Nantou Four Seasons Oolong Tea from In Pursuit of Tea

NantouFourSeasonsTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy:  In Pursuit of Tea

Tea Description:

This tea is made from a cultivar that can be harvested year-round- Si Ji Chun, which means four seasons like spring. It’s grown in Ming Jian Township in mountainous Nantou County, Taiwan. The mature leaves are lightly oxidized and rolled into ball shapes; as they open through multiple infusions, a sweet flavor and lush, orchidlike aroma is released.

Read other Steepster thoughts on this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The aroma of the dry leaf of this Nantou Four Seasons Oolong Tea from In Pursuit of Tea is sweet with notes of flower and distant hints of vegetation.

I prepared this tea the same way I would approach most Oolong teas:  in my gaiwan, using short steeps following a quick rinse (15 seconds).  I combined the first two infusions for the first cup, and the third and fourth infusions were combined for the second cup, and so on.  I managed to get eight delicious infusions this way (four cups).  I probably could have gotten more, but, I was satisfied after my four cups of this tea.  More than satisfied because this is a seriously delicious Oolong!

My first sip, I noticed a creaminess and a slight floral tone.   Then I began to notice more complexity to the cup.  The creaminess was somewhere between a buttery taste and texture and a sweet cream taste.  Very smooth and very yummy.  The floral tones are soft in this first cup.  By mid-cup, I started to pick up on faint fruit-like notes.  I also noticed some of the vegetal tones in the distant background.  Toward the end of this cup, I picked up on a note that I can only think to describe as vanilla-esque!  This, together with the sweet cream/buttery notes is quite delectable … decadent even!

Subsequent infusions began to “unlock” the floral tones just a bit more.  The creaminess began to wane by the third cup, which was still creamy, but much less so than the first two cups.  While I noticed some vegetative notes throughout the time I spent with this tea, they were always quite distant.  For those who tend to shy away from the greener Oolong teas because they don’t care for the vegetal tones of these types of Oolong, I think this Nantou Four Seasons would be a good one for you to try.

In the third cup, I started to pick up on more of a nutty tone.  The fruit-like notes never really came forward enough for me to be able to discern what kind of fruit I was tasting … it remained “fruit-like” but indistinct.

This is an excellent Four Seasons Oolong – one of the nicest that I’ve tried.  And I don’t think I would have had this experience if it wasn’t for Steepster Select!  It’s a great way to explore the world of tea.  And if you’d like to try what December had to offer, I am currently selling my second sample packages of the December Steepster Select.  You can check out the listing here.

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