Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong Spring 2020

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Butter, Custard, Floral, Grass, Herbaceous, Kale, Lettuce, Milk, Orchid, Pineapple, Resin, Spinach, Sweet, Vegetal
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Leafhopper
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 6 g 4 oz / 120 ml

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  • “Well, I finally caved and got six teas from Tillerman, just in time for no one to be able to read my notes. That figures. I was also certain there were some reviews of Shan Lin Xi oolongs from this...” Read full tasting note
    86

From Tillerman Tea

Shan Lin Xi (Fir Woods Stream) is the name of a mountainous area in Zhuzhan Township in central Taiwan. It is an area that hardly seems tropical given the elevation and cool afternoon temperatures that arrive with the daily fog. This tea is grown at an elevation of 1400 meters. The dry leaves are tightly rolled and the infused leaf reveals a deep green color. The tea liquor is a limpid green/yellow. The aroma is clean, fresh and floral. In the mouth the tea shows mouth filling body and good grip.

About Tillerman Tea View company

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1 Tasting Note

86
414 tasting notes

Well, I finally caved and got six teas from Tillerman, just in time for no one to be able to read my notes. That figures. I was also certain there were some reviews of Shan Lin Xi oolongs from this company that I could use as points of reference, but I can’t find any, possibly due to all the Steepster glitches. As I’ve probably said before, Shan Lin Xi oolongs are among my favourites and this one was affordable, so into my cart it went. More or less according to the vendor’s instructions, I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at boiling for 30, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few long steeps.

The dry aroma is of resin and sweet flowers. The first steep has heady notes of orchid, lilac, and sweet pea, plus slight resin, custard, grass, and butter. The second steep has herbs, spinach, lettuce, grass, custard sweetness, and flowers. This tea has gone vegetal really quickly, and I wonder if I oversteeped it. The body is still smooth and heavy, and maybe this is what is meant by “good grip?” The third steep gives off a waft of some sort of “mountain glade” air freshener, which is probably a combination of flowers and sweetness and is actually kind of appealing. The tea achieves a good balance of vegetal, floral, and resin in the next three or so rounds, and there’s a tiny bit of cooked pineapple in the liquor and at the bottom of the cup. The next couple steeps introduce more veggies, including spinach and kale, and a condensed milk sweetness. As expected, the final few steeps are more or less grassy and vegetal.

This tea fits my idea of what a Shan Lin Xi should be, though it has fewer fruity notes than its counterpart from Floating Leaves. (They’re both somewhat pricy U.S. companies made even less affordable by the exchange rate, so I naturally tend to compare them.) As the session progressed, my rating went up from an 80 to an 83 to an 86, which is a fair indication of its quality. Surprisingly, Tillerman’s steeping parameters worked, and I might start subjecting all my high mountain oolongs to boiling water now.

Flavors: Butter, Custard, Floral, Grass, Herbaceous, Kale, Lettuce, Milk, Orchid, Pineapple, Resin, Spinach, Sweet, Vegetal

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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