Sijichun Taiwan Four Seasons Spring Dark Oolong Tea

A review Fruity (Sijichun) Oolong Tea by Fong Mong Tea

I am enjoying another oolong sampler from Fong Mong Tea Company in Taiwan. This oolong was processed with the fragrance of fresh flowers making for the fruitiness that is to be found in this cup of tea.

I am using half of the leaves for this brew. I place freshly drawn water into a small pan on the stove and left to boil. Having placed the leaves into the cup, I then pour the boiled water over the leaves (which are tightly rolled/pressed) and left to steep for several minutes with covering on the cup.

After the set time I remove the lid to find that the tea leaves did indeed unfurl to fuller leaves and there is not a particular smell to the tea at first. Tea’s color is light yellow almost, especially once the leaves are removed from the cup. Tea leaves are light green in color, they are partial cut leaves and smells mildly vegetal…broccoli like.

Anyhow, I take my first sip of the tea and it is fine. No drying effect, and very light in the body and I take more sips of this tea I am thinking of broccoli and rice. Steam rice when cooking, at times so very faint and yet one can know of such a smell. It is warm moisture, steaming from the heat as it moistens the face of the cook.

In all, this tea has no astringency. It is very light in body and tea color is light yellow when the leaves have been removed from the cup. From the first steep and sipping this tea tastes of steaming broccoli and rice. It is very faint.

It is tea and it’s drinkable. I am looking forward to trying the remainder of the unused portion as iced tea, at a much later time.

Thank you Fong Mong for making me aware of this tea and for sending the samples.

Free sample from Fong Mong

Lovely tea. There, that’s all I need to write. It isn’t? Ok, well, upon opening the packet I got that proper oolong aroma, which immediately got me excited. The 6 minute recommended steeping time made me go “Eep!” as with the Blue Jade from Fong Mong. Still, I followed the directions and soon a lovely aroma was arising from my teapot. Impatiently I tapped my foot and waiting while the tea steeped. Then I got to taste it. It was light and creamy on my tongue. There was a definite fruity note to it with a sweet, slightly floral aftertaste that really came to the fore as I exhaled. Fresh, tasty, definitely one to keep in stock. I really liked this tea.

Outstanding blend. I was never really interested in blended teas, but this one I got as a sample. I was waiting for a special occasion to try it and it came one rainy day.
The tea caught me by surprise. Such palate of flavors! You got there everything: a chocolate tasting red tea followed by a nutty roasted oolong and ending like a jasmine scented sencha.
Unusual tea, highly recommended for blue days..

Another sample from Fong Mong today!

I also don’t get the fruity aspect of the title, but I get a very prominent floral taste out of this tea! I dnt know all my florals too well, but I recon this one is a bit of a jasmine floral. There is a buttery and vegetal taste with this, but definitely the most prominent aspect is the jasmine floral. Even after the sip, I can still sense it on my tongue.

I’ll see how further infusions go, as this is just my first.

My third oolong tea for the day.. And so far it is my favorite. It has the smooth taste of an oolong but a fruity taste after words. The tea has a mellow mild taste but it still packs a wallop. I do enjoy this blend and it has officially made me a fan of oolong. The subtleness of green tea but with the flavor of herbal. In short it is amazing

From the Samurai TTB
The small pack said only Wu Yi Dark Oolong, so I’m not sure this is exactly the same tea. Each sip starts out roasty, rather nutty hay, and ends with a lovely floral note. There was a bit more sweetness to the first few steeps, and the subsequent steeps are more floral overall. What a yummy Oolong this is, I’d be interested in trying this grandpa style.

A long-ago gift from Nichole/CuppaGeek. This was a single serving, maybe a teaspoon or just shy of a teaspoon. I used six ounces of water and steeped on the longer side of things to make up for it, but the flavor still came out tasting a bit weak. It’s obvious that this is an oolong by taste and aroma, but I’m not picking out any distinct notes/flavors. I’m positive this is due to my inexperience with oolong however, and not to the quality of the tea itself. Moving on.

As usual, I brewed this with a gaiwan with shorter steeps the first tasting. The dry leaf is fragrant and to me it smells quite fresh and vegetal, with the fruit and floral aromas being more subtle here. That changed with brewing.

I used approximately 2g of leaf for the gaiwan, giving them a rinse before steeping. Using shorter steeps, I opted to begin with a 15 second infusion time for the first, then added 5 seconds with each following infusion for a pattern of 15, 20, 25, etc. I used 30ml of water to begin, adding to that amount in 15ml increments as the leaves opened up. The water I used was hot, but not boiling, approximately 85 degrees Celsius. The liquor first appeared a very pale sunny golden yellow and gained a little more colour as infusions progressed. The aroma was sweet and grassy, quintessentially green oolong.

I found the mouthfeel of this tea was quite smooth, a little bit squeaky, and had just a hint of astringency I found more at the back of my throat with the lingering green aftertaste. There is definitely fruity and floral flavours here, more so fruity. There’s sweetness but also an interesting tartness, sometimes reminding me of cherries, sometimes goji berries, even sometimes citrus – a little bit hard to put a definitive finger on, because the flavours are complex and shifting slightly from infusion to infusion. I’m loving this! With that fruitiness is floral notes with butter and legumes, a verdant grassy note. This tea definitely tastes spring-like. I carried on for 9 infusions this way, before wrapping up with a final long steep that brought out that familiar foggy mountain air note.

Thanks to Fong Mong Tea for providing this sample. I steeped about 7 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 190F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

In the pot, these small green pellets have a lovely spring flower aroma. The first steep is fairly light, with notes of flowers, butter, grass, and a bit of vanilla. In the second steep, the florals, maybe orange blossom and gardenia, become stronger, and I also taste vanilla, light citrus, stonefruit, and coriander. There’s also a slight tongue-coating astringency. In the next few steeps, the liquor gets more vegetal and many of the other flavours fade into the background, but a nice creamy floral aftertaste persists.

In the first part of the session, I thought this was one of the best Four Seasons oolongs I’d tried. But because this tea seems to pack its flavour into the first few steeps, it might do better Western or cold brewed, where the number of infusions matters less. Either way, this tea is fairly inexpensive and its initial complexity might compensate for the lack of longevity.

Thanks to Fong Mong for this sample.

I started by warming the yixing and then giving the tea a quick rinse. Using 5 grams of leaf for about 90ml of water. I got a subtle spicy aroma. Then moving onto the first infusion, I brewed it pretty quickly, only about 20 seconds. I got a nice clear slightly darker yellow color, like a dark straw color. The aroma got more intense, nutmeg, allspice, peach, apricot. Tasting it the flavor matches the aroma with a very pleasant sweetness.

Second infusion was much the same, though the spice is getting slightly more intense, cinnamon now as well, its like a peach cobbler is what it really reminds me of. The sweetness now is absolutely divine as well. Its subtle and soft and very mellow, relaxing and a wonderful evening tea to wind down the day with.

Third infusion I got a little more of the nutmeg aroma now, its really peachy and nutmeg, its even got a tingle of sourness on the finish. I really recommend brewing this one in a clay pot, it really pushes those subtle spice notes out. Im not getting as much of the floral as the description says, its there but its rather subdued. I think the clay pot brings out the spice notes, the peach flavors while subduing a bit of the high floral notes.

This tea is holding up incredibly well, I expect to get at least 10 steepings from it.

Highly recommended.