Showing posts with label Gao Shan Cha. Show all posts

Tea From Taiwan’s Hua Gang

Origin: Hua Gang area, Li Shan, Taichung County, Taiwan
Harvest: April 2015
Cultivar: Chin Shin (Green Heart)
Elevation: 2400m
I decided to start the day with this tea; I have been feeling a little off now that spring has started so please excuse my brevity. Tea From Taiwan describes this as:
This premium-quality oolong tea is grown in the Li Shan mountain range at an altitude of 2400 meters. The climate of these high mountains is ideal for growing fine oolong tea. The cool air and high humidity produce a tea with full, robust flavor and long-lasting aftertaste.
The brewed tea has an exquisite aroma and brews to an appealing amber liquor. The leaves can can be re-brewed many times while maintaining a full flavor.
Tea grown on Mount Li (Li Shan or Pear Mountain) is the most prized oolong tea in Taiwan. It is ideally suited for gong fu style brewing.
Which is a somewhat poor description for this tea, while I do think it does a good job giving a brief overview of LiShan teas, it seems kind of generic which is a shame since this tea is anything, but generic.




Dry Leaves: This is quite a stem-y tea. At first I was a little put off by the uniqueness of the tea, but there is something aesthetically pleasing about the inconsistency. For some reason quite a few of the stems remind me of canes or crab legs.  Nevertheless the leaves are mostly blue, although there is some green in there and a bit of yellow mostly in the stems.


First Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Honeysuckle and Butter
Flavor: Floral and Spicy
Tasting Notes: This is quite interesting. Immediately I noticed the thick buttery mouthfeel as well as a butter aroma (a friend described it as buttered popcorn, but I would not go that far). Otherwise it has the typical floral tastes common in Taiwanese oolongs, but the honeysuckle aroma was a little strange, not bad, but not something I encounter often in Taiwanese oolongs.

There was something about this tea that I felt would do better using hotter water to brew so I did decided to go up ten degrees and while I do not feel I was wrong, I do think this benefits from shorter infusions, perhaps in intervals of thirty or fifteen seconds. My intuition tells me I brewed this too long and I lost out on some nuance. Sadly I did not notice realize the errors of my ways until after I used up the entirety of my sample.

Second Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Honeysuckle
Flavor: Spicy Cinnamon, Vegetal and Floral
Tasting Notes: Wow! It’s like it took a sudden turn into the dangerous part of town. The comfortable floral notes are starting to wane and some herbaceous notes suddenly appeared. And the spicy taste from the previous infusion has become like a spicy cinnamon.



I rather enjoyed this infusion; as much as I love green floral oolongs I do like the occasional vegetal/herbaceous ones. I feel that I do not often encounter a lot of vegetal Taiwanese Oolongs and that is a shame, I can see why they are not for everyone, but I wish they were more common.

Third Steeping
Temperature: Boiling
Brewing Time: Three Minutes
Aroma: Green Beans and Honey
Flavor: Spicy Cinnamon, Vegetal and Ginger
Tasting Notes: Floral notes are completely gone instead there are some new green bean-esque aromas as well as honey. The tastes are pretty similar although the floral notes disappeared pretty suddenly, I did not expect them to weaken so fast.



While I do feel that I missed out on some of the nuances of this tea I did quite I enjoy it, I’m going to have to order at least 75 grams in my next order. I am not in love with this tea, but I would not say no to it. There is something comfortable about it, even though the easy to love floral notes disappear. Regardless Tea From Taiwan is currently selling this Hua Gang at $31 for 75 grams and is worth checking out if you are into herbaceous Taiwanese oolongs.


