Qilan Wuyi Oolong

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Celery, Char, Chocolate, Grass, Green, Mint, Spinach, Wet Rocks, Almond, Cinnamon, Cream, Earth, Fruity, Ginger, Leather, Mineral, Moss, Narcissus, Orchid, Pastries, Pine, Popcorn, Raspberry, Sugar, Vanilla, Vegetal, Floral, Honey, Flowers, Spicy, Tart, Roasted, Raisins, Caramel, Wood, Nuts, Smooth, Sweet, Toast
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Peter
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 45 sec 5 g 19 oz / 551 ml

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31 Tasting Notes View all

From Verdant Tea

Direct-sourced from the Li Family in Xing Village, this luscious Qilan is thrillingly green and juicy with a tart, lingering aftertaste . . .

We are extremely proud and excited to introduce the Li family of Xing Village through their luscious Qilan varietal Wuyi Oolong. Qilan varietal teas usually have more sweet floral nuance than other Wuyi oolongs. The Li family has roasted this tea with tender care and precision – preserving the greener natural notes of the tea.

The wet leaf aroma is reminiscent of spiced eggnog, and tart like Rhubarb crumble. The early steepings are thrillingly green, juicy and thick like honey. As the tea continues to steep out, the body builds up, and hints at flaky vanilla pastry with the aftertaste of raw cacao nibs or cherry. The honey sweetness grows into a rice milk horchata flavor, and tart plantain aftertaste.

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31 Tasting Notes

1113 tasting notes

From the November Classic Club box…

Creamy, floral, dark, vaguely fruity, full bodied, and kind of bitter is how I would describe this tea. Definitely drinkable but I strongly preferred the Dancong. This is not one of my favorite type of oolong, BUT it is nice to drink something different and since BrewTEAlly Sweet and I split the box I don’t have a whole lot to sip through….sadly the same with the Dancong though :P

BrewTEAlly Sweet

I’m currently drinking this one:) for once I’m getting to my club samples!! :)

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206 tasting notes

I wanted to love this tea so bad!!! “Reminiscent of spices eggnog”!!! “Thick like honey” “flaky vanilla pastry” “rice milk horchata flavor”?!!! I want!!! I love love love horchata and flaky pastry and this time of year… EGG NOG!! I only got 2 steeps out of this today. I will save for tomorrow and take it a little further in search of all those notes!! I’m on a mission! The two steeps I did get around to I did get a juicy floral green, a little astringent, tart too. Oh please tea gods bring me that richness this tea is destined for!
I do have exciting news!!!!
I used my brand new DAVIDsTEA Steeper from the oh so generous MissB. I am in love! I love his little guy! It has changed my tea life!!! Thank you thank you thank you!

http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=11213536923

http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=11213423256

This tea was a gorgeous blue almost purple hue! I loved it! So I had to take a picture!

http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=11213543433

I was hoping the after math would be that beautiful hue as well but not the case:(

Until tomorrow my tea friend! I can’t wait!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

Looks a little underleafed maybe to me. Nice brewer.

Stephanie

I am eager to see what you think of the Dancong :)

BrewTEAlly Sweet

@Bonnie: It’s a tablespoon and a half for 10 oz… How much do you use? It didn’t taste weak… Just not ripened or awakened yet… Ha ha
@Stephanie: I’ll make that my mission for tomorrow:) I’ll bring the laoshan black to work and save that one for after work:)

Whispering Pines Tea Company

If you do a quick pan-fire a dancong oolong on a medium heat skillet (very quickly, moving it around a lot so not to burn it) it will awaken the flavors and result in a much better brew. Try that next time just prior to brewing it :)

Stephanie

How neat! Thanks!

Bonnie

It just looked like hardly any leaves in your brewer. Might be the picture angle. You should be using about 6grams for 10oz water.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

These lighter roasted oolongs are hard to figure out for sure! If you have a gaiwan, I’d highly recommend that. I’ve never been able to enjoy them very well western style.

