Taiwan Four Seasons 'Red Pearl' Oolong Tea

Can brew English style or grandpa style, and still good even at room temp. Doesn’t need sugar but good with honey. Not at all vegetal, mostly a black tea. Almost no aftertaste at all. Not the most complex but just so easy to drink.

Steaming leaves give up toast, roast, vaguely medicinal cherries, herbs. Pours a very slightly pinkish tan.

(As I give it a good sniff, I confirm this is this third cup today that’s had chlorine coming off of it… ordered a new filter between steeps… yick!)

Although the nugs are dark and small, which typically makes me expect a wallop of baking spices and liquor, the first steep seemed quite light, so I let the second sit for far longer than I normally would — maybe two minutes. No astringency, and the flavors did manage to pop. Baking spices, plum and prune both, tart cherry, vanilla, some citrus zest. Tannins in the third after another long steep. Wisps of cherry and tannins barely hung on while it got watery.

Maybe the lack of passion for this tea lies in its subtlety; it is missing substantial body, and I can see how it might creep in and back out before anyone notices it showed up. An easy daily drinker, and certainly a lovely cuppa to share with a tea-tuned friend or lover while sussing out its corners… holy in the way it’s embraced, if not in its own right.

I gave my remaining 6g a western brew for a sipdown. Kept the volume low (350ml) and went for a full five minutes. More oolong character came through, some biscuit appeared to back up those spices… and suddenly I felt strangely protective of this little “chase me” flirt.

And then it was all gone in the second steep. Ugh.

Uncle.

Again one of the oolongs from the mystery tea package from What-Cha.
The leaves give an immediate sweet smell with notes of dark wood, wet straw and roasted nuts, but also a bit of fruity notes like peach. Quite a strong smell. The sweetness and roasted flavour continues on to the liquor and has quite a long aftertaste.
I generally have a prejudice towards dark oolongs or light black teas, and therefore enjoy this tea.

Another grandpa attempt of oolong today. Two teaspoons were too much though for my 300 ml glass cup.
April 2020 harvest

Tea from White Antlers again though, so THANK YOU :)

This tea tasted pretty much medicore to me. I mean, certainly it’s not bad, but I only noticed its malty profile, bit sweet notes. Haven’t noticed any stonefruits, but maybe as prepared grandpa it was lost in the malt?

As others said, it is tea that haven’t got any flaws, but overall it is just quite okay oolong without much complex flavour profile. Good for times, when you want an oolong, but you don’t want to care about all the notes that could be in.

Thanks though White Antlers and Alistair who selected it for me :) Not every tea is tea for special occasions. I haven’t expected anything, so it will be good tea for upcoming fall, when I would like to drink tea, but won’t have time to enjoy it fully!

For a moment there, I was running low on good loose leaf. Only had a few tins with more than 20 grams of the good stuff in them. Probably won’t see my pre-existing orders from Hatvala and YS for a couple more months, at this rate. Thanks to Whatcha and their weirdly fast shipping to US, I’ve got 100 grams of this and a few other quality teas to replenish my stash. You’re my hero in these trying times, Alistair.

This is a lovely tea for the price point. Softly sweet with hints of caramel and raw sugar, cherry notes in the body, and a pronounced cinnamon aftertaste. Red Buffalo is still my favorite red oolong with it’s heavier flavor and chocolate base, but the light character and simplicity of this makes it a better casual cup. Don’t have to worry about brewing it multiple times so you aren’t wasting the leaves, just throw them right into the compost bin after the first Western-style steep.

My new schedule is killing me. I made the decision to take a master gardening course with my parents, and it really sucks. Actually, I enjoy the course, but it meets every Monday night, and well, Monday used to be my long, slow day at work. Now, I have to get everything done by 5:00 p.m. so I can hop in the shower, get dressed, and make it to class by 6:00 p.m. I don’t make it back home until sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. I figured, however, that I would try to get a couple of reviews posted before I left. This was one of my sipdowns from last week. Though I tend to love teas produced from the Si Ji Chun cultivar, this one was a letdown. It was not terrible or even really bad in any way, just more or less mediocre and kind of forgettable.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 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, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of raisin, plum, cedar, straw, honey, and plantain. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of malt, cream, and cherry that were accompanied by hints of vanilla. The first infusion brought out stronger vanilla scents as well as an oat-like aroma. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of plantain, honey, raisin, cream, malt, vanilla, and straw that were framed by undertones of wood, baked bread, flowers, and cherry. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of baked bread, toasted rice, rose, and pear as well as subtle scents of roasted barley, orchid, and violet. Cedar, plum, and oat notes came out in the mouth alongside stronger and more upfront impressions of baked bread, wood, and cherry. Clear impressions of rose and violet were also present along with some very subtle hints of orchid. Furthermore, I detected impressions of minerals, caramel, pear, toasted rice, and butter along with some subtle hints of roasted barley and cinnamon. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized lingering impressions of minerals, plantain, cedar, raisin, plum, malt, and cream that were balanced by hints of cherry, vanilla, butter, oats, and baked bread. At the very tail end of my review session, I also caught some suddenly amplified pear and cinnamon notes.

This was a pretty standard roasted Taiwanese Four Seasons oolong in just about every way. I will note, however, that it did possess respectable longevity, a smooth body, and a very nice, creamy mouthfeel. Unfortunately, those were the only qualities of this tea that stood out to me. Taken on its own, this tea wasn’t bad, but it also just wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. If you are at all familiar with roasted Si Ji Chun oolongs, I doubt this one will surprise you. In the end, I suppose I would not caution others to avoid it entirely, but if one were to choose to skip it, they would not be missing all that much.

Thank you Alistair for the sample! I was tempted to try this one, though I was kinda hesitant because I had my sights on the Vietnam Gui Fei. I’m guessing that this might be an underappreciated oolong based on the reviews that were on the website.

This oolong is described as having a stonefruit quality with background florals, and that is right with the sample. I was barbaric with the preparation and used 8 grams in 11 oz of hot water beginning at one minute, two, then three and half, and four.

The dry leaf reminded me of roasted plaintains, and the teas taste matched it. It was as red, viscous, and a little malty as some hong chas, but it was light and floral enough to be an unmistakable oolong. The stonefruit qualities are there like plum, but the mix with the florals make it more like the plantain I got in the smell. It has a nice fructose sweetness too, and although the soft plantain and syrupy sweetness assert themselves in a fairly thick to medium texture, it has some of the floral notes of a si ju chun like violet, orchid and perhaps magnolia, but they are very, very faint. Sometimes, there were hints in the texture that reminded me of coconut milk because it was that thick, but I side more on the plantain note. Overall, it still tastes like, well, tea.

The tea was very flexible and very easy to drink. It was maltier with longer steeps, and creamier and more floral with shorter steeps. It’s a good and naturally sweet oolong, but the plantain note might divide some people. My main problem is being spoiled by Alistair’s other selections since they do tend to have more depth as another reviewer has noted. This would make a pretty great daily drinker, and it is nice in not being too green, but that is up to the buyer and their preferences.