I wish I went into this one blind so I would not write notes based on the power of persuasion. My allergies are also just getting to me in the middle of this snow filled spring day on April 1st, so April Fools. But I am starting the day with one of my favorite kinds of tea.
I brewed this up in my gong fu to go, 5 oz. Ish, and doing it 25, 30, 35, and four more flash steeps. First brew was light, creamy, and crisp. I got lettuce, coconut, butter, and nuttiness. Second steep and later steeps in this half of the session were dominated by the Macadamia for me, and the viscous texture reminded me of almond milk. I did get the weird cherry note, but it wasn’t obviously cherry. It was more subtle like cascara, or coffee cherry. Maybe fresh cherry is better.
There were also more florals like plumeria, which bloomed in steep three, but dissipated. I think that’s the vanilla note the site mentions, but it’s too floral and subdued for me to think vanilla. The recent florals have leaned more vaguely in the honeysuckle and hyacinth (how many times have I mentioned that one) direction, but the tea is overall creamy, like “Fresh, creamery butter…”
The leaves were getting trapped, so I gave the tea a bigger vessel, and just did 8 oz. I tasted a little bit more mango in hints, really more in texture. Coconut, butter, nutt approximations of macadamia and almond, and then wheat grass.
There’s more to go, but I’m not sure what else to add. This is an especially creamy and nutty Shanlinxi that I like. Without my kyusu, which has been broken and disposed for a few months, I’ve been kinda limited in my larger gong fu sessions. It could be why I feel like I’ve missed things in recent gong fu sessions, or I could just be rushing them too much like an assembly line as time itself fades into yesterday, minute by minute in this limbo of a spring break.
But hey, I have tea for my existential moments. As for my usual general audience blurb, this is great for the price and one of the better Shanlinxi’s I’ve had. I still prefer to get some from my usual stops, but I do recommend this one. I think it’s best for intermediate drinkers since it might be too vegetal for super newbies, but it’s a great one to introduce people to high mountain teas and Shan lin xi. I’m also going to hold off on rating it for now until I get more from this session. I’m slowly getting more pineapple now than I did before, especially as it cools off.
Few hours later, and I’m ready to rate it. It’s higher tier for price to flavor ratio, and it’s very durable. I wish I divided it into one session for gong fu, and the other for tumbler fuel. 88-90 is the number range I’m feeling. I really like it.
Flavors: Almond, Butter, Cherry, Cream, Creamy, Floral, Grass, Lettuce, Milk, Nutty, Pineapple, Spinach, Sweet
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Glad you enjoyed this! Out of curiosity, what are your “usual stops” for Shan Lin Xi? Of the three I’ve tried from Taiwan Tea Crafts, the Shibi was the only one I thought compared to this.
Wang Family Tea and formerly Eco-Cha. Trident also has a very good one that is heavy with lavender. I do think I rushed this one a little bit, though. I should have divided the sample you gave me. The first three steeps were really good.
I’ll have to contact Wang Family Tea and figure out if they’ll ship to Canada for less than $20. I haven’t had much success with Eco-Cha’s greener oolongs, though that was a few years ago and I might have to give them another try. Trident has no shipping info, international or even domestic. I’ve had great Shan Lin Xi from Floating Leaves and Fong Mong (now jLteaco), and good ones from Tillerman and Cha Yi Tea House in Quebec.
I loved Floating Leaves’s and Tillerman’s high mountains teas. I liked Tillerman’s cuifeng a lot and loved all of Floating leaves High Mountain sampler. I just don’t get them as much due to price point…hypocritical, I know. As for Eco-cha, I said former because their Shanlinxi is also pretty temperamental from season to season. It’s better than their Lishan and Alishan in my opinion which I think are too vegetal, but it no season has the same fruitiness. I loved their club too, but again, too expensive. What-cha has a good Shan Lin Xi too, but it’s very limited in availability. It’s more heavy into floral and thick territory than some others. I almost tried fong fong and have always wanted to, I mostly hesitated due to high grammage size in the past. Again, kinda opposite of what I’ve done these past few months.
And of course I don’t have the note on there….I hate it when I add a tea and I forget to write about it…or it doesn’t save. Anyway, my current bias for Wang’s Family tea is that I talked with the owner two years ago to basically sample every tea he had available as a bulk purchase to for 6 months. I had a hard time making a decision, so I wanted to try and write about everything. I need to see what I have and haven’t wrote yet. The Shanlinxi that company has is unique for me because of its euphoria I get from the L-Theanine and caffiene combo. It is very beany, but it’s clean and refreshing. I usually get lavender and jasmine in the florals, even as tumbler fuel. I am going to have to do another note and write some comparison between the two. I think the Camellia Sinensis might have more flavor since it’s not quite as green as Wang’s is.
Nevermind the comparison of “green” is sweet peas and green beens in Wang’s vs. spinach, chard, butter in Camellia Sinensis’s.
I’m okay with paying Floating Leaves’ prices, but their $20 shipping fee to Canada is a step too far. And I agree, the Eco-Cha tea club is great but too expensive. I’ll look out for What-Cha’s Shan Lin Xi.
I was given free samples of all the teas from Fong Mong for review, and then the pandemic intervened before I could justify buying a full 150 g of their Shan Lin Xi. Now, I think both the shipping and the package sizes have gone up.
Please tell me more about your arrangement with Wang Family Tea! I typically don’t like really green oolongs, but the chance to sample a bunch of their teas is intriguing.
