Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Custard, Floral, Lemon, Lemon Zest, Sugar, Sugarcane, Sweet, Almond, Butter, Cherry, Cream, Creamy, Grass, Lettuce, Milk, Nutty, Pineapple, Spinach, Apple Skins, Coconut, Flowers, Green Apple, Mango, Mineral, Mint, Nuts, Orchid, Salty, Spices, Straw, Tangy, Tropical, Vanilla, Walnut, Sweet, Warm Grass, Honey, Sap, Vegetal
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Togo
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 15 sec 6 g 5 oz / 161 ml

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10 Tasting Notes View all

  • “2021 sipdown no. 110 This one has a fairly strong vegetal mixed with the sea scent when dry. Thank goodness it wears away a bit as it steeps. I drank this while writing this paper and barely...” Read full tasting note
  • “Cold Brew! I’m officially on “summer vacation” from now until July 5th so I’m looking forward to catching up on tasting notes, drinking lots of tea outside, and binge watching some new shows. Of...” Read full tasting note
  • “[winter 2020 harvest] Sweet and floral with notes of sugar, cooked lemon skin. It’s a lovely tea that reminds me of lemon custard a bit. It has a distinctive character while being very much true to...” Read full tasting note
    83
  • “I wish I went into this one blind so I would not write notes based on the power of persuasion. My allergies are also just getting to me in the middle of this snow filled spring day on April 1st, so...” Read full tasting note
    88

From Camellia Sinensis

Updated March 2021 by derk:

The mountain of Shan Lin Xi is steep and imposing, highly exposed to the natural elements. Its wild character seems to be reflected in the tea produced in this region.

Cultivated at high altitude in the garden of Mr Nen Yu, this harvest once again offers an amazing roundness and complexity. Its aromas of ground cherry and wheat grass evolve towards a presence of fresh vanilla, pineapple and flowers.

Its creamy texture culminates in a slightly sweet coconut finish.

Cultivar: Qing Xing
Producer: M. Nen Yu
Altitude: 1500m

- -

Initial impression from this Taiwanese highland wulong is an aroma of ground-cherry and wheat-grass which evolves into fresh vanilla and flowers.

About Camellia Sinensis View company

Company description not available.

10 Tasting Notes

1438 tasting notes

2021 sipdown no. 110

This one has a fairly strong vegetal mixed with the sea scent when dry. Thank goodness it wears away a bit as it steeps.

I drank this while writing this paper and barely noticed the flavours, ahh! It was tasty, but I can safely say that my reigning unroasted oolong favourites are still Ali Shan and Si Ji Chun.

1st steep: 200° F, 4 minutes
2nd steep: 200° F, 5 minutes, 30 seconds

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 3 g 14 OZ / 414 ML
Sil

did you see the TTC sale? but also shipping changes sigh

Courtney

I sawww! I immediately deleted to email to not be tempted (but haven’t stopped thinking about it) XD. Did you place an order?

Sil

Thinking about it…need to find 5 mins to look at a few other teas since shipping is sort of flat rate,

Courtney

I went to check it out too, but eeek that shipping. I don’t think I can swing it right now, but can’t wait to hear if you order something!

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15545 tasting notes

Cold Brew!

I’m officially on “summer vacation” from now until July 5th so I’m looking forward to catching up on tasting notes, drinking lots of tea outside, and binge watching some new shows. Of course there will be lots of cold brews too – including this bad boy, which is kick starting the vacation! This tea is just super refreshing to sip on during this extremely sunny day w/ plenty of crisp notes of freshly mowed grass, fragrant light florals, sweet vegetal garden peas, and a buttery coconut finish!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQgmZVLD52M/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIMnyx8dCoM

Leafhopper

This is one of my favourite oolongs from Camellia Sinensis. Enjoy your summer vacation!

derk

Yup, great oolong. Enjoy your time off!

mrmopar

I am a week behind you. Enjoy!

tea-sipper

Happy vacation!

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83
940 tasting notes

[winter 2020 harvest]

Sweet and floral with notes of sugar, cooked lemon skin. It’s a lovely tea that reminds me of lemon custard a bit. It has a distinctive character while being very much true to its category. I find the energy to be a bit too dizzying though.

Flavors: Custard, Floral, Lemon, Lemon Zest, Sugar, Sugarcane, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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88
1704 tasting notes

I wish I went into this one blind so I would not write notes based on the power of persuasion. My allergies are also just getting to me in the middle of this snow filled spring day on April 1st, so April Fools. But I am starting the day with one of my favorite kinds of tea.

