Taiwan Hong Shui Oolong Tea

This was a sample from Alistair, which is great, because I’ve always overlooked it. Wow. Sweet and fruity and toasty like a baked apple crisp with cinnamon on top. There’s some pear and cardamom in there somewhere. Big fan of this one so far, and I’ve only had it lukewarm a few hours after brewing it western-style. Gotta try this later in a gaiwan.

The cloudy and chilly weather this morning combined with a trying work day yesterday called me to a gongfu session with this oxidized and roasted red oolong. It has the aroma and flavor of sweet recuperation. Much needed.

This Spring 2018 harvest Hong Shui, like many other red oolong, is high on the aroma factor. When dry, I smell brown toast, rye, raisin, cinnamon, pear, golden syrup, pecan, straw, dried fruit. Warming the leaf brings cedar, cacao and plums. A rinse bring some strange things like sweet pickled vegetables, dill, roasted tomatoes and carrots, perfume, vinyl, raisins and blueberry.

Its character is lightly toasty and musky with cinnamon-pear sweetness and mellow nuttiness. Raisin, floral grape and minerals provide support. As the tea develops thicker, stronger flavors, I also pick up on something a bit like rancid butter but that could be due to sinus issues. The complexity lies more in aromas than it does in the actual flavors. A little drying and a brown sugar returning sweetness.

This is a tea that I think might captivate tea drinkers looking to explore the oxidized/roasted Taiwanese balled oolong. I would recommend it as a western brew. When prepared that way, the long steep time allows the full thickness and sweetness to shine.

A wonderful tea with a pleasant taste.

3,25 grams of tea in a 50ml/1.6ounces gaiwan. Started at 25 seconds and added 5 seconds for each infusion.

I am so happy to be back on Steepster. Work and class have been crazy lately, and quite frankly, I just haven’t had the time or the energy to do any reviews. Fortunately, I am still working my way through some of my larger tea purchases, so the backlog isn’t huge these days. I finished what I had of this tea a week or so ago. Prior to trying this tea, I did not have much familiarity with Hong Shui oolongs, so I did not really know how to score it. Overall, though, I found it to be a very nice yet challenging tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of dry tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of raisin, prune, pear, cinnamon, and roasted almond. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of vanilla, cream, roasted peanut, butter, and roasted pecan as well as a subtle scent of old leather. The first infusion introduced aromas of cedar, smoke, candied ginger, and nutmeg. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of raisin, prune, honey, cinnamon, roasted almond, vanilla, cream, and butter that were chased by hints of cedar, nutmeg, candied ginger, and pear. There was also a little leatheriness in the mouth after the swallow. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of blackberry, toasted rice, chocolate, roasted barley, pine, straw, black cherry, and blueberry. Stronger candied ginger, pear, and nutmeg notes came out in the mouth alongside roasted pecan notes. Impressions of minerals, straw, toasted rice, roasted barley, black cherry, oats, chocolate, caramel, blackberry, blueberry, red apple, grass, baked bread, and pine also emerged with hints of licorice and smoke in tow. As the tea faded, the liquor began to emphasize notes of minerals, cream, butter, vanilla, honey, roasted almond, and roasted peanut that were balanced by softer notes of raisin, blackberry, cinnamon, pine, baked bread, toasted rice, grass, and black cherry.

This was a very interesting oolong. Its aroma and flavor components were constantly shifting, rendering the experience of drinking it very difficult for me to accurately describe. In terms of aroma and flavor, it struck me as being almost like a cross between a lighter roasted Shui Xian and a traditional Dong Ding oolong. Anyway, there was a lot going on with this tea. If you are looking for something a little more challenging, this would definitely be a tea to consider.

Another review of this one? Okay I guess. 4 grams / 85 ml gaiwan.

I made really long first steep. 40 seconds. Why? I was cleaning the kitchen after I prepared this tea.

Wet leaf aroma is really nice, but I can not came up with it what it smells like. But it is pleasant.
When poured into my tea cup the aroma changes rapidly to cinnamon buns, roasted nuts, pecans.
In taste it is very mouth-watering, as well cinnamon, nuts, pear. Enjoyable combination!

2nd steep,
again 40 seconds. It became bit more sweet in aromas as well in taste. Sticky feeling on tongue. On all other fields super. I like it, because it is so full of flavour.

3rd steep
I did 50 seconds. It loses lots of distinctive notes and it is nice and mild now.

4th
One minute. Last one. I notice it is really weak in aroma. I did too long steeps probably. I killed it. Please forgive me. Yeah. It is watery and nothing distinctive. It has got generic roasted taste and aroma. And woody. Sad :/

Hoarded this 2021 sample til the mood struck me. I steeped it up about twice so far in short 15 and 20 second steeps, and it’s heavy on the baked pear and syrupy thick texture, but light on the roast and woady profile this time. Now, even steep three at 15 sec, and four at 30 sec, there’s a sweetness that leans almost in a vanilla or maple direction. Steep three was a little bit woodier, but four fruitier with the fancy poached or baked pear flavor again. Steep 5, forgot the time-maybe less than a minute, aroma remaining. The charcoal creeps up a bit, but so does some minerals, vaguely cinnamon (by association and imagination), and rock sugar. Oh yeah, didn’t I mentioned a cooked version of a pear yet?

Either way it keeps coming and its a nice break from the frequent greener oolongs I’ve had. I still prefer to drink the greener oolongs more often for some reason, despite the cinders I’ve flecked from my wallets well scorched hole. Oddly though, my palette like fruitier tones and higher oxidized oolongs tend to be in fact fruitier than green ones, but I go back to the green ones.

Sometimes, the higher oxidised oolongs are actually too sweet for me, edging for cloying. I know most people wouldn’t use that word for red oolongs and I’d argue they are a little bit better suited to a western palette in some ways, but it’s the weird border into fructose, honey or syrup that makes me think they are. I’d be curious if anyone else has the same kind of experience. I know I’m hypocritical because I like vanilla, floral, chocolate, or fruit leaning black, white, and oolong teas, but I’d be happy to know I’m not the only one. Maybe it’s just my western palette preferring those teas.

I still recommend this one though. It’s quite good. I still agree with most of the earlier notes written, and the newer ones drawing the dill and spice comparisons. It’s like a savory baked fruit desert or starter.

A——— at What-Cha added this as a sample in my latest order, presumably based on my like for strongly flavoured, well roasted Oolong. Hot and at first steep I got lots of seaweed and iodine. As it cooled and in subsequent steeping there’s pear as suggested on the supplier’s site, and also I got a nutty green flavour not unlike roasted acorns.

H tasted turpenes — how to put this delicately? — of the sort smelled when wandering out of Camden or Brixton tube stations. But I didn’t get that at all.