Shanlinxi High Mountain Spring Oolong Tea, Lot 720

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Almond, Anise, Apple, Apple Skins, Butter, Cookie, Cream, Custard, Dry Grass, Freshly Cut Grass, Garden Peas, Gardenias, Lemon, Mineral, Mushrooms, Pine, Spinach, Thick, Vanilla, Wet Rocks, Candied Apple, Coconut, Fruity, Grass, Meat, Sugar, Sweet, Tart, Umami, Vegetal, Zucchini
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Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Togo
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 4 oz / 105 ml

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2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Here we are. Seems my new pattern is to review a few teas on Mondays, so howdy :) Scroll down to TEATIME if you don’t care for life happenings. I’ve been dog/housesitting for a coworker (so many...” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “This is a beautifully fragrant mountain oolong that presents a very good value. Moreover, it can be drunk on empty stomach with no issue whatsoever. The dry leaves smell of cookies and coconut,...” Read full tasting note
    84

From Taiwan Tea Crafts

We like to say that this superb high mountain tea terroir is just in our backyard. Despite being too often over-shadowed by the better-known Alishan terroir, we are very proud to say that Shanlinxi has developed into one of the highly reputed growing areas in our own Nantou County, and rightfully so. The spectacular tea gardens are nestled at an elevation of 800 to over 2000 meters and some of them have such vertiginous inclines that mountaineering equipment is required to go and pick the leaves. Shanlinxi oolong distinguishes itself from other Gao Shan oolongs in that it features clearly defined balsam notes that make it particularly appealing to the palate and nose. Many say that the luxuriant fir-tree forests surrounding the gardens have something to do in conveying this fresh evergreen feeling in the cup. This very first Shanlinxi high mountain offering is from one of the lower sections of a reputed garden with a south-west facing incline in what is know as the Ginko Forest area. The oxydation level is right where we like it to be for expressive floral notes. It offers a wonderful multi-layered experience which will reveal sweet buttered corn at first, then fresh balsam notes and a flowery finale as if your were eating tender wild flowers. This spring 2018 iteration comes from the same grower as last year’s and, if the speed at which it sold out is an indication, this will be selling out very soon as well due to the superior quality of this year’s offering. This is a very satisfying and certainly one of the best value high-mountain teas we will propose this spring.

About Taiwan Tea Crafts View company

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2 Tasting Notes

91
1557 tasting notes

Here we are. Seems my new pattern is to review a few teas on Mondays, so howdy :)

Scroll down to TEATIME if you don’t care for life happenings.

I’ve been dog/housesitting for a coworker (so many acquaintances have been or will be going to Hawaii this summer, lucky ducks!). I didn’t take my kettle or teaware over to the house so recent mornings have involved drinking canned Guayakí yerba maté, or gasp! a K-Cup of coffee the other day. I came home this morning for a few sessions because I’m going through tea withdrawal.

The infection I’d had from March to June resurfaced last week, though since I knew what it was, I was able to get into the doctor for antibiotics the same day the infection kicked in severely. We’re euthanizing Housemate #1’s old, gay tomcat this evening at home. Housemate #2 is moving out in a month so the atmosphere will be very calm as autumn approaches, a setting enjoyable for hopefully increased gongfu sessions. Strange week. Despite all this, I feel a delightful yearning. Maybe it’s because I am okay, confident and rolling with the happenings.
TEATIME

Received as a sample from Togo. This swap package is never-ending.

5g, 100mL porcelain pot, 200F, rinse, medium length gongfu steep times starting at 20s. I didn’t keep track, maybe 8 infusions.

Dry leaf was small, uniform pebbles with scents of sweet almond and sugar cookie with vegetal, creamy and floral qualities. Warming the leaf opened up the aromas, with additions of pine, anise, gardenia, vanilla, cream, garden peas and a light, tangy high note.

The aroma was delicate and pleasing, floral, cookie, anise. The first thing I noticed was the body of the tea, thick and oily with substantial minerality leading to quick salivation. Like the aroma, the tastes were delicate. If the tea had not had such a pronounced mouthfeel, I would’ve felt this a dud. But the body had me wanting to swirl the tea around in my mouth and in that process, I was able to appreciate the subtlety of flavors. Pine, fresh and dry grass, butter, gardenia on the breeze, a golden apple and lemon mineral water brightness, fleeting hints of custard and spinach, and a few notes I’ve rarely if ever gotten in a high mountain oolong — wet rocks and fresh fungus on the forest floor. They unexpectedly fit the tea well.

The finish was cooling and complex with a throaty bite for the first few steeps and the aftertaste was distinctly green/golden apple skins. Spent leaf revealed pretty much all 3-leaves and a bud, very thin, yet it really expanded in my pot. The energy was CCC — calm, cool and collected.

Simply, a pleasant, perhaps understated tea. Delicate and subtle, never overbearingly green or floral, nor necessarily sweet. I feel like this is a Shanlinxi done right.

Song pairing: David Byrne and Brian Eno — Strange Overtones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L7IdUqaZxo
Been grooving to David Byrne and Talking Heads for a while.

Flavors: Almond, Anise, Apple, Apple Skins, Butter, Cookie, Cream, Custard, Dry Grass, Freshly Cut Grass, Garden Peas, Gardenias, Lemon, Mineral, Mushrooms, Pine, Spinach, Thick, Vanilla, Wet Rocks

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
mrmopar

I am hoping that you will kick this thing quickly! You are still on the list.

derk

Thanks, my friend <3

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84
943 tasting notes

This is a beautifully fragrant mountain oolong that presents a very good value. Moreover, it can be drunk on empty stomach with no issue whatsoever. The dry leaves smell of cookies and coconut, while the wet leaves have a pungent floral aroma with a sausage tone to it.

The taste progression is roughly the following. The onset is grassy and fruity, transforming into a tart, vegetal taste soon. The finish is quite savoury with strong umami, followed by a sweet, floral aftertaste. It’s a delicate and nuanced flavour. I get notes of custard, baked apple, apple skins and courgette. In the later infusions, the sweetness intensifies.

The protracted aftertaste is cooling and biting, with notes of butter and sugar. As for the texture, it is mouth-watering, very slick, buttery and medium bodied. I also found the tea to leave me fairly uplifted on every occassion I drunk it.

Flavors: Apple Skins, Butter, Candied Apple, Coconut, Cookie, Custard, Freshly Cut Grass, Fruity, Grass, Meat, Sugar, Sweet, Tart, Umami, Vegetal, Zucchini

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 8 g 4 OZ / 110 ML

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