BrewTEAlly Sweet

Wow interesting! Thank you! And I wish I had a gaiwan!!!! Maybe a really awesome rustic one or unique one will fine me someday :)

Stephanie

I will try in gaiwan next time! I love my new one from Butiki teas :)

BrewTEAlly Sweet

Ya ya ^ show off :p

Stephanie

Hehehe :)

Bonnie

Look on YouTube for how to use a mug or teacup as a gaiwan. It’s easy to do with a saucer and another cup to pour tea into. Think of the principle and replicate it.

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3294 tasting notes

I drank this over the afternoon, & although I enjoyed it, I don’t really have anything to share. It was tasty, building up to a sweet kind of creamy vanilla mouth, & some fruitiness. I don’t know what else to say, but luckily I have enough to drink it again, so hopefully next time I’ll have more to comment on.

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1440 tasting notes

This came as a sample in my recent Verdant order! Actually on the bag it says “Wuyi Qilan Oolong”, but when I searched the website (including out of stock and archived blends) I could only find reference to this name so I shall put my tasting note here.

I actually weighed out my tea for this one to 3.6 oz. in my 15 oz. mug. I did this first steep for 1 minute, and I’ll try to update with subsequent steeps.

This tea is quite rich. I’m finding it almost filling.

Second steep 2 minutes. Still plenty of flavour.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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423 tasting notes

First Gongfu brewing in a few months (!). I have been busy, what can I say.
This is also a sip down of a sample from Verdant.
I wish that I chosen a different tea to drink now. It was somehow unsatisfying for the mood I was in – I should have picked something more roasted. I don’t much like Wuyi oolongs, and this teas floral notes in the first and second steepings, and its somewhat flat flavor made me not want to keep on steeping to a third.
No eggnog, no pastry, no vanilla, cacao, and although this tea is sweet, it has none of the depth of honey.
I think I have some more stashed somewhere, so I may give it a try again in the future. But this is not a tea that I’m going to run out and buy. If you like “green”, floral oolongs, try this tea (even though it looks and is roasted, it doesn’t taste like a roasted oolong).
Off to dinner with a friend.

Sil

(this is where i jokingly say…green! floral! oolong! my favourites!) not lol :)

But on another note – Greg at Norbu is awesome! It’s too much tea to get him to look about getting the Lao…. we’d have to buy a kilo, and that’s more tea than anyone needs, even split. BUT he did offer to send me a sample of the ruby black as that’s the most comparable :) so yay for that! thanks again for the heads up on the sale…excited to get my little order!

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67
618 tasting notes

I just wrote a tasting note for this tea, but something happened with my internet and I lost it. I really don’t want to write it again… so to summarize, I had two cups of this and didn’t find either of them all that eventful. The scent of the tea was rather nice: floral and sweet. I could mostly taste the flowers with a hint of astringency, but no fruit or vanilla. The second cup was more like perfume than the first, but the astringency balanced out the flowers so I didn’t get a headache (sometimes super floral teas are too much and make me feel sick). I wouldn’t turn down this tea, but there are so many oolongs that are much more delicious.

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76
149 tasting notes

Pleasant, but nothing that stands out in particular. Floral (but not overwhelmingly so), juicy, and sweet-ish with a hint of tartness. I think I prefer the second steep overall.

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99
9 tasting notes
This is Qilan WuYi Oolong from Verdant Tea. I had the pleasure to try this tea during Verdant’s Saturday Night Tea Lounge Gongfu Cha yesterday. It was amazing, a tea I fell in love with at first sip. I knew after just one cup that I needed to buy this tea, no matter what the cost. It is now my all time favorite tea, truly a masterpiece. The dry leaves are loosely rolled, large, dark and green. They have a distinct orchard scent, that becomes clear as plum after the first sip of the light liquor. It has a slight acidity to it, although not unpleasant. The tartness plays well with the rich plum flavor. It is smooth and silky, with little astringency and no bitterness. As steepings progress, plum flavors get replaced with perfect smokiness and greenness. I bought an ounce of this tea for $9.35 right away, it will be a tea I pull out only on special occasions with friends who can fully appreciate this delicious work of art.

