Shibi High Mountain Winter Oolong Tea, Lot 574

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Butter, Cinnamon, Citrus, Coconut, Coriander, Cream, Custard, Floral, Gardenias, Grass, Green Apple, Honeysuckle, Lettuce, Mineral, Pear, Pineapple, Sugarcane, Vanilla, Violet, Sweet, Tropical, Flowers, Nectar
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Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by LuckyMe
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 45 sec 5 g 4 oz / 113 ml

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Back around March, I ordered a bunch of samplers from Taiwan Tea Crafts, and naturally, I shoved them in the back of one of the tea cabinets and forgot about them. Earlier this week I took a peek...” Read full tasting note
    92
  • “Since I generally like oolongs from the Shan Lin Xi region, I eagerly picked this up when I ordered from Taiwan Tea Crafts almost a year ago. It says something about my tea stash that I’m only...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “Backlog. This is the most coconut-y tea I’ve ever tasted. It’s like eating a delicious coconut cream pie or coconut macaroon. Intermingled with the coconut are notes of tropical fruit –...” Read full tasting note
    92

From Taiwan Tea Crafts

Consistency is definitely a sign of quality, both in the growing practices as well as the craftsmanship behind the transformation of the leaf into tea. Our Shibi collaborator has done it again despite the challenges brought about by this Fall’s weather patterns in Taiwan. This is our fourth winter offering from this producer, and probably his best to date. The clean crisp feel of this tea is still present with the mellowness and balance one can expect from a winter offering. The liqueur peaks with succulent notes of spring flowers and smooth vegetal nuances that culminate with a long and smooth finish. The nice thick leaves farmed responsibly are very generous and will give many satisfying infusions of joy in the cup. This tea complies to EU standards in residual pesticide content – one of the strictest norm in the world, presently. You simply can’t go wrong with this Lot 574.

About Taiwan Tea Crafts View company

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3 Tasting Notes

92
1048 tasting notes

Back around March, I ordered a bunch of samplers from Taiwan Tea Crafts, and naturally, I shoved them in the back of one of the tea cabinets and forgot about them. Earlier this week I took a peek inside both cabinets, saw them all, and ended up cursing in frustration. I should have made a point of drinking those teas quickly, but no, I had to leave them sitting, waiting to be discovered like landmines. The Shanlinxi sampler was the first one I opened and the first thing I discovered was this winter 2015 tea in a vaccuum-sealed pouch. I carefully opened the pouch, expecting a faded, vegetal mess, yet what I found was a lovely jade tea that emitted powerful buttery, floral aromas. Since it was obviously still good, I made a point of drinking it immediately. That was a great decision on my part, as it ended up being wonderful.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was chased by 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted surprisingly powerful aromas of cream, butter, lilac, gardenia, and honeysuckle. After the rinse, I found emerging aromas of cinnamon, custard, magnolia, and orchard fruits. The first infusion offered a hint of pear on the nose and light notes on the palate. A grassy, vegetal entry gave way to hints of pear, citrus, cream, butter, and fresh flowers. Subsequent infusions offered stronger butter and cream notes, while impressions of custard, cinnamon, grass, and tangerine fully emerged on the palate. The floral notes showed up in a big way too. It was like a bouquet of lilac, violet, gardenia, magnolia, and honeysuckle. Impressions of lettuce, coriander, green apple, vanilla, sugarcane, coconut, pineapple, and minerals also emerged. The later infusions retained more complexity than expected. I found impressions of minerals, butter, sugarcane, and cream balanced by notes of vanilla, pineapple, and orchard fruits.

This was a tea that absolutely floored me, and to be completely honest, I do not always like teas from the Shanlinxi and Alishan growing regions (from what I understand Shibi borders both and Shibi teas are sometimes classified as either Alishan or Shanlinxi by a number of vendors). Rather than fading quickly to focus on vegetal notes, this tea was very fruity, savory, and floral throughout virtually all of the session and retained a very smooth, creamy texture in the mouth from start to finish. The sort of tea that is capable of spurring me into investigating Shibi oolongs more thoroughly, I will undoubtedly be trying some of Taiwan Tea Crafts’ other Shibi offerings in the near future.

