Taiwan 2003 Aged Green Heart Oolong

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Butter, Cannabis, Char, Cherry, Cream, Dried Fruit, Floral, Flowers, Lavender, Marine, Mineral, Mint, Nutty, Plum, Popcorn, Smooth, Spices, Spicy, Stonefruit, Sweet, Thyme, Toast, Umami, Banana, Camphor, Caramel, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Graham, Grain, Hazelnut, Honey, Incense, Milk, Nutmeg, Orchid, Osmanthus, Peanut, Pear, Plant Stems, Raisins, Round, Walnut, Wood, Graham Cracker, Peach, Roasted Barley, Toasted Rice, Smoke, Apricot, Burnt Sugar, Dry Grass, Drying
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by derk
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 0 sec 5 g 4 oz / 122 ml

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11 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I have been checking my oolong box and found this one. Certainly it will fill sipdown prompt — Your oldest oolong tea even though I don’t count one serving amounts as sipdowns. But let it be a...” Read full tasting note
    82
  • “I’ve had a fair amount of ‘meh’ experiences with aged oolongs, but it’s fair to say that it is a category I haven’t explored in any breadth. This one is the first aged Taiwanese oolong that I...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “This was the first ‘aged’ Taiwanese oolong I had ever tasted. Sixteen years old. My youngest sibling was 2 when this tea was produced. I went in with an open mind and was more than content with...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “4g looseleaf, 325 mL hot water, 3 minutes This oolong is quite toasty. Roasted grain (barley), unflavoured popcorn, burnt sugar (slight bitterness), graham cracker, toasted rice. It has some...” Read full tasting note
    85

From What-Cha

An aged Oolong dating from 2003, possessing a deep and complex taste of walnut shell and ripe fruit, which evolves with each steep.

Tasting Notes:
- Smooth texture
- Taste of walnut shell and ripe fruit

Harvest: 2003

Origin: Wushe Garden, Nantou, Taiwan
Altitude: 1500m

Cultivar: Qing Xin
Oxidation: 30%
Roast: 60%

Brewing Advice:
- Heat water to roughly 95°C/203°F
- Use 1 teaspoon per cup/small teapot
- Brew for 1-2 minutes

About What-Cha View company

Company description not available.

11 Tasting Notes

82
1836 tasting notes

I have been checking my oolong box and found this one. Certainly it will fill sipdown prompt — Your oldest oolong tea even though I don’t count one serving amounts as sipdowns. But let it be a sipdown! (Two prompts in one day, woo!)

Okay, actually it must be my first experience with aged oolong. This oolong was released when I have been 8 years old, maybe I have started with my tea bag wrapper collection back then? I don’t know, when exactly I have started.

It is unigue, because it looks quite green in colour, even though it has been roasted 60%; and overall I wasn’t sure about flavour profile (walnut skin, really?) and overall, you know, it’s old tea feel.

I was pleasantly surprised already when adding leaves (all 5 grams) to the preheated gaiwan. It was somehow herbaceous, with roasted grains, and overall quite indeed complex.

I have been using 90-95°C water in thermos, and it seems it suited this tea well. I didn’t made a rinse, as there wasn’t any dust and following flavours and aromas were noticed (without particular order):
Walnut skin for sure, agian that herbaceous note, grains, nutty, florals, a little of spices (derk says cardamom, could it be), a little grassy (no contamination with Kumano!), olives a bit, or maybe olive oil. The mouthfeel was, again as derk said already, somehow oily and smooth, creamy and mouthcoating.

Some other qualities to mention: relaxing and keeping my sanity “alive”. It’s getting harder and harder to focus on the studies, as I feel, I know this already, but truth is somewhere in between mark A and F, depending on the topic. Also, my brother was having homeoffice today and well, it didn’t helped me too much. It was somehow distracting me, although he didn’t had much MS Teams calls.

PS: derk, thank you for sending this my way!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 4 OZ / 125 ML

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85
943 tasting notes

I’ve had a fair amount of ‘meh’ experiences with aged oolongs, but it’s fair to say that it is a category I haven’t explored in any breadth. This one is the first aged Taiwanese oolong that I genuinely like. 

The complexity and pungency in the aroma is very impressive and in fact certainly above average even compared to fresh teas. It is very floral and sweet in a preheated gaiwan, with notes of stonefruits and spices. After the rinse there are many more aromas, such as those of cooling mountain flowers (thyme), cherry, cannabis, prunes, toast, and popcorn. Additionally, a faint lavender note rises from the empty cup.

