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Tea Ave Wenshan Baochong

Origin: Ping Ling District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Harvest: 2014
Cultivar: QinXin Oolong
Elevation: 400-800m



I decided finally write this review, I put off looking at another Tea Ave tea ever since they launched their site, not because I do not like Tea Ave teas, but Tea Ave had a very successful PR campaign leading to them being everywhere. I do not know how many samplers they sent out before they launched, but I have a feeling they sent out a lot judging by their presence on the various tea forums I regularly read. In fact when I published my Tea Ave preview I did so prematurely. I have not discussed why I publish my reviews or even what I get out of this blog. I do not make any money off this blog, but I do get the occasional samples; for every ten queries from tea vendors I reject nine of them for a number of reasons. In fact the few companies that I accept samples from I regularly buy tea from. If you have been an attentive reader of this blog you may notice I always disclose at the beginning of my posts whether or not I received samples for the sake of review.

As I already said I do not get any money from this blog, the primary reason I write this blog is that I enjoy having a space to record some of the teas I try and recommending teas that I enjoy or think are interesting. While I do try to limit the posts on this blog to teas I either enjoy drinking or at the very least have interesting characteristics I try not to post my thoughts on teas that I do not enjoy. This may come as something of a shock to some, but there are quite a lot of teas that I do not like, even more scandalous there are teas from some of my favorite vendors that I do not enjoy.

Regardless I finally feel like the various tea forums I read are not oversaturated with reviews of Tea Ave’s teas. Tea Ave describes their Wenshan Baochong as:

If oolong tea can be chic, Wenshan Baochung is it: sophisticated, refined, unctuous (save it for your fanciest friends—or for yourself). One of the most fragrant oolong teas in the world, Wenshan Baochung is known for its rich, long-lasting aroma (we highly recommend enjoying it with our aroma cup). Unroasted with floral aromas, most of Wenshan Baochung Oolong’s tea leaves are unoxidized, giving it a quality reminiscent of a green tea with a dash of Dong Ding. Floral notes and aroma arise naturally from the tea leaves.
Wenshan Baochung Oolong grows in the Wenshan region of Northern Taiwan, where the year-long mild climate and fog-filled air give the tea a distinct, refined quality. Wenshan Baochung tea turns a golden honey-green color when infused and has a delightful floral flavor with a sweet finish.
Tea leaves are bright green and twisted into long strands.

The only statement I disagree with Tea Ave’s description is “save it for your fanciest friends—or for yourself” makes this sound more like the kind of tea you want to save for special occasions, but I feel this is more of a daily drinker. I know some see the phrase “daily drinker” as a slight, as an inexpensive tea perhaps of dubious origins, but I am not using it in that sense. I like to describe some Taiwanese Oolongs (LiShan, DaYuLing, etc) as being like cotton candy, something that is quite enjoyable, but you cannot live off them; while daily drinkers are more nutrious. As much as I enjoy DaYuLings, I do not think I could ever regularly drink them, while teas like this I could easily see myself drinking this often.



Dry Leaves: The leaves are very aromatic, there are a lot of floral notes, but the strongest is orchid. The dry leaves are pretty evenly blue and green, generally in my experience in lower quality baochongs I often see leaves that are mostly blue while in higher quality baochongs I often see mostly greens; I rarely see baochongs that are equally balanced like this. While the color of the leaves do not always telegraph the quality of a tea, for a baochong I like to assess the quality by the aroma of dry leaves and the aroma of these leaves is simply amazing. I can see the occasional stem which I do not often see in Baochongs. 


First Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Floral and Vanilla
Flavor: Orchid, Honeysuckle, Spinach and Honey
Tasting Notes: As always with Taiwanese oolongs I did a quick rinse with boiling water. I decided to not follow the recommended brewing parameters Tea Ave lists on their website and their packaging, not because I disagree with what they recommend, but I feel that brewing this in very short steepings will not produce very different tastes and aromas in subsequent steepings and if I brewed this for long periods of time I would undoubtedly miss out on some of the subtler flavors and aromas. Long time readers may have noticed I have a template for how I write my reviews, I generally only post my notes on the first three steepings of any tea, and I feel that the first three steepings are the most important. Not surprising this is a very floral tea, although there is a bit of a vegetal notes coming out.



I rather enjoyed the honeysuckle notes more so than the orchid ones, but I found the spinach notes lingered a bit which was a nice contrast to the floral notes; while the vegetal flavors pale in comparison to more vegetal teas like senchas (etc) I always enjoy Taiwanese oolongs that have both floral tastes and vegetal ones.

Second Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Floral and Vanilla  
Flavor: Orchid, Honeysuckle, Violet, Spinach and Honey
Tasting Notes: The floral flavors are becoming more intense! I’m rather enjoying how these very strong floral notes are interacting with the spinach.



It was not until this steeping that I realized how much I liked the vanilla aroma of the tea. I do not often encounter vanilla scents in oolongs as green as this, but it was quite enjoyable although it did kind of clash with the floral notes
.

