal Lishan rankings so far, upper middle tier for overall teas. Definitely liked it. I need to do another quickie not before I come back to this one, and then off to bed for muscle up tomorrow.