He Huan Shan

This is the second and last green oolong I bought from Ethan at the beginning of this year. He Huan Shan is close to Da Yu Ling, though I haven’t seen many oolongs labelled as coming from this area. Floating Leaves had a good one several years ago. I steeped 6 g of this winter 2023 harvest in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of green apple, orchid, umami, and grass. The first steep is restrained, with orchid, narcissus, green apple, grass, and umami. The next steep has notes of orchid, narcissus, lilac, butter, grass, and something fruity. The tea has a lot of umami and is a bit brothy. The next couple steeps open out into green apple, coconut, pineapple, florals, umami, and grass. Steeps five and six give me softer coconut, butter, grass, umami, and florals, maybe orchid and narcissus. By steep eight, the fruit is basically gone and the tea is floral and grassy. The tea stays sweet and indistinctly floral for many more steeps, with a grassy undertone that never really gets bitter.

This is a solid oolong that’s a little too reserved for me. It’s sometimes hard to dial in the fruit, and though the longevity is great, the flavours are sort of muted. The vendor indicated that this could be a storage issue, so this oolong should probably be consumed quickly.