Li Shan Oolong

It is with thanks to Red Fennekin that I may try this tea. I’m sorry for the 5 month wait before reviewing!

Good morning everyone, it’s 9:18am and already 23C and expecting to go over 30C. In other words, it’s too damn hot! I hate hot weather, the type of heat that you just sweat in and can do nothing to prevent it. I truly hate it. The only thing getting me passed it is the thought of hydrating myself spectacularly with copious amounts of tea.

This will be my first tea today so far.

Steeping Parameters:
Leaf – 5g
Water Temp – 90 C
Method: Gaiwan 100ml
Rinse: 5 seconds

The leaf is tightly wrapped into good size (around 4mm) balls that consist of deep brown and green colours with a subtle yellow tinge near the stem. They have a high gloss appearance and the stems almost look like golden tips.

Scent is thick with sweet grass, honey and cream notes. Very beautiful!

First Steep – 40 seconds
Pale yellow colour with a sweet honey, cream scent. Reminds me of sweetcorn and honeysuckle flowers.

Flavour is soft with grass, honey, cream, floral (honeysuckle, peony, gladiola) notes and a dry yet perfumed after taste. The pre rinse has truly opened up the leaves to unleash it’s beautiful flavours. Also I know gladiola may seem a little random but it was the first thing that really sprang to mind in terms of flowers so I wrote it down. Wonderful first steep.

Second Steep – 50 seconds
Still light in strength but has smoothed out a little in this steep. More grassy and dry and a touch less sweet. Still very floral and with dryness. Also would say it’s lightly toasted. Like fresh flowers and grass that have been dry toasted in a hot pan for thirty seconds.

Note: The after taste now starts to taste like sweetcorn. It’s sweet but also dry, fresh, juicy and lightly earthy.

Third Steep – 1 minute
Note – More yellow in colour but still remains light.

Light but with a stronger after taste than previous steeps. It starts sweet and mild but grows into thick grass with flowers and that touch of dryness that makes it almost perfumed. Also still getting a lot of cream notes but less toasted element.

Fourth Steep – 1 minute 15 seconds
Still a lot of flavour and very beautiful, fresh floral notes. Very smooth and well balanced, the dryness has not increased. I would also say I detect an element of fresh hay.

Fifth Steep – 1 minute 30 seconds
This is the first steep that actually has reduced strength and flavour. It no longer has sweetcorn or sweet grass notes, in fact the sweetness only remains through the flowers which still hold strongly. The cream however is still just as wonderful as the first steep. Also still smooth but an increase in dryness.

Sixth Steep – 2 minutes
A very light steep, all that remains is gladiola and cream with a dry finish.

This was a wonderful tea and I dare say one of the best Li Shan that I have had in a long time, perhaps even ever! To me this is what hot days are all about.

(ps. For those that follow me on Instagram there are a few pictures of this, before, during and after steep).
I also turned it into a blog post. http://www.kittylovestea.co.uk/2015/07/01/pussy-cat-pussy-cat-where-have-you-been-featuring-li-shan-oolong-review/

Mmm… more green oolong :D This Li Shan oolong was a “special offer” kinda deal for London Tea Club members – when I heard about it, I was powerless to resist. I’m sure glad I didn’t.

When this tea arrived, in a very attractive, air-tight copper-coloured tin, I couldn’t wait to try it. The leaves smelled absolutely divine. So, today, I got down to it. I brought my beloved Gaiwan from Verdant downstairs and warmed everything up. I covered the base of the Gaiwan with the dried leaves and left them in the hot Gaiwan for a short while. I then lifted off the lid and was hit by an exceptional aroma, reminiscent of cinnamon buns/bagels/scones. It was unbelievable!

After a quick rinse-and-rest, I did a number of very short (~5s) steeps that produced an absolutely wonderful liquor – sweet, floral, spiced with a “thick” mouthfeel. It was perfection. And it carried that wonderful cinnamon-like note until the fourth or fifth steep. Even after that, the liquor was really delicious – increasingly floral and sweet, with the usual increasing lightness of well-brewed leaf.

From my, admittedly still pretty rookie, perspective, this was sensational. Can’t really fault it – the leaves brewed well through around 8 or 9 infusions (and probably could have carried on, but there’s only so much tea I can drink in a day :P) and was delightful and quite complex, right from the beginning. It made me feel lively and alert, but not jittery.

I’ll definitely be drinking more of this soon!

(The only downside to this tea was that it was very expensive – I paid £30 (~$45) for 50 g. That did include shipping, but puts this only second to the couple of WP teas that cost around that pre-shipping. Much like the WP teas, it is exceptionally high quality, as far as I could tell, and certainly “worth the money”, but wouldn’t be able to afford to drink this tea regularly. Then again, perhaps that’s the point and I’ll revere this tea, alongside the more expensive WP ones, as a real treat for special occasions!)