Right from the get go, the mouthfeel is very smooth and airy, with a buttery texture and a slightly astringent finish. The taste is sweet, floral, nutty and metallic. It has a minty finish and flavours of walnut shell, char and mussels. The aftertaste is also pretty sweet and buttery. It has a kind of ‘chunky’ character that I am not sure how to describe. It feels as if one was actually eating something. I really like the cha qi as well, which is heady and pleasantly calming.

Flavors: Butter, Cannabis, Char, Cherry, Cream, Dried Fruit, Floral, Flowers, Lavender, Marine, Mineral, Mint, Nutty, Plum, Popcorn, Smooth, Spices, Spicy, Stonefruit, Sweet, Thyme, Toast, Umami

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

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88
1557 tasting notes

This was the first ‘aged’ Taiwanese oolong I had ever tasted. Sixteen years old. My youngest sibling was 2 when this tea was produced. I went in with an open mind and was more than content with the experience.

This is a very complex tea that complemented my mood on this beautiful morning. From what I’ve gleaned, Green Heart is another name for the Qing Xin cultivar. I can taste the Qing Xin characteristics in a tea that I assume was low to moderately oxidized and re-roasted several times throughout the years, though the roast notes have faded away. I appreciate this because I’m generally not a fan of moderate or heavily roasted Taiwanese oolong (dark roast Wuyi oolong are a different story!).

There is a distinct herbal-sweet spice character to the dry leaf that calls to mind cardamom, which I’ve experienced once before in a wild oolong from Mountain Stream Teas. I found it strange in that tea and found it strange here but it was very welcome. I wondered how a tea so old could have such a pronounced dry leaf fragrance with other notes of floral walnut, wood, frankincense, cinnamon, sour cherry, hints of cannabis and peanut with a ribbon of raisin or prune in the undertone. The aroma of the liquor is complex and deep, pronounced yet delicate — sweet, floral and nutty.

The liquor is much the same in its flavor — floral, nutty and sweet with spice/incense of the dry leaf. Smooth and oily with no astringency, medium-bodied with a brightening mineral quality. The fruity aromas of the dry leaf come out in taste, too, though not quite cherry and raisin but leaning more toward sweet Asian pear followed by a milky finish. The aftertaste takes a minute to bloom but it does so with great length and notes of honey, pear and osmanthus. Camphor taste and feeling comes in soon after the swallow and persists into each successive infusion. It seems to dominate the sip in the following cups which then mellows into the oolong profile.

I can’t emphasize how much of a calm state this tea induced.

Really happy to have this in my collection and a great starting point for piquing my interest in aged Taiwanese oolong.

[5g, 100mL clay gaiwan, 212F, 10s rinse followed by 14 steeps starting at 10s]

Flavors: Banana, Camphor, Cannabis, Caramel, Cardamom, Cherry, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Cream, Floral, Graham, Grain, Hazelnut, Honey, Incense, Milk, Mineral, Nutmeg, Nutty, Orchid, Osmanthus, Peanut, Pear, Plant Stems, Plum, Raisins, Round, Spicy, Sweet, Toast, Walnut, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
derk

Western prep this morning:

1 tsp, 10oz, 4 steeps, water off boiling
Super sweet with roasty caramel and cooling cardamom, green stemmy quality, still very nutty and quite floral.

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85
2955 tasting notes

4g looseleaf, 325 mL hot water, 3 minutes

This oolong is quite toasty. Roasted grain (barley), unflavoured popcorn, burnt sugar (slight bitterness), graham cracker, toasted rice. It has some bitterness to it that I do not like, but the graham cracker flavour in the aftertaste is amazing. Very desserty, in a subtle natural way. Some peachy and plum notes come out if you steep it cold/drink it after it cools.

Flavors: Graham Cracker, Grain, Peach, Popcorn, Roasted Barley, Toast, Toasted Rice

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Fjellrev

Oh wow, awesome notes! Too bad about the bitterness though.

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80
46 tasting notes

I drank this one immediately after the “Vietnam Red Buffalo Oolong”, and in that one I detected what I thought was a hint of cinnamon. THIS one also has that taste, but much much stronger, so I thought for a second I’d somehow cross-contaminated! But nope, it just really has a strong spicy-cinnamon note to me. When my roommate smelled it however (she didn’t taste) she said “smokey” instead. So I drank again, and after thinking on it, I suppose it’s possible I’m interpreting certain “smoke” flavors as “cinnamon”. I’ve had some bad run-ins with icky “smoke” tasting teas, but I like this one, so perhaps my mind is just trying to give the “good” ones a different word than “smoke”. Anyway…food (or drink) for thought!

