Shan Lin Xi Winter Harvest

This is a wonderful Oolong. I’m on my fifth and sixth infusions now. It started out quite creamy, almost like coconut, with some vanilla in there too. Hints of orchid in the beginning, but now with these final infusions, I notice the orchid much more and the fruit and creamy tones a little less.

Really nice, quite unexpected, I don’t think I’ve come across an Oolong that tasted naturally of coconut before. I’ve had coconut flavored Oolongs, but nothing quite like this!

I had a great New Year’s Eve with my friends last night. It’s when we do our Secret Santa style gift exchange. I have awesome friends who gave me awesome gifts. We stayed up way too late. So I’m still groggy right now, but I did manage to haul myself out of bed at around 11am and started using my awesome gifts. :) Feta and olive waffles on my new waffle iron! Yay! Husband was simultaneously please and disappointed because they were tasty but not meant for maple syrup. haha What can I say? I prefer a savory breakfast.

So after my tasty waffles, I got pretty thirsty and started thinking about what tea to drink. I got a sample of this from TeaEqualsBliss, like, forever ago, and I was in the mood for a green oolong. So here we go!

I love the floral hit in the first steep of pretty much every green oolong. Then in the after taste, you can start appreciating the other flavors. I’m getting apple skin and peach. Lovely creamy texture. I’m also getting the coconutty milkiness other people are talking about. I’ve never had a green oolong with the particular natural flavor.

Steep two was like cooked buttered greens. Still floral. Such a nice oolong! Judging from Tea’s notes, I’d say this oolong is at least 2 years old. It’s aging quite well! I can only imagine how it must have tasted when fresh. :)

Thank you for allowing me to try this!

Also, Happy New Year to all!

Vanilla-Coconut-Grassy-Buttery-Goodness! It’s Crisp and Clean and Light! It’s one of those teas that make your teeth feel fresh and clean after drinking! I’m not saying it’s minty at all but it’s very fresh and clean and you can feel the difference on your teeth and gums! NomNomNom!

mmmm this oolong makes me happy. I’ve set an agressive goal for myself today to get through 15 sipdowns (hello sipdown saturday!). Now i’m not even sure that i have 15 teas in my cupboard to sipdown, but that’s my goal. I’ve got 9 teas inbound and that would mean that even if they were in my cupboard, i’d still hit my sipdown goal haha. And then i can also justify possibly picking up tea in chicago. :)

Really appreciate the share of all these oolongs and green teas Crowkettle. As much as they’re not my jam – having small amounts of them IS totally up my alley :)

I wanted to share this one with people, but then I fell off the tea wagon again and when I finally came back to it and finished up my little ziplocks I realized I only had a serving left. For shame! When I get more Shan Li Xi (from here or over there) I will remember those I passed over.

On top of the usual coconut-butter goodness, I’m also picking up a bit of marine.

Steep Count: 3

(2016 Harvest)

These are some big and green leaves! The smooth, tightly rolled balls of leaf smell buttery green. Like buttered green beans with slivered almonds.
The fist couple steeps provide a slight gassiness and something creamy and similar to fresh coconut meat. The grassiness melts away after a couple more steeps, and it gives way to a mineralized buttery floral. I loved spending time with this tea! For being a mellow winter oolong, it had whispers of brighter and greener springy harvests.
Gah! This is yet another tea that has me dying for the spring 2015 harvests to grace my doorstep!