Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Cameron Tea
Tea Description:
AliShan is one the famous oolong tea growing areas in Taiwan. Located at altitude of 1500m, the mountain has a rich soil and ideal climactic conditions. The cool climate and moist from daily mists make the plants to grow very slowly and produce tender, flavourful tea leaves and buds.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh. My. Goodness! YUM!
By now, I’ve tried several different teas from Cameron Tea, and I’ve been quite delighted with the teas that I’ve tried! But this one … this is the best thus far. Not surprisingly, it is an AliShan Oolong. A Jin Xuan AliShan at that. What that means, essentially, is that this is a Milk Oolong. And it’s one of the finest Milk Oolong teas I’ve encountered in quite some time!
So sweet and creamy and oh-so-good!
Since this is an Oolong, I approached the brewing the same as I would just about any other Oolong: in my gaiwan. But instead of combining the first two infusions in one cup, I combined the first five infusions in my YiXing mug that is designated for AliShan Oolong tea.
And the combination of the first five infusions is lusciously sweet and smooth. It has a flavor that is somewhere between milk and sweet cream with hints of vanilla. The texture isn’t quite as heavy as whole milk. It’s probably more like the texture of a 2% milk. Which is a nicer, creamier texture than the milk that is usually served in this house.
We get 1% milk. I personally prefer 2% milk. But since I’m not a big milk drinker nor do I consume a lot of cereal, I don’t balk too much at the 1% milk. What I’m driving at here is that I like the texture of this tea better than I like the texture of the milk we buy. Although … I’m not sure how Oolong tea would work on cornflakes.
The flavor is so sweet and delicious. The floral notes in this cup (the first five infusions) are mingling with the creamy tones, and in this cup, the creamy notes are stronger than the floral notes. The creaminess lingers, but it never feels overwhelming to the palate. It is quite enjoyable.
I can also taste hints of fruit in this cup, but they are distant. It’s actually quite a complex cuppa, but I find the creamy notes so delightfully decadent that it’s hard to focus on anything but the sweet, creamy notes!
Since I LOVED that first cup so much, I decided to go ahead and infuse those leaves a little more, and I brewed a second cup – a combination of infusions 6 – 10.
And believe it or not … the second cup was nearly as lovely as the first! Still very creamy! The creamy notes are more distinctly vanilla this time around … making this cup even more delicious in my opinion. The (still) subtle floral notes of the cup seem to emphasize the vanilla.
I taste hints of a melon-like flavor in the distance, the aforementioned fruit notes that I noticed in the first cup are slightly more distinct now … but only slightly. This tea is still more about the creamy notes than it is about either flower or fruit. This cup is a little more astringent than the first. I noticed barely any astringency in cup #1 and now there is a mild astringency to this cup.
If you are a fan of Milk Oolong teas … this tea should be at the very top of your MUST TRY list. Trust me. You’ll be thanking me after you try it. And you’re welcome!