Flavors: Butter, Cinnamon, Citrus, Coconut, Coriander, Cream, Custard, Floral, Gardenias, Grass, Green Apple, Honeysuckle, Lettuce, Mineral, Pear, Pineapple, Sugarcane, Vanilla, Violet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
LuckyMe

IMO, Shibi is the best high mountain oolong in TTC’s lineup. Glad you liked it!

eastkyteaguy

LuckyMe, I’m slowly and unsteadily moving in the direction of primarily reviewing Taiwanese teas, Yunnan teas, and Chinese oolongs. I’m going to spend 2018 going through all of the 2016-17 teas I have stored and have resolved to make most of the new acquisitions teas from places like Taiwan Tea Crafts and Floating Leaves Tea.

eastkyteaguy

Oh, and this stuff is seriously great. Just thought I should reiterate that.

LuckyMe

Awesome! Taiwanese oolongs are a perennial favorite of mine and Yunnan blacks have grown on me this year, so I’m looking forward to your reviews.

And I really need to give Floating Leaves a try in 2018. I’ve heard a lot of great things about them.

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85
413 tasting notes

Since I generally like oolongs from the Shan Lin Xi region, I eagerly picked this up when I ordered from Taiwan Tea Crafts almost a year ago. It says something about my tea stash that I’m only getting to it now. I steeped about 6 grams of leaf in a 120 ml vessel for 25, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 90 seconds, plus one more long infusion.

The dry leaf smells floral, sweet, and full of coconut and tropical fruits. These flavours show up nicely in the first steep, though they’re kind of muted, probably because the leaves haven’t opened up fully. They still aren’t fully open in the second steep, which is unusual even for tightly rolled oolongs.

I pushed the third steep a few seconds longer to open up the leaves, and it had the desired effect. The coconut, florals, and sweetness are much more pronounced. The body is light and smooth. By the fourth steep, I agree with a previous reviewer that this is like coconut cream pie. Yum!

The fifth 50-second steep is getting vegetal, but it’s still very enjoyable, and I get a hint of vanilla along with the coconut. The tea peters out by the seventh steep.

When this tea is good, it’s excellent, but between the first two weaker steeps and the last couple vegetal ones, its peak is relatively short. I’ll have to lengthen the steep times to see if I can get more out of it.

Flavors: Butter, Coconut, Cream, Floral, Sweet, Tropical

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

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92
676 tasting notes

Backlog.

This is the most coconut-y tea I’ve ever tasted. It’s like eating a delicious coconut cream pie or coconut macaroon. Intermingled with the coconut are notes of tropical fruit – pineapple, passionfruit, and lychee – and a burst of sweet flowers. The body is rich and the mouthfeel buttery. I got 8 excellent steeps out of it.

Shibi tea might just be my favorite tea from TTC. It’s consistently good and although the coconut was a little more intense in this harvest than usual, it had the juicy fruit and floral tones that really set it apart from other teas.

Flavors: Coconut, Flowers, Nectar, Tropical

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 45 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Daylon R Thomas

4 g for 3 oz, damn is that hard Gong Fu.

Daylon R Thomas

Anyway, you’re review is selling me. There was commentary on the season again in the description “Our Shibi collaborator has done it again despite the challenges brought about by this Fall’s weather patterns in Taiwan.” If only they served it in larger quantities than 25 grams for 10 bucks.

Arby

Yeah, I’m sold. I’ll be picking up some of this if I order from TTC soon.

LuckyMe

I actually enjoy Shibi more than the AliShans I’ve had recently. It’s very similar to Shan Lin Xi, and comes from a nearby region I think. The price is a little high but it’s more worth it than a Dayuling IMO. TTC does have frequent sales and low shipping threshold ($25).

BTW, the leaf to water ratio is a little off because Steepster rounds off decimals. I use closer to 3.5g/80ml for gongfu.

Daylon R Thomas

Awesome! Nice to know. The only Dayuling that has impressed me for a good price was the one Berylleb offered. Bummer it is no longer 42 bucks for 150 grams. Thank you!

Daylon R Thomas

The Winter Rhythm 2015 from Taiwan Sourcing has actually been slighlty better than a few Alishans as well.

Illinois Medical Immigration

Good and nice,…i like this…

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