Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Fong Mong Tea
Tea Description:
Developed around 15 years ago, the tea estates on Alishan area produce the newest type of high mountain oolongs. At the elevation of 1000 meters, the mountainsides are covered with fog or clouds which are ideal for growing Oolong. The tea estates are nestled in a beautiful scenic area with a 1000 years old forest nearby.
Due to the unique local climate and selection criteria for the leaves, this tea is a high quality grade Alishan Oolong. The tea liquor has a pale yellow hue matching its faintly fresh aroma. Once tasted, the tea presents itself with a fresh taste followed by a faintly sweet aftertaste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
There are very few teas out there that make me happier than a lovely Alishan Oolong like this Taiwan Alishan High Mountain Oolong Tea from Fong Mong Tea.
I brewed this tea in my gaiwan. I start with a bamboo scoop of tea in the bowl of the vessel and then I heat the water to 180°F. I add just enough of the hot water to the gaiwan to cover the leaves and I let them steep for 15 seconds to rinse them. Then I strain off the liquid and discard it.
I fill the gaiwan with hot water and let it steep for 45 seconds. I add 15 seconds to each infusion that follows. And because this is an Alishan – I strained the tea into my designated YiXing mug. My first cup was the combination of infusions 1 -5 and my second cup was the combination of infusions 6 – 10.
The first thing I note is that the Alishan High Mountain is a little less creamy than the Alishan Jin Xuan. This tea is more a celebration of floral flavors than the creamy, milky texture and flavor of the Jin Xuan.
This is sweet and delicate with beautiful floral tones – I taste orchid! – and very subtle butter tones. Hints of rice mingle with the buttery notes.
In the background, I pick up notes of fruit. This is a pleasantly sweet cup with some contrasting sharp notes from the floral notes. It’s smooth from start to finish: no bitterness and very little astringency. The mouthfeel is thick and broth-y. The aftertaste is sweet with notes of flower.
My second cup was not quite as thick in texture as the first and I noticed that more of the floral notes as well as some of the fruit notes have emerged while the whispers of vanilla that I experienced in the first cup have diminished. This cup is still very sweet from the fruit notes and I’m picking up on distinct honey-esque notes now.
A beautiful, contemplative tea. Really lovely – put this on your must try list!
Iron Goddess Oolong Tea from Dachi Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Dachi Tea
Tea Description:
Commonly referred to as a Tie Guan Yin, the Iron Goddess Oolong has a mature, nutty, smoky aroma that leads you nicely into a very full-bodied tea with the puckering effect of citrus fruit. The sweet linger of this tea reminds you of dried apricots, but the woodsy and earthy taste which comes from the deep roast could well lead the mature palette to pick up more savoury notes.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
A really lovely Iron Goddess Oolong Tea from Dachi Tea! This is a Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin – so you’ll experience more of the roasty-toasty, nutty flavors with this tea as opposed to the creamy, floral notes of a jade/greener Tie Guan Yin.
To brew this, I measured a bamboo scoop of the tightly wound pellets of tea into the bowl of my gaiwan. I heated my kettle to 180°F and poured just enough water over the leaves to cover them. Then I let this steep for 15 seconds to awaken the leaves. After straining off the liquid and discarding, I filled the gaiwan with hot water and let it steep for 45 seconds for the first infusion. For each subsequent infusion, I added 15 seconds. Each cup is the combination of two infusions, so my first cup is infusions 1 and 2, the second cup is infusions 3 and 4 … and so on!
The flavor is very much what I’d expect from a top-notch roasted Tie Guan Yin. I must say that my experiences with Dachi Tea thus far have all been very positive – this is a company you really should experience!
My first cup is smooth, sweet and toasty. It’s nutty, fruity and creamy … and oh-so-wonderful to sip! It’s not bitter (I rarely encounter an Oolong that is!) and there’s very little astringency to this cup. Just a hint of tangy ‘pucker’ at the end that works with this tea because I’m also picking up on some lovely citrus-y notes toward the tail. This tangy quality plays well to that citrus tone.
As I neared the bottom of my cup, I also started picking up on the apricot notes as the description above suggests – and I like the way the sweet apricot flavors contrast with some of the earthier, woodsier notes of the tea and how those earthy, woodsy notes complement the the roasted nutty flavors. It’s a beautiful medley of tastes in one teacup.
