Fall Pear Mountain (Lishan) Oolong B

Drafting this note as I drink the tea. I drew from Leafhoppers and Lucky Me notes, and well, sense and instinct. I’ll add more as I drink it throughout the day, so expect some changes and edits.

Dryleaf is fruity and creamy, bordering on reminding me of sugarcane. First steep was a rinse, and it’s very sweet. Sweet corn, butter, honeydew (faint), sugar.

Second one after 25 seconds….flower water. Not much of anything.

Wet leaf smells like strawberries and cream. Third about 35 ish seconds in 4 ish oz, and more corn and whatever creamy floral. “Berries and cream,” osmanthus, melon of some form and something else. I’m feeling a little unoriginal, but I am liking this more than I thought I would. The vegetals might come soon, but so far, not so much. We’ll see as the session continues.

Now, 30-40ish seconds (maybe less), PEACH, orchids, osmanthus. Some green alpine-ness in the earlier part, barely vegetal. Very fresh and juicy.

Another round I did not count, probably close to less than a minute, and peach, but more floral. Orchid, herbs, osmanthus, and peachy finish.

47 seconds and heavy fruity aroma. Thick. Tasting it, thick fruit. Peach, jasmine, butter, and cantelope? More melon than peach personally. Immensely fruity.

And I think I’m ready for the waiting. Corn, peach, melon, cream, and florals are prominent for me. I felt very off for the florals though they are clearly present. I’ve been half tempted to write hyacinth for steep two, but I wasn’t sure. It could be the way I brewed it, but it was not as vegetal as the Fall A selection. This one was softer in comparison, though I didn’t expect it to be fruitier. I actually liked this one a little bit more despite it being more subdued. I also think it’s due to a little bit less leaves that I used, or I could be wrong. I’ll write a few things more soon, but I think I’ve gotten what I could out of the tea. Or have I?

Next steep. Vegetal spinach. Floral, but green, buttery, savory and herbaceous.

In 2019, I bought a sample set of two fall Li Shan oolongs picked several days apart on the same farm. This is the one that was harvested later in the year. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

This tea has a stronger cookie aroma than the Li Shan A, along with citrus, cream, flowers, and spinach. The first steep has notes of cookies, butter, orchids, honeysuckle, other florals, cream, honey, faint citrus, grass, broccoli, and spinach. I get a strong mandarin orange note in the teapot, but steep two just offers more of the cookie and vegetal flavours. I get a strongly vegetal aftertaste. Orange and peach appear faintly in the aroma and taste of steeps three and four, but I really have to look for them. I also get more veggies and the high mountain herbaceousness I found in Li Shan A, along with a lovely apricot/peach aftertaste. The next couple steeps have a soft peach note that’s kind of overwhelmed by spinach, broccoli, kale, and grass. As in previous steeps, the aftertaste is the best part of this tea. The final steeps are a little floral but mostly vegetal, with broccoli, kale, spinach, and some astringency.

Judging from the very similar smell of the dry leaves, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to distinguish this tea from its earlier-harvested counterpart. I needn’t have worried, though, since most of the aroma didn’t make it into the cup. I might need to experiment with cold brewing like LuckyMe to pull out more of the fruity flavours.

Mountain Stream Teas offers 3 different grades of this Li Shan. All of them sourced from the same farm and processed the same, but on different days. The earlier the picking the better the tea is supposed to be. This is their “B” grade which was picked 6 days after the first harvest.

It has similar floral-fruity aromatics as Pear Mountain A with added notes of dried peaches and orchid. I would not recommend following Mountain Stream’s steeping instructions though as I ended up ruining my first cup. Not every tea takes well to boiling water. Anyway, the steeped tea is buttery and thick with mild floral undertones. It leans slightly savory and at time edges towards bitterness which goes away once the water temperature is lowered. Overall, it’s smooth and buttery though not very complex or nuanced.

Now the ambient brew was a totally different story and super delicious. Creamy and elegant, with jasmine like florals and a fruity note akin to strawberry. It had such a clean, effervescent quality to it like fresh water from a mountain spring. I wish I had the finesse to coax out this same flavor from hot steeping.