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Tea From Taiwan’s Zhong Shu Hu Ooolong

(Tea Provided For Review)
Origin: Zhang Shu Hu Village, Ali Shan, Chia Yi County, Taiwan
Harvest: November 2014
Cultivar: Cui Yu (Jade TaiCha #13)
Elevation: 1400m


Tea From Taiwan was kind enough to send me a couple samples of the teas I forgot to purchase after my review of their DaYuLing and I randomly decided to try this first. Tea From Taiwan describes this as:
Zhong Shu Hu oolong tea comes from the Zhong Shu Hu area of Ali Mountain (Alishan) - one of the most famous tea producing regions of Taiwan. The climate here is cool and moist with cloud cover and mists every day. These conditions are ideal for tea because the plants grow very slowly and produce tender, flavorful tea leaves and buds.
Zhong Shu Hu oolong tea has a sweet taste and refined aroma. Each brewing brings out new flavours and taste sensations. This tea has a complexity that provides continuous nuances with every cup.
Zhong Shu Hu oolong tea can be re-brewed several times while maintaining an excellent flavour. We recommend the Gong Fu method of preparation to bring out the best of this excellent tea.
I did not read the description until after I tried the tea and I was shocked to find out it is from the AliShan area; the tea reminds me much more of a LiShan tea than an AliShan, perhaps I haven’t had as good AliShan as this before. Many AliShan teas I have had in the past with a few exceptions have paled in comparison to this. I kind of regret not using my aroma cup on this.

Dry Leaves: The leaves are a little irregularly shaped, I’m guessing this is either a hand plucked tea or at the very least a hand rolled tea which is not surprising for a tea of this quality.

First Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds
Aroma: Cinnamon and Roast
Flavor: Cinnamon, Floral and Vegetal
Tasting Notes: I already mentioned that I thought this was a LiShan at first, mostly because of now sweet and light it is, I've been hearing for quite some time that there is a bit of a tea forgery problem for quite some time, but up till now I never really paid much attention to it. I've had a few good AliShan in the past, but for the most part I've had some pretty mediocre teas that supposedly came from there. While this tea is delightfully buttery, it does not have that thick mouthfeel that many GaoShaCha are known for, but at the same time it is not exactly thin.


So far it is outstanding, it has a very strong floral aroma and taste as well as a distinct, yet light roast taste. As you probably already know I tend to prefer the more floral Taiwanese oolongs over the more roasted ones, but this was quite different from either the greener, but floral or roasted oolongs I tried in the past. At first I was just getting the floral and cinnamon notes, but after a couple seconds I was able to tell there is some roasty notes as well, still on the lighter side, but quite pleasant nonetheless.

Second Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: Forty-five seconds
Aroma: Orchid, Cinnamon and Roast           
Flavor: Cinnamon, Floral, Vegetal and Roasted Nuts
Tasting Notes:  The liquor is becoming a little dark, yet it still taste like a greener oolong, even though it has a roasted nut flavor that I see more in Muzha oolongs. It is a little strange because it has these amazing green oolong flavors as well as some minor roasted oolong flavors. Regardless I am absolutely in love with this tea.



It has a nice mix of floral and vegetal taste. Tea From Taiwan’s description is absolutely spot on. While the cinnamon notes are the strongest of the individual flavors, I can’t help but taste the vegetal and nutty flavors as well. Whoever roasted this tea needs recognition because this is absolutely amazing! This was my favorite of these three infusions mostly because of the strength of the aroma while all the scents are still pleasant in the subsequent infusion I found the roasted scent a little too strong in the next infusion.

Third Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Roast and Floral
Flavor: Floral, Spicy Cinnamon, Spinach and Nutty
Tasting Notes: It was a little strange to see the cinnamon aroma disappear entirely and the roasted aroma become so pungent. The floral aroma is still there, but it feels a little underwhelming (it’s interesting to note that in later infusions the floral aroma becomes the sole scent remaining). As for the liquor it is becoming darker once again; while this tea does have a rather long life I got a little more than fifteen steepings out of the leaves before they felt completely used up, but the liquor tends to get very dark in later infusions. As for the flavors the cinnamon note has a new spicy edge to it which was rather nice and the vegetal taste has become distinctly spinach like.

I loved this tea. It is quite an elusive tea to describe, while it has these wonderful floral elements, it also has some slight roasted ones as well. I already mentioned how I originally thought this was a LiShan, but I have yet to mention that I was shocked to discover this is a fall tea. It has that wonderfully complexity that I associate more with winter oolongs. Regardless Tea From Taiwan at the time of writing this has this tea is on sale for $19.80 for 75 grams and that feels like a very good price for a tea as amazing as this. 




