Dong Fang Mei Ren Formosa Oolong

When I was buying a bunch of herbal teas in February, I couldn’t resist adding this Bai Hao to my order. I was a little wary because these teas are often eye-wateringly expensive and this is around $13 for 50 g, but I decided to give it a chance anyway. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 30, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of baked peaches, honey, and grapes. The first steep has notes of honey, muscatel, peaches, citrus, baked bread, and flowers. There’s some dryness in the aftertaste and it lacks the darker sandalwood and spicy notes that characterize pricier Bai Hao. The second steep introduces pears and dates (thanks to Eastkyteaguy for noticing this flavour!). All of these notes intensify in the third and fourth rounds, and the citrus and muscatel become more prominent. This tea leaves a lovely grape/citrus/baked pear aroma at the bottom of the cup. Hints of malt and wood appear in the fourth steep and the drying sensation in the mouth gets stronger. This Bai Hao becomes more like a black tea by the sixth steep, with noticeable malt and tannins. The black tea character gradually overtakes the tea until the end of the session, which features malt, metal, faint fruit, and tannins.

This is a nice Bai Hao, particularly in the early steeps, and I don’t regret purchasing it in the least. However, it lacks the balance among sweet, spicy, and sappy/woody notes that makes really great examples of this tea so magical. If I had to compare it to another Bai Hao, it would be the Jingmai Bai Hao from China from Camellia Sinensis, which also lacks that bug-bitten complexity. For the price, this is excellent, but there are better Bai Haos out there.

After taking a day off from writing reviews, I decided to get back on track this morning with a new oolong. Yesterday, I finally finished the last of the Silver Buds Yabao from Verdant and the Margaret’s Hope First Flush Darjeeling from Tealyra. Both were teas I really enjoyed, but neither were the sort of tea to which I would be in any rush to go back. I needed to try something a little different. Enter Tealyra’s Dong Fang Mei Ren Formosa Oolong.

First, allow me to state that I have virtually no familiarity with this particular type of oolong. My experience with Formosa oolongs is limited to baozhongs and rolled oolongs. Second, I had actually tried this one before. I did a short gongfu session with this tea back in the middle of September. I recalled liking it to a degree, but did not remember any specifics.

For the purposes of this review, I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water. I followed this infusion with 10 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute 5 seconds, 1 minute 35 seconds, and 2 minutes. Please note that if this method seems strange, it does so for a reason-I made it up as I went along. I could not find much consensus about how to prepare this tea gongfu online, so I just tried to push it as hard as I could.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaves emitted a wonderful aroma. It reminded me of a combination of peach, white grape, and honey. After the rinse, the aroma changed slightly. The honey, peach, and grape scents intensified, but they were joined by a melange of flowers and citrus. The first infusion produced an almost identical aroma. In the mouth, I noted a pleasant mixture of peach and honey underscored by flowers and white grape. The next three infusions produced a somewhat more intense citrus and floral quality on the nose and in the mouth. I began to note distinct plum, lime, date, mandarin orange, magnolia, and lily tones on the palate. Subsequent infusions were more balanced, producing well-integrated floral, fruity aromas and flavors with a hint of minerality. The last three infusions were extremely light both on the nose and in the mouth. The mineral notes were more pronounced, though I could still detect fleeting impressions of flowers, peach, and citrus in the background. Though the tea was not quite flat at that point, I ended the session after the eleventh infusion as I doubted the tea had much more to offer.

Immediately after I ended the session, I was not quite sure what to make of this tea, and really, I’m still not. I enjoyed the way the intense peach and honey aromas and flavors mingled with the floral and citrus tones. To me, this gave the tea an elegant, exotic quality that is hard for me to accurately describe. Still, I think I prefer the Formosa oolongs with which I am more familiar. Just to be clear though, I do think this is a good oolong. In this instance, I think it admirably served its purpose as an introduction to oolongs of this type. I could see it doing the same for others, though I also do not doubt that those who are more familiar with this style may still enjoy this one.