Taiwan High Mountain Oolong

Another sample sip down! (Which is good because I couldn’t sleep last night and when that happens I lose all restraint and get online and order tea. Yes, I did.)

I served this first at tea party today and I liked this best, but I really love oolong tea now. The other tea was quite good – it was Darjeeling 6000 from Grace Rare Tea – but I am not the biggest fan of Darjeeling in the world, though I have tasted a few that really were quite nice.

This has a high fruity note that almost borders on sour, but not sour tea, rather a sweet and sour fruit. There is a hint of that elusive and hard to describe flavor that I get from Tie Guan Yins, the one Bonnie described as oil paint and I realized it reminded me of the smell of my acrylic paints when I was a kid taking art lessons. (I was terrible at it but my mother thought I should take lessons because I am a lefty, I am a mirror writer, and I clutch pencils with a death grip. Art didn’t help that.)

This isn’t astringent but is very fresh and even though I started with it hot and now have let it cool to room temperature it almost tastes as though I refrigerated it. It is very light and refreshing.

I like this! Next time I order my beloved Premium Silky Green, I may add this to the order.

Making my way through the last of this, I just put two teaspoons of it straight into my two serving teapot, leaving the strainer out entirely so the leaves could properly get their steep on. This was a good call! I think this is one of the best cups I’ve gotten out of this, the leaves had plenty of room to fully unfurl and bump up against each other. It’s very pretty in the pot and rather pleasant to watch it steep, kind of like watching goldfish swim. Calming, you know?

I don’t think I’ll be repurchasing this one as I’ve since discovered other oolongs I find more spectacular, but I’ve enjoyed having this one in my cupboard and in my cup.

Somewhat buttery, deliciously fruity. I did 4 infusions and probably could have done more.
I don’t have a lot of experience with Oolongs (especially green/non-roasted ones), but it was very good. I don’t know if I’d buy more, but only because there are so many Oolongs out there to try.

Deliciously sly this one is. It parades itself like any other taiwanese tea, unassuming, docile. But don’t let it fool you.

This is one of the best teas that they carry in the store. A few leaves are all you really need to start since they are so full. The flavor profiling on these have got to be a cross somewhere between butter, pumpkin, spice, and a medium body oolong. It also has a bright gold brew that looks beautiful after a 5 minute steep. Additionally, the second brew is my favorite, because that’s where the leaves begin to open and really let out the pumpkin notes.