I brewed this up in my gong fu to go, 5 oz. Ish, and doing it 25, 30, 35, and four more flash steeps. First brew was light, creamy, and crisp. I got lettuce, coconut, butter, and nuttiness. Second steep and later steeps in this half of the session were dominated by the Macadamia for me, and the viscous texture reminded me of almond milk. I did get the weird cherry note, but it wasn’t obviously cherry. It was more subtle like cascara, or coffee cherry. Maybe fresh cherry is better.
There were also more florals like plumeria, which bloomed in steep three, but dissipated. I think that’s the vanilla note the site mentions, but it’s too floral and subdued for me to think vanilla. The recent florals have leaned more vaguely in the honeysuckle and hyacinth (how many times have I mentioned that one) direction, but the tea is overall creamy, like “Fresh, creamery butter…”

The leaves were getting trapped, so I gave the tea a bigger vessel, and just did 8 oz. I tasted a little bit more mango in hints, really more in texture. Coconut, butter, nutt approximations of macadamia and almond, and then wheat grass.

There’s more to go, but I’m not sure what else to add. This is an especially creamy and nutty Shanlinxi that I like. Without my kyusu, which has been broken and disposed for a few months, I’ve been kinda limited in my larger gong fu sessions. It could be why I feel like I’ve missed things in recent gong fu sessions, or I could just be rushing them too much like an assembly line as time itself fades into yesterday, minute by minute in this limbo of a spring break.

But hey, I have tea for my existential moments. As for my usual general audience blurb, this is great for the price and one of the better Shanlinxi’s I’ve had. I still prefer to get some from my usual stops, but I do recommend this one. I think it’s best for intermediate drinkers since it might be too vegetal for super newbies, but it’s a great one to introduce people to high mountain teas and Shan lin xi. I’m also going to hold off on rating it for now until I get more from this session. I’m slowly getting more pineapple now than I did before, especially as it cools off.

Few hours later, and I’m ready to rate it. It’s higher tier for price to flavor ratio, and it’s very durable. I wish I divided it into one session for gong fu, and the other for tumbler fuel. 88-90 is the number range I’m feeling. I really like it.

Flavors: Almond, Butter, Cherry, Cream, Creamy, Floral, Grass, Lettuce, Milk, Nutty, Pineapple, Spinach, Sweet

Leafhopper

Glad you enjoyed this! Out of curiosity, what are your “usual stops” for Shan Lin Xi? Of the three I’ve tried from Taiwan Tea Crafts, the Shibi was the only one I thought compared to this.

Daylon R Thomas

Wang Family Tea and formerly Eco-Cha. Trident also has a very good one that is heavy with lavender. I do think I rushed this one a little bit, though. I should have divided the sample you gave me. The first three steeps were really good.

Leafhopper

I’ll have to contact Wang Family Tea and figure out if they’ll ship to Canada for less than $20. I haven’t had much success with Eco-Cha’s greener oolongs, though that was a few years ago and I might have to give them another try. Trident has no shipping info, international or even domestic. I’ve had great Shan Lin Xi from Floating Leaves and Fong Mong (now jLteaco), and good ones from Tillerman and Cha Yi Tea House in Quebec.

Daylon R Thomas

I loved Floating Leaves’s and Tillerman’s high mountains teas. I liked Tillerman’s cuifeng a lot and loved all of Floating leaves High Mountain sampler. I just don’t get them as much due to price point…hypocritical, I know. As for Eco-cha, I said former because their Shanlinxi is also pretty temperamental from season to season. It’s better than their Lishan and Alishan in my opinion which I think are too vegetal, but it no season has the same fruitiness. I loved their club too, but again, too expensive. What-cha has a good Shan Lin Xi too, but it’s very limited in availability. It’s more heavy into floral and thick territory than some others. I almost tried fong fong and have always wanted to, I mostly hesitated due to high grammage size in the past. Again, kinda opposite of what I’ve done these past few months.

Daylon R Thomas

And of course I don’t have the note on there….I hate it when I add a tea and I forget to write about it…or it doesn’t save. Anyway, my current bias for Wang’s Family tea is that I talked with the owner two years ago to basically sample every tea he had available as a bulk purchase to for 6 months. I had a hard time making a decision, so I wanted to try and write about everything. I need to see what I have and haven’t wrote yet. The Shanlinxi that company has is unique for me because of its euphoria I get from the L-Theanine and caffiene combo. It is very beany, but it’s clean and refreshing. I usually get lavender and jasmine in the florals, even as tumbler fuel. I am going to have to do another note and write some comparison between the two. I think the Camellia Sinensis might have more flavor since it’s not quite as green as Wang’s is.

Daylon R Thomas

Nevermind the comparison of “green” is sweet peas and green beens in Wang’s vs. spinach, chard, butter in Camellia Sinensis’s.

Leafhopper

I’m okay with paying Floating Leaves’ prices, but their $20 shipping fee to Canada is a step too far. And I agree, the Eco-Cha tea club is great but too expensive. I’ll look out for What-Cha’s Shan Lin Xi.

I was given free samples of all the teas from Fong Mong for review, and then the pandemic intervened before I could justify buying a full 150 g of their Shan Lin Xi. Now, I think both the shipping and the package sizes have gone up.

Please tell me more about your arrangement with Wang Family Tea! I typically don’t like really green oolongs, but the chance to sample a bunch of their teas is intriguing.