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Tea From Taiwan’s Wu Ling Oolong

(Tea Provided for Review)
Origin: Wu Ling Farm, Li Shan, Taichung County, Taiwan
Harvest: Winter 2014
Cultivar: Chin Shin
Elevation: 1800m



After being impressed with Tea From Taiwan’s Zhong Shu Hu I decided to try this Wu Ling despite the simple name. Tea From Taiwan describes this as:
Wu Ling oolong tea (wu-long tea) is our best tea in our regular collection. Wu Ling is a mountain area in Taichung county and its high altitude (more than 1800 meters) contributes to the ideal growing conditions for wu long tea.
Another reason why Wu Ling wu long tea is of such fine quality is the soil of the Wu Ling area. Wu Ling was a fruit producing region for many years until economic conditions favored imported fruit over home-grown apples and pears. Former orchards in the Wu Ling area were converted into oolong tea plantations, and Wu Ling wu long tea is renowned for its fruity quality.
Wu Ling is located on Mount Li (Li Shan or Pear Mountain) and wu long tea from Mount Li is the most prized wu long tea in Taiwan. It is ideally suited for gong fu style brewing and can be re-brewed up to eight times while still retaining plenty of flavor.
More information about the Li Shan area of Taiwan (including a section on Wu Ling wu long tea) can be found on this website about Wu Ling farm.
It sounds a bit like this is TFT’s house oolong. It’s cool that TFT list’s the farm’s website, although the English language version is currently unavailable. Although it is pretty strange for a vendor that specializes in Taiwanese teas to essentially give away their source especially when there are tons of online stores that specialize in Taiwanese Oolongs, I suspect TFT must get a really good deal on teas from the Wu Ling farm.





Dry Leaves: There is not much of a fragrance to the dry leaves, but the actual leaves have quite a strange shape, while they are tightly rolled they remind me a little of embryos. Perhaps they are hand rolled, but I am not sure.



First Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds
Aroma: Cinnamon and Floral
Flavor: Floral, Fruity and Roasted Vegetal
Tasting Notes: It’s very silky. I do not think I have ever had a tea with this soft mouthfeel. Instantly I am reminded of the Zhong Shu Hu, while this Wu Ling lacks the cinnamon flavors of the Zhong Shu Hu it feels very similar. It does have that light roasted taste, but this time it feels more like roasted vegetables, more on the dark leafy green side, perhaps not as strong as kale yet.





The fruity notes are a little elusive; it took me quite some time to realize there were some fruity notes in there. So far I think I prefer the Zhong Shu Hu to this, although this has a much nicer mouthfeel.



Second Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Cinnamon and Floral
Flavor: Floral, Fruity, Vegetal and Sugar Cane
Tasting Notes: It is not as silky as the last infusion, but instead it is becoming creamy. I am happy to say it is starting to taste less like the Zhong Shu Hu, the roasted notes disappeared entirely and instead the vegetal notes are becoming very green. And there is a new sugar cane flavor that was quite nice, while this tea is certainly on the sweeter side it is not sickly sweet like some oolongs.





The cinnamon aroma is a little strong and overpowers the floral notes which are a little sad since there are some lovely orchid and violet notes in there.  Regardless all the flavors are very clean and refreshing.



Third Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Floral
Flavor: Peachy, Floral, Vegetal and Sugar Cane
Tasting Notes: It is becoming incredibly creamy! And it is starting to become a little darker, while the floral and vegetal notes are still present in the subsequent infusions the vegetal notes become more apparent and the sugar cane starts to become caramel-y. In the next infusion there is a rather interesting taste that I struggled to identify, almost like a sweet butter, but not exactly.





Regardless this is a lovely tea, I prefer it over the Zhong Shu Hu mostly for its rich flavors, while it lacks the incredible aroma of the ZSH it more than makes up for it with its incredible mouthfeel. I can see why this is one of Tea From Taiwan’s best teas in their regular collection.  At the time of writing this TFT is selling this for 75g at $29 or $4 for a 7g sample, it’s definitely worth checking out.




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