Songboling Shui Xian Tea, Lot 266

I bought a sample of this tea along with a little clay pot from Taiwan Tea Crafts. I’ve determined that this pot will be for darker oolongs, including wuyi and yancha. Still in the hunt for a clay pot that pours quickly enough for young sheng. The dry leaf of this tea has an aroma of a dry autumn leaf pile – a note I often pick up from roasted teas. After a rinse, the leaf smelled roasty with a bit of a hint of coconut.

Rather awesomely, the first three steeps tasted quite a bit like toasted coconut. Maybe I was tasting the orchid note that Shui Xian is supposed to have, but I was just getting toasted coconut. I also picked up on a bit of a mineral taste and maybe some honey sweetness as well.

For the rest of the session, the coconut drops out, replaced by a floral note which makes me think that I may have just been tasting and interpreting an intense floral flavor as coconut – but that’s still what I got from it for sure. Flavors get a little bit lighter but remain balanced and sweet. The occasional nutty roasty note reminds me that this is a very well roasted tea – done with a lot of skill I’d say.

The first really good shui xian I’ve had and it’s from Taiwan! When I make another order from Taiwan Tea Crafts, I definitely might pick some of this up, as it’s a very fair price. I got in a bit of trouble for encouraging people to pick this up in teachat by claiming that it tastes like toasted coconut ;)

Here is another unique tea from Taiwan Tea Crafts, a “Shui Xian” styled tea in processing, but made from local Taiwanese oolong cultivars. It’s a bit confusing to me why they chose to call this Shui Xian since the leaves are not long twisted oolong leaves like Wuyi Oolongs but are instead the tightly rolled balls you see in most Taiwanese oolong, along with many loose stems. I guess they’re just referring to it having the same general roasting process and treatment as Shui Xian up to the point where it is rolled.

The warm leaves in the gaiwan do in fact smell reminiscent of Shui Xian, a deep roasted scent with orchid notes. Because the leaves are rolled into beads, I am brewing this longer than I would if they were strip style oolong. After the first infusion, the leaves smell really strongly fruity and floral. Orchids and figs, maybe blackberries. Of course they smell very roasted as well.

Despite a mild yellow infusion, the flavor is very powerful. The deep roasted flavor has hints of char and tobacco and is underscored by a subtle orchid note. There isn’t much sweetness or fruitiness to the tea’s taste. Those more delicate notes present themselves more in the aroma. The tea is moderately drying in the throat and back of the tongue.

The second infusion is perhaps a bit more floral with a faint honey note. The roasted flavors are diminished, but the creeping dryness that sneaks up at the end of a sip is still there. This is definitely not a smooth tea, and I find that aspect of it very unfortunate because I am finding it hard to continue drinking because of how abrasive the texture is. Third infusion, lighter flavor but the dryness is still present.

I will have to give this tea a try another day and see if I still feel it is so drying.