The second cup was not quite as creamy as the first cup – but still just as flavorful. That is to say that the texture was thinner now, not as creamy feeling on the palate, but I’m still getting delicious nutty notes that remind me of freshly roasted chestnuts and that really pleasant citrus note toward the tail. The flavors I experienced in the first cup are still there for the second and they’re better defined now.
With my last cup (cup 3) I found the flavors starting to mellow and become more unified. I could still taste the toasted nutty flavors and the sweet apricot notes, the notes of wood and earth and citrus, but they seemed to have less distinction between them, like they were melding into a seamless flavor.
Another really fascinating cup of tea from Dachi Tea – I’ve loved every cup that I’ve tasted from them! This is a must try company!
Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from Fong Mong Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Fong Mong Tea
Tea Description:
Adopting pure An-Xi Ti Kuan Yin tea seeds, and producing under Taiwan traditional technique standards, medium fermented also heavy baked, traditional Ti Kuan Yin Oolong tea is leading out a unique Kuan Yin aroma differing greatly from Chinese one, deeply presenting authentic Taiwanese flavor of Ti Kuan Yin.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I took my first sip of this tea, I found myself thinking: “This is really different. Isn’t this a Ti Kuan Yin?” I’m used to Ti Kuan Yin tasting more vegetal and floral, but this Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from Fong Mong Tea tastes roasted and nutty.
Then I read the description above. This is a Taiwanese Ti Kuan Yin and instead of the greener type Oolong, this one has been baked which gives it that roasty-toasty flavor. Where I’m usually tasting floral notes, I’m experiencing more of a sweet, nutty flavor.
To brew this tea, I grabbed my gaiwan. I started with a quick 15 second rinse in hot water. Then I steeped the first infusion for 45 seconds (the water was heated to 180°F) and strained the tea into my cup. I added 15 seconds onto each subsequent infusion. The first cup was made up of the first two infusions; my second cup was infusions 3 and 4 … and so on.
My first cup is very much what I experienced above: sweet, roasted and nutty. I taste light honey-like notes. It has a very smooth and silky mouthfeel. This cup isn’t as creamy as other Ti Kuan Yin teas I’ve tasted, this is more mineral-y. Different, but I am enjoying what makes it different.
My second cup has stronger roasted notes with more pronounced notes of mineral. The roasted flavor is so strong that it almost has a coffee-like flavor, only this is smoother than a typical cup of coffee and lacks the bitterness. This is really smooth and has very little astringency. This second cup of coffee truly evokes thoughts of a really good cup of coffee, only better – because it’s tea.
My third and final cup was very similar to the first two – the roasted notes were very well-defined and again – a lot like a cup of coffee only better. This time, I do pick up on more astringency – I experience a light dryness toward the tail. It’s still not very pronounced, though, so those who tend to shy away at the word “astringency” shouldn’t shy away from this tea because the astringency is barely noticeable.
A very lovely – and different! – Ti Kuan Yin!
Honeysuckle Oolong Tea from Dachi Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Dachi Tea
Tea Description:
With tea making methods borrowed from the Sun Moon Lake style, the Honeysuckle Oolong’s deep cocoa and plum aroma eases you into a baked fruit flavor with a lasting honey nectar finish. With its natural sweetness and full-bodied flavor, this is one of those teas which has you constantly sipping and subconsciously craving more.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the time when I could review this Honeysuckle Oolong Tea from Dachi Tea! This company was launched thanks to a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign that ended at the beginning of January. I managed to do one review of their four teas from their inaugural collection before their Kickstarter campaign reached it’s deadline. Once the campaign had come to a successful close, I held off on doing a review until they launched their new website so that people could get their hands on some of these fantastic teas!
And this Honeysuckle Oolong Tea is amazing. It’s reminiscent of a Sun Moon Lake black tea – in fact, given that this says that it’s fully oxidized, I think this might actually BE a black tea. It’s a little lighter than a typical black tea though, it doesn’t have a really strong, robust, kick your butt into gear type of flavor that say an Assam or even a high quality Ceylon would have. It’s lighter, sweeter and more reminiscent of an Oolong in that way.