Third Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: Three Minutes
Aroma: Floral and Vanilla
Flavor: Floral, Spinach, Nutty and Honey
Tasting Notes: I’m sad to say the floral notes are starting to become less distinct, this tea still has quite a lot of life left, but from here on out it starts to become simpler. Although I am happy to say the spinach and nutty notes do not wane until the very end.



This is a very lovely Baochong, at the time of writing this Tea Ave is selling this for $13.75 (CAD) for 25g is well worth the price. It definitely ranks pretty high on the baochungs currently being sold between $10-15, you can tell it is machine harvested, but it tastes much more like a hand plucked tea.


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Tea Ave Preview


(Tea provided for review along with a tasting cup, an aroma cup and a $15 gift card to Tea Ave’s store when it opens)

I was lucky enough to receive three samples of Tea Ave’s stock. I first heard about Tea Ave from Reddit and it looks like they are finally going to launch their store soon. I decided to review all three samples in one post rather than three like I originally was planning to do. I decided to not space my reviews out like I normally do when I receive teas to review since there are a couple of teas from Tea Ave I’d like to look at after they launch their site.


Tie Kwan Yin Oolong
Origin: Muzha District, Taipei City, Taiwan
Cultivar: Tie Kwan Yin
Elevation: 350-400m

Dry Leaves: I love how much info Tea Ave has on their teas on each individual sample package. Although it might be a little overwhelming to someone new to tea, I was rather interested in what they decided to list. The origin and elevation is pretty standard for Taiwanese oolong. The roasting level, oxidation level and cultivar are pretty rare and I love that they included it; and then three separate brewing recommendations (tea bag, tea pot and cold brewing), although the tea bag recommendation wasn’t really necessary. Unfortunately I lost all my photos of this particular tea, but the leaves were closer to a green oolong then a darker one.   

First Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: Three Minutes
Aroma: Roasted and Fruity
Flavor: Roast, Fruity and Burnt Wood
Tasting Notes:
This was my least favorite of the three (not surprising). I am not really fond of roasted oolongs; I have trouble distinguishing darker oolongs apart. Most roasted TKY taste nearly the same to me. So I wasn’t surprised to taste mostly the roast and some fruity notes, but I was startled to be able to taste burnt wood. The burnt wood flavor was the best part of this tea for me; it distinguished it enough from others that made it stand out for me. As to would I buy this tea, maybe. I generally prefer aged tea over new roasted teas, but if the price is right I may buy this once Tea Ave launches their site.

Lishan Oolong
Origin: Lishan Mountain Region, Taichung City, Taiwan
Cultivar: Qinxin Oolong
Elevation: 1700m



Dry Leaves: The leaves were the most underwhelming of the three; this had a light floral scent. The leaves had a lot of yellow and green and not a lot of blues.



First Steeping
Temperature: Boiling
Brewing Time: Three Minutes
Aroma: Floral and Fruity
Flavor: Floral and Sugarcane
Tasting Notes: This has a nice thin-ish mouthfeel, not as thick as teas grown at higher elevations, but not what I normally expect for teas grown at 1700m. Regardless it was nice. It is a little vanilla for my taste. I could taste honeysuckle, hyacinth and lilies, other than that I could taste sugarcane. It was very mellow. I imagine it would brew a lot better for longer times.




Depending on the price I might buy this again. I tend to prefer more complex oolongs.

Cape Jasmine Oolong
Origin: Alishan Mountain Region, Nantou, Taiwan
Cultivar: Jin Xuan
Elevation: 1200m



Dry Leaves: The leaves were the most striking of the three samples, mostly green, but with a fair bit of yellow and blues running through it. Otherwise it has a strong Gardenia aroma as well as some minor floral ones more towards orchid than anything else, but it was a little murky.


First Steeping
Temperature: Boiling
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Gardenia and Floral
Flavor: Gardenia, Jasmine and Milk
Tasting Notes: This was my favorite of the three samples I received. Initially I wasn’t getting much besides jasmine, but after a few seconds I began to distinguish the gardenia notes. I wonder if this is scented with gardenia blossoms. The gardenia is very powerful and intoxicating. I didn’t notice the milk taste till I tried this for the second time, although if I read the entirety of the sample I would have known this has a Jin Xuan base. I don’t think this had a very strong Jin Xuan, it’s not that creamy and the milk notes are the weakest, but if this was scented with gardenias it would not be surprising if it overpowered some of the base tea’s characteristics. It was a little buttery, not too much though. I tend to find Taiwanese teas grown below 1000m or those grown above 2000m (especially winter harvests) tend to be rather buttery, but everything inbetween in my experience has thinner mouthfeels.






Overall I preferred the Cape Jasmine over anything else and the tea I’d most likely purchase again. I am a little on the fence about the Lishan, but I’m willing to give it another chance. Besides that I loved the amount of detail on Tea Ave’s packaging, I know a lot of tea companies tend to favor simpler packaging, but they often lack information like origin or recommended brewing times. I am looking forward to trying more of Tea Ave’s teas once they launched. The only thing I thought was really missing from Tea Ave’s packaging is the harvest date, but the teas tasted quite fresh. Hopefully next time I try one of Tea Ave’s teas my camera won’t delete the majority of my pictures.  
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