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60
244 tasting notes

Qilan Wuyi Oolong (奇兰武夷山乌龙茶)- Li Family, Wuyishan, Fujian, China
Spring 2020/春季 2020 (including the details on the bag here since I can’t find this tea on the Verdant website and from the tasting notes from 7 years ago, I’m not sure if I’m drinking the same thing as others are)

Got this as part of the 5 for $5 offer from Verdant Teas.

5g tea (whole packet), Brita filtered water, gaiwan 140 mL (not certain on full volume, but I use a standard gaiwan, and this sounds about right), water temp a bit off the boil
Dry leaves smell: chocolate, roasted oolong smell
7 s: first steep: smell of leaves: grassy, stones, green
Taste: very vegetal— Something like spinach, with some light note of bitterness. Unexpected. Good mouthfeel.
10s second steep: smell of leaves: something grassy and charred
Smell of tea: sweeter than previous
Taste: more bitter, still vegetal, slightly unpleasantly reminiscent of medicine
15s 3rd steep: same leave smell
Taste: still some bitterness, but more lingering sweetness, lingering taste somewhat reminiscent of mint or cilantro
30s: same smell, tasting a slight note of raw celery
47s: not picking up anything else noteworthy so going to throw the remaining leaves into a thermos and grandpa brew

I usually enjoy Oolongs more, but this tea, while not unpleasant, was not particularly outstanding in any way. Usually I might go for more gaiwan steepings to explore the remaining notes, but I wasn’t blown away by it, and I didn’t care enough to pursure it further. It’s been a while since I’ve done a gaiwan session since I’ve been really busy lately (so I’ve stuck to grandpa style brews with the jasmine tea I’ve amassed), so it was nice to take some time to myself today to do this. One thing I might adjust if I had more tea was brewing temp to see if that would’ve affected bitterness more, but I’ve always done water off the boil with oolongs, and controlled for time as my variable.

3/5 stars. Personally will not purchase more, but not a bad tea, all in all. I wouldn’t recommend against it, but I’m not going to recommend for it either. There’s better oolongs to try out there.

edit: this did not hold up to grandpa brewing very well. If anything, grandpa brewing only highlighted the bitter notes and left nothing else.

Flavors: Celery, Char, Chocolate, Grass, Green, Mint, Spinach, Wet Rocks

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 140 OZ / 4140 ML

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58 tasting notes

Sample 13/19! Just want to make note that I tried this tea. It was good but not life-changing. Very roasty/rich/smokey flavors and aroma without being bitter. Again, glad I got to try it but will continue to try different kinds :)

derk

Because Fujian Rain, which you liked, should be similar to this and your last note, Wuyi Ensemble, I’m curious how you taste the differences between all 3 teas. Do you have more sample teas from Fujian/Wuyi to try?

Madeline

Unfortunately, I don’t have any more Fuijan/Wuyi samples, but I’m also curious as to what it was about Fuijan rain that I liked so much – I’m planning on picking up another sample of Wuyi ensemble when I reorder Fuijan Rain. It’s entirely possible that the “newness” of the flavor impressed me the most with Fuijan Rain and then once I got to the other similar teas I was like “eh, I’ve had this before”. Still, I feel like there was something special about Fuijan Rain.. I didn’t get the same fruit cake/panettone flavors in the non-Fuijan Rains. They both were very enjoyable and had a roasty-smokey quality about them. This Qilan Wuyi Oolong actually reminded me of something about really dark roast coffee or smoking weed actually (lol), that charcoal/burnt taste & smell. My best guess is either my tastebuds/mood was off or that the wuyis were more mineral and less fruity/nutty/vegetables-y

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