Alishan High Mountain Oolong

I’ve been neglecting my oolongs from Wang Family Tea, and wanted to rectify the situation a bit before starting on my spring 2022 purchases. This unroasted Alishan is from spring 2021. Following Wang’s instructions, I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95, 120, 150, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is sweet and floral, with notes of orchid, gardenia, and honeysuckle. The first steep gives me heady orchid, gardenia, honeysuckle, pine, coconut, cream, grass, and other flowers (Daylon mentioned freesia, which fits). The florals are even headier in the next steep. Maybe it’s because of the pine, but I do get a sense of “woodsiness,” as the company calls it. The tea is also a little vegetal, with grass and lettuce in the aftertaste. Sweet freesia and lilac are more prominent in the next couple steeps, along with coconut, lemongrass, pine, lettuce, and that “woodsy” note. The next few steeps are full of sweet florals, but are becoming increasingly vegetal, with lettuce, spinach, and grass. The tea never gets bitter, but has a vegetal, floral fade.

This is a very nice Alishan that’s better than many others I’ve had. It’s definitely on the floral and vegetal rather than the fruity side, but as someone who likes heady florals, that’s okay. I’ll probably revisit another harvest of this tea at some point, though the Shanlin Xi Wild Garden is more up my alley.

Even just saying the name Alishan gets one excited. But then I opened the bag… Generally, when you have an absorber in there you don’t get much aroma but this one jumped up and popped me a good one. Floral with wet mineral accents. Big smile The wet liquor reminds me of being in a jungle and coming across a fresh bubbling brook loaded with flowers around the edges. Gardenias and orchids. Oh my. It is so soft on the tongue. The minerality increases the more steeps you progress into. Coconut. Fresh coconut milk. It isn’t strong but the mouthfeel and the taste are reminiscent of this. I love unraveling the wet leaf to see the beautiful pluck. A bud, one, two, three, and sometimes four leaves.

My four-year-old son is generally pretty good with knowing not to shake my arm while I’m drinking tea but this delectable brew and my keyboard were almost in big trouble when he grabbed my arm and hung from it. Good thing I’ve been working out.

The keyboard to my MS Surface is surprisingly durable. During a matcha workshop with Sooz of BeingTea.com I spilled at least a 1/2 cup of water all over the place. Half of which went into my keyboard. I unplugged and immediately tried to gently shake out what I could and then set it upside down in the sun. The first few days I thought for sure I’d need a new one. These things aren’t cheap T_T But now almost a week later it’s back to normal. Glad my son didn’t spill on it because that probably would have been the nail.

I’ve had this one for a while, and I yet again thought I already wrote about it.

I’ve actually had both the 2019 and 2020 versions of of this tea, but I don’t know which one I’ve just opened. I am dumb.

Anyway, this was an extremely easy going Alishan that I drank in under a week the first time I had it, and I see myself finishing it quickly again. The light roast version of it is fruitier, but this one is extremely refreshing. I’ve found that Alishans are either really vegetal, or very fruity, but always floral and creamy in texture. I usually prefer the other mountains, yet if the Alishan is on the fruitier end, I will go for it.

This is one of the first teas in the middle of fruity and vegetal for my palette, leaning more on floral and green. I get some lemongrass and coconut on occasion, but I mostly get subdued fresia in the florals, some very light magnolia, under a heavy and heady orchid flavor/aroma. Either way it’s sweet. I actually brewed this unlike how I typically do it. I didn’t rinse it, and brewed it close to a minute, and then shortened the steeps 10-15 sec each time until I got to a good 27 sec steep four and five, and then I amped the tea back up to a minute, 2 minutes, and so on….and it kept on going and the huigan kept on giving, becoming lighter like lettuce.

I’ll just quote the company for the notes:

“Dry tea leaves are bright green, and smell of chlorophyll. First round of brewing brings out a strong floral flavor and fragrance. The tea liquor is a beautiful amber color. This tea is already starting to impart a long lingering aftertaste; the flavor starts floral, and moves to the deeper taste of orchids. The second of brewing imparts an additional woodsiness of mountain forests. Think freshly sprung bamboo shoots and old growth pine trees. The florality of the first round grows sweeter. This sweetness makes the tea liquor seem almost thick in the mouth. The fragrance of the second round is sweet, woodsy, and has an undercurrent of grass to it. The third round enhances all the notes of this tea. The woodsiness, florality, and taste of orchids are especially pronounced here. The aftertaste is very sweet, and lasts for many, many minutes.”

I’m not sure about the woodsiness, but it’s not a dry wood by any means. I know I’m using “ocean air” in my notes, but it’s got the feel of the heights in tropical mountains that is almost hydrating to inhale. I usually rate Alishans that are fruitier higher; however, the feels and fresh quality this tea gives me is making me put it above just the 90’s number I hover around.

It’s got a little bit of pine compared to most Alishans, and it’s got this really refreshing morning dew/mountain air quality that’s super easy to drink. It’s not the most flavor forward Alishan I’ve had, but it’s one of the most easy going ones that has enough complexity to make me think about it. The tea has enough sweet florals to balance out the grassy notes. Wang Family tea tend to specialize in the Shan Lin Xi’s, but this one is very well balanced and surprisingly fast and easy for me to down.