Flavors: Cinnamon, Smoke

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80
526 tasting notes

I have an odd memory of strongly disliking this tea, so I have left this sample lingering for quite some. However, today I decided to give it another go, and I am very glad that I did. This is a surprisingly decent aged oolong. The rolled leaves are slightly darkened with notes of rich honey, raisin, dry grass, and plum, with an undertone of burnt sugar resin. I warmed my gaiwan and dumped the pebbles in. The scent opens into some roast with plum, tobacco, and fruity but dry aroma. I washed the leaves once and started steeping. The taste begins with a fantastic flourish! A strong smooth note of graham cracker, crystal sugar, with the fruity tones of apricot and pear. The brew is thick and lasting with a wonderful plum aftertaste. I really enjoyed that first cup. However, the brew progressively gets woodier and darker with each steep. The second steep is an in between state of fruity sweetness and woody dryness. The third steep is nothing special. This is what I call I one steep wonder, but it was pretty wonderful. With this tea, I recommend high temperature and longer steep time, for the roasted rolled balls need time to open and thicken the soup. The qi is a bit odd, for I can only sense a lot of head compression. I enjoyed the first taste of this tea, and I wish it would have lasted.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQQSBd2A_KG/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Flavors: Apricot, Burnt Sugar, Dry Grass, Drying, Graham Cracker, Honey, Pear, Plum, Raisins, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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107 tasting notes

First tea (for me) from the aged oolong group buy. 4.5g in my 100ml gaiwan. Predominant flavor and aroma is roasted corn. The tea has a very nice mineral finish and pleasant aftertaste. First three steeps of 30 secs; 3rd was a little weak so bumped it up to 1 minute for the fourth steep but the roast was so heavy that I went back to 30 seconds for the next couple of steeps.

The first two steeps were the best, after that it’s a little disappointing for me. The roast really overshadows whatever else might be going on with this tea. I absolutely LOVE a roasted oolong, but I’m missing the fruity/plumy sweetness I normally associate with the good ones. Glad I tried this one because I had been curious about it, but I will probably not purchase more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_hX30fGgD0/?taken-by=curlygc

https://www.instagram.com/p/_hdHwKGgAh/?taken-by=curlygc

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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44
4 tasting notes

When steeped with 4g/100ml, this one comes out like burnt popcorn. Reducing the water temperature and doing flash steepings helps a little, but the leaves reek of char regardless and the roast stays dominant throughout.

Flavors: Australian wildfire, butter, caramel

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89
314 tasting notes

From the aged oolong group buy.

I am starting to love aged oolong. I usually steep oolongs with 3 grams in 6 oz with 1-minute steeps, but started out with a 20 second steep after Liquid Proust’s warning about the strength of the tea. I didn’t find it at all strong and after this first steep went back to my usual 1 minute steeps. I think it’s just that LP is a green tea drinker and I prefer blacks, though we both love puerh and oolongs.

The first steep started toasty, ended grassy, with a very long finish. 2nd (60 s): Back to my normal steep routine. Not at all overpowering. Nutty aroma, medium roast flavor with hints of nut and tropical fruit. Good finish. As the tea cooled it became much less interesting. Just a plain medium roast. 3rd (60s): This time the roast is a bit too powerful, smothering the fruit. Later steeps smoothed out, showing rich, complex flavors without the roasted component (other than a bit in the nose).

Usually oolongs peak for me in the second or third steep, but this tea just kept getting better. The early steeps had sharply defined flavors that sometimes seemed at odds with each other. The later steeps were much more integrated, with the rough edges all smoothed off. I drank this over a period of two days, with other teas in between, so lost track of the number of steeps. I think i’m on about the 6th or 7th steep and the tea shows no sign of fading, even though I’m still only doing 60 second steeps. It is just a pleasure to drink.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 0 sec 3 g 6 OZ / 177 ML

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1113 tasting notes

I drank the Mountain Tea version from a swap and really disliked it. This time around I tried different steeping parameters which eventually came down to 7 second steeps. Normally, I never ever steep an oolong under 15 seconds but this one is just super strong. The roast gets too powerful if steeped longer than 10 seconds and the texture becomes dry. I like the buttery after taste when kept at low times, yet this still isn’t a tea that I like. It might provide a strong cup of tea with nutty remarks and a great texture (while lasting a long time) but it just isn’t my cup of tea. This is something I would suggest someone try though because for the amount it steeps it is a bargain. The mineral notes are a little upfront too like an oolong can be :)

Dr Jim

Thanks for the warning. I’ll try this with shorter steeps than normal.

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