The flavor is sweet with notes of flower, so I think that the name “honeysuckle” is quite appropriate. Those sweet, honeyed flavors mingle beautifully with a deep, stone fruit flavor. The description above suggests plum and I would agree with that assessment. I even get a slight ‘sour’ note that arrives about mid sip – similar to what I might experience if I were to bite into a fresh, tree-ripened, juicy plum.
The description above also suggests a chocolate/cocoa flavor and I do get hints of that. The hints of cocoa are hardly something that this chocoholic would call ‘chocolate’ but I do understand the comparison. It’s a subtle insinuation of chocolate and makes me hope that subsequent infusions would lead me to a stronger chocolate-y taste.
Yes! My second cup (infusions three and four) was certainly more chocolate-y than the first. I also noticed, though, that the texture was a bit thinner than the first cup which lead me to surmise that while this tea is certainly a spectacular tea – it’s not quite as ‘go the long haul’ as a typical Oolong. This is more ‘black tea’ in that respect. You’ll get a really lovely cuppa for the early infusions but the flavors begin to wane pretty quickly with this one.
Don’t let that sway you from trying this tea – it’s a lovely Sun Moon Lake type black tea and I’d recommend steeping it as such so that you can get that rich, amazing flavor as a Sun Moon Lake type black, rather than steeping this like an Oolong (in a gaiwan). Next time, I’ll be reaching for either my Kati Tumbler or brewing it in my Breville One-Touch instead. The gaiwan efforts – while absolutely LOVELY – seem a bit more intensive than necessary for a wonderful cuppa when the flavors aren’t going to go for more than a few infusions.
Yet another lovely tea from Dachi – I look forward to exploring the other two with you!
The People’s Tea from Tippy’s Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black & Oolong Teas
Where to Buy: Tippy’s Tea
Tea Description:
Tippy’s own interpretation of the Russian caravan tea. Strikes a delicious balance between the oolong and black teas. Infuse multiple times for a full tasting experience.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had a couple of Russian Caravan teas, I think that this one might be the best that I’ve tried! I think it’s because the Oolong in this blend really comes through in a very pleasant way. It imparts an almost creamy texture to the cup which is a nice contrast to the smoky notes of the Lapsang Souchong.
To brew this, I lowered the temperature. When I come across a blend like this that blends two different types of tea (like green and black teas, or in this case, oolong and black teas), I generally yield to the tea that requires the lower temperature. I’d rather have a slightly weaker flavor from the black tea than the bitterness that would result from a scorched tea leaf.
So I went with 190°F. I measured a bamboo scoop of tea into the basket of my Kati and poured in the hot water and let it steep for 3 minutes. After I had started the process, I thought to myself: “Maybe I should have done a quick rinse on the leaves!” But by the time that I had come to that realization, more than a minute had passed and it was a little passed the time to do a rinse. Maybe next time!
But as it is, it’s not too smoky. I don’t know if the rinse would improve the flavor or not, because I’m enjoying it as it is.
It’s smoky, but as I said before, there’s a really nice contrast between the smoky element and the soft, buttery/creamy element of the Oolong. It’s quite pleasant. Smooth yet smoky. Forward notes of caramel. Middle notes of fruit and flower mingling with the smoke. Hints of molasses and earth in the distance. It’s a beautifully complex tea!
In the past, I would shy away from Russian Caravan teas because of the smokiness of them – I’ve never been a big fan of something heavily smoked and when I would smell a Russian Caravan, even though they’re not nearly as smoky as say a straight-up Lapsang Souchong, there is still a strong element of smoke to the aroma and in my earliest days as a tea enthusiast I found that smoky note to be very off-putting. Now I’ve come to embrace it and enjoy it, but Russian Caravan teas are still not my favorite blends. The few that I have tried seemed to focus heavily on their black teas and not so much on the Oolong aspect, I like that this tea – The People’s Tea from Tippy’s Tea – brought some balance to the two tea types so that the luscious texture and creamy flavor of the Oolong could be enjoyed with the smoky notes of the Lapsang Souchong and the fruity elements of the Keemun.
It’s a very well thought out blend! Bravo, Tippy’s Tea!