Alishan Red Oolong

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Sweet and slightly floral. Slight stone fruit thing going on. Just okay and not really memorable, but certainly not bad.

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The last of my yummy samples from a previous Mountain Stream order…

Another lovely red oolong, which is possibility my favorite kind. Probably because I adore Taiwanese black teas, and this is sort of like an oolong pretending to be that. :P

Very sweet and rich, with lots of dark brown sugar and honey mixed among hints of red and golden fruits. A generous sprinkling of cinnamon as well, which is a note I only tend to find in oxidized Taiwanese teas. This one actually has a bit of malt as well, and could probably convince me that it was a black tea if it was so inclined…

Yummy, sweet, cozy goodness. A perfect tea for fall and winter weather. :)

This tea kinda reminds me of that dress color optical illusion the Internet was arguing about a few years ago. As I drink it, I internally debate with myself whether it’s really an oolong or a black/red. I lean towards it being a red tea but like Darjeeling, it straddles the line between oolong and red. This is the Spring 2019 version which is new and improved according to Mountain Stream Teas.

Judging from appearances, the dark balled leaves certainly look like an oolong. The dry leaves have a very oxidized but sweet aroma. On the nose I get cherries, honey, and rose. The taste is more delicate than your typical black for sure. It’s smooth with a gentle malt and a prominent rose flavor that I really dig. Later on I get woodsy oak notes. Nothing tannic or harsh here, just a mellow and pleasant drinking experience.

Followed MST’s parameters, using 5g, 100mL, 195F, rinse followed by 6 steeps of 30/45/60/70/?/??s

The dry leaf had a faint aroma of honeyed brown toast, red plum and rose. Warming and rinsing released notes of brown sugar and hints of cream and pear. Light liquor aroma. The taste was a little stronger than the aroma, mellow with notes of brown toast, honey, plum, raisin, persimmon sweetness and faint cinnamon and rose. Later, the toast turned into barley and malt, the sweetness turned more toward turbinado sugar and some very light butter and wood presented. Aftertastes and texture were also quite light with only a hint of astringency. Toward the end, I did notice some waxiness lining my tongue.

Overall, I found this to be a very mellow, unfussy tea. It didn’t strike me as being exceptional in any way, nor did its Alishan provenance stand out. One thing I did appreciate was the lack of any overpowering lingering flavors from the roast. I would recommend this tea to somebody looking for a daily drinker roasted red oolong.

Something more exciting than my opinion of this tea — my motorcycle caught on fire. Luckily it was just in the driveway being worked on and there was no damage at all to the bike but I did rip some fingernails in the process of trying to access a fire extinguisher. Also luckily my friend put out the fire with a water hose so I didn’t have to clean up any nasty extinguisher powder. I’m looking forward to getting this old girl running again and going for a day ride along the cheese trail.