Daylon R Thomas

Most of the oxidation tends to be between 20-35% with some notable ones on the darker spectrum and with greater roast. The green oolongs are all very forgiving and respond better to longer steeping times. Most of the are fairly reliable with their notes, and of them, the Shan Lin Xi, Cuifeng, and Qilai Shan are excellent. The light roasts are also very good, savory, sweet and nutty without being overly vegetal, and even the darker roasted teas never have an overpowering char taste. For example, they have a Wuyi style tea that I like. I’ve not been a huge fan of them from other sources like Eco-Cha or Taiwan Sourcing, but I was tempted to get more. I could go on if you want me to, but most of the notes from the company are mine. There are some I am going to have to rewrite because they didn’t get saved, like the Fenghuang Dong Ding and the Gui Fei (which was one of the first ones I tried and I know it was one of the first I wrote about from the Company), but there’s at least a database of what you could expect from them.

derk

Idk how y’all were getting cherry but I think I understand now after you said cascara, Daylon – this was a pretty tangy tea. I’ve heard the ground cherries mentioned in Camellia Sinensis’s description being another name for cape gooseberries. That note actually fits really well into the flavor profile for me.

Leafhopper

Derk, I got the cherry note as soon as I opened the bag, but I can’t say for sure whether that was related to Camellia Sinensis’ description! Sometimes you get what you look for.

Daylon R Thomas

Power of persuasion penetrates perception. And I also swear tea tastes different in different climates. Some of my oolongs are more floral up here in Michigan compared to when I had them in Florida with the hot weather.

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1556 tasting notes

Spring 2020

Dry leaf smells like spiced walnuts, pineapple-mango-coconut, vanilla sugar and flowers. Wamring brings out a sweet, creamy vegetal character with spinach, coconut cream, walnut and vanilla sugar. Intoxicating. Rinse brings out a more pungent, tropical fruit character with pineapple, mango, coconut and jackfruit on a spinachy base.

The leaves quickly unfurl. The tea is silky, oily, mouth-watering with salt and other minerals. Complex, rich and evolving aromas, tastes and aftertastes. The strength of the aroma gives the illusion of sweetness, but I’d say the tea is rather mineral-salty and somewhat tangy. Lofty notes of coconut cream, vanilla sugar and rich white florals on a crisp lettuce-straw base change to macadamia and coconut to cream and butter. The aftertaste contains the fruitier notes of the tea. The sweet aromatics blend seamlessly into the aftertaste and when that subsides, the fruitier notes of the tea display with green apple skins and pineapple. Some gentle cooling in the mouth early and later, an impression of sugarcane fills the throat. At the end of the session, coconut and floral vanilla make another appearance in the aftertaste. Burps bring out some of that spinach quality of the warmed leaf.

This tea easily takes boiling water and lower and does well with a variety of brewing methods. I couldn’t stop preparing cup after cup. It’s really that easy-drinking and addictive. A beautiful representation of Shan Lin Xi. Thank you, Leafhopper :)

Flavors: Apple Skins, Butter, Coconut, Cream, Creamy, Floral, Flowers, Green Apple, Lettuce, Mango, Mineral, Mint, Nuts, Orchid, Pineapple, Salty, Spices, Spinach, Straw, Sugar, Sugarcane, Tangy, Tropical, Vanilla, Walnut

Leafhopper

I’m glad you enjoyed this tea! I always have to pick some up when ordering from Camellia Sinensis because it’s just that good.

Daylon R Thomas

I’m gonna love it then when I try it out.

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90
412 tasting notes

I’m drinking the spring 2020 iteration of this much-loved Shan Lin Xi. I’ve written notes on the 2017 and 2018 versions already and there’s not much to add, but I had to give a shoutout to how great it is.

Steeped according to my usual parameters, I get that lovely jammy cherry, orchid, cream, wheatgrass, papaya, spinach, and lettuce, plus some new-to-me notes of coconut and vanilla. That SLX balsam note comes out in later steeps, along with some honeyed florals. The creamy vanilla cushions the vegetal fade, which, as in other harvests, comes too soon for my liking.

I just chugged eight steeps of this tea in less than an hour and a half, which is kind of a record for me. In spite of its lack of longevity, this is one of my favourite oolongs and I’m raising the rating accordingly. Other teas can spend years in my cupboard, but I’ll be surprised if this one lasts more than a month.

Flavors: Cherry, Coconut, Cream, Floral, Grass, Honey, Lettuce, Orchid, Sap, Spinach, Sweet, Tropical, Vanilla, Vegetal

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
Tiffany :)

This sounds delicious… was looking for this online but only see the fall 2020 version on their website?? :)

Leafhopper

They probably ran out of the spring version. I’ve had the winter harvest of this tea and it was also good, though I’m not sure about the fall harvest.

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96
25 tasting notes

My favorite oolong from Camelia Sinensis,

I often tend to prefer the roundness of middle infusions in oolongs, but this one starts majestically.

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