Shānlín Xī Wild Garden Tàn Bèi Oolong

I’m going to save money and only pick teas I like this summer…..$150 later…

Yeah. I’m a sucker. I got a bunch of teas from Magic Hour and Wang Family Tea, some of which I intend on fully sharing. I got this tea with the small leaf Shan Lin Xi Black and a Qin Yun Oolong, and I honestly was not a huge fan of either of those two teas, which I’ll describe in a few posts away. This one, however, I was. I feel guilty that I really like the nuclear green oolong tea saturating markets, but green oolongs are my sweet treats without the sugar. Leafhopper was concerned this would be too roasted based on appearance, but going off of the notes and my taste, this is definitely on the floral greener side of fruity and roasted.

Roasts are meant to enhance the flavors of the tea, and this one showcases it. It has no hints of charcoal whatsoever, and is very similar to the Jasmine Scented Shan Lin Xi they sell, and that I regret not getting more of. That one is a staple for me right now. Going back to this one, I’ve followed their methods of 55,45, 50, and it’s very heavy on honey, florals, and jasmine with a bit of a sweetness like raw sugar. Longer steeps has a slightly heathered profile, shorter ones are more floral and surprisingly just as viscous. It doesn’t really evolve passed steep 4 or 5, but it keeps on delivering flavor. The tea is super stemmy, so it’s naturally very sweet with large leaves.

I actually like using less leaves for more western sessions so far even though it’s fun to play with gong fu. I’ve only experimented a little with the end of two gong fu sessions with it, but I’ll write more when I brew this tea mug style. I’m not ready to rate it yet, so I’ll end with a positive note that this is my kind of light roast oolong.