Mountain Bird - Ali Shan Oolong

Thank you for the sample teabento!

I feel a little bad that it’s taken me a while to get to my last two samples – however, I’ve been sick as of late and I wanted to be sure that I was doing the teas sent to me justice when describing the flavours. I drank this one tonight; Western style. Normally I Gong Fu oolongs, but I generally actually prefer Ali Shans western style as opposed to Gong Fu brewed so I just went for my taste preference.

To be completely honest; I didn’t love this one. I think it’s the first tea so far from teabento that was a bit of a miss for me. Not terrible or anything; just not great. I think the biggest reason I disliked it was because there was a VERY strong prune sort of flavour to it – I’m not really a fan of prunes. Apart from that very strong prune note, there was also a really robust nuttiness to the flavour. Sort of a grilled nut/barley kind of nutty flavour with a soft honey sweetness sort of tacked right to the tail/transition of that flavour note.

Apart from those two/three main flavours, there was also some grassy and floral top notes which were fairly smooth and pleasant. The finish was a bit fruitier; peach/nectarine rather than the unpleasant prune notes that take up so much of the body flavour. The peach note lingers briefly in the aftertaste; then swiftly dissipates.

I can see why this would appeal to people; and there are certainly aspects to it that I enjoyed – but the prune is a deal breaker for me. That said, I still have another cup worth of this left, so I’ll give it at least one more try before I completely make up my mind.