Most of the oxidation tends to be between 20-35% with some notable ones on the darker spectrum and with greater roast. The green oolongs are all very forgiving and respond better to longer steeping times. Most of the are fairly reliable with their notes, and of them, the Shan Lin Xi, Cuifeng, and Qilai Shan are excellent. The light roasts are also very good, savory, sweet and nutty without being overly vegetal, and even the darker roasted teas never have an overpowering char taste. For example, they have a Wuyi style tea that I like. I’ve not been a huge fan of them from other sources like Eco-Cha or Taiwan Sourcing, but I was tempted to get more. I could go on if you want me to, but most of the notes from the company are mine. There are some I am going to have to rewrite because they didn’t get saved, like the Fenghuang Dong Ding and the Gui Fei (which was one of the first ones I tried and I know it was one of the first I wrote about from the Company), but there’s at least a database of what you could expect from them.
Idk how y’all were getting cherry but I think I understand now after you said cascara, Daylon – this was a pretty tangy tea. I’ve heard the ground cherries mentioned in Camellia Sinensis’s description being another name for cape gooseberries. That note actually fits really well into the flavor profile for me.
Derk, I got the cherry note as soon as I opened the bag, but I can’t say for sure whether that was related to Camellia Sinensis’ description! Sometimes you get what you look for.
Power of persuasion penetrates perception. And I also swear tea tastes different in different climates. Some of my oolongs are more floral up here in Michigan compared to when I had them in Florida with the hot weather.
Glad you enjoyed this! Out of curiosity, what are your “usual stops” for Shan Lin Xi? Of the three I’ve tried from Taiwan Tea Crafts, the Shibi was the only one I thought compared to this.
Wang Family Tea and formerly Eco-Cha. Trident also has a very good one that is heavy with lavender. I do think I rushed this one a little bit, though. I should have divided the sample you gave me. The first three steeps were really good.
I’ll have to contact Wang Family Tea and figure out if they’ll ship to Canada for less than $20. I haven’t had much success with Eco-Cha’s greener oolongs, though that was a few years ago and I might have to give them another try. Trident has no shipping info, international or even domestic. I’ve had great Shan Lin Xi from Floating Leaves and Fong Mong (now jLteaco), and good ones from Tillerman and Cha Yi Tea House in Quebec.
I loved Floating Leaves’s and Tillerman’s high mountains teas. I liked Tillerman’s cuifeng a lot and loved all of Floating leaves High Mountain sampler. I just don’t get them as much due to price point…hypocritical, I know. As for Eco-cha, I said former because their Shanlinxi is also pretty temperamental from season to season. It’s better than their Lishan and Alishan in my opinion which I think are too vegetal, but it no season has the same fruitiness. I loved their club too, but again, too expensive. What-cha has a good Shan Lin Xi too, but it’s very limited in availability. It’s more heavy into floral and thick territory than some others. I almost tried fong fong and have always wanted to, I mostly hesitated due to high grammage size in the past. Again, kinda opposite of what I’ve done these past few months.
And of course I don’t have the note on there….I hate it when I add a tea and I forget to write about it…or it doesn’t save. Anyway, my current bias for Wang’s Family tea is that I talked with the owner two years ago to basically sample every tea he had available as a bulk purchase to for 6 months. I had a hard time making a decision, so I wanted to try and write about everything. I need to see what I have and haven’t wrote yet. The Shanlinxi that company has is unique for me because of its euphoria I get from the L-Theanine and caffiene combo. It is very beany, but it’s clean and refreshing. I usually get lavender and jasmine in the florals, even as tumbler fuel. I am going to have to do another note and write some comparison between the two. I think the Camellia Sinensis might have more flavor since it’s not quite as green as Wang’s is.
Nevermind the comparison of “green” is sweet peas and green beens in Wang’s vs. spinach, chard, butter in Camellia Sinensis’s.
I’m okay with paying Floating Leaves’ prices, but their $20 shipping fee to Canada is a step too far. And I agree, the Eco-Cha tea club is great but too expensive. I’ll look out for What-Cha’s Shan Lin Xi.
I was given free samples of all the teas from Fong Mong for review, and then the pandemic intervened before I could justify buying a full 150 g of their Shan Lin Xi. Now, I think both the shipping and the package sizes have gone up.
Please tell me more about your arrangement with Wang Family Tea! I typically don’t like really green oolongs, but the chance to sample a bunch of their teas is intriguing.
Most of the oxidation tends to be between 20-35% with some notable ones on the darker spectrum and with greater roast. The green oolongs are all very forgiving and respond better to longer steeping times. Most of the are fairly reliable with their notes, and of them, the Shan Lin Xi, Cuifeng, and Qilai Shan are excellent. The light roasts are also very good, savory, sweet and nutty without being overly vegetal, and even the darker roasted teas never have an overpowering char taste. For example, they have a Wuyi style tea that I like. I’ve not been a huge fan of them from other sources like Eco-Cha or Taiwan Sourcing, but I was tempted to get more. I could go on if you want me to, but most of the notes from the company are mine. There are some I am going to have to rewrite because they didn’t get saved, like the Fenghuang Dong Ding and the Gui Fei (which was one of the first ones I tried and I know it was one of the first I wrote about from the Company), but there’s at least a database of what you could expect from them.
Idk how y’all were getting cherry but I think I understand now after you said cascara, Daylon – this was a pretty tangy tea. I’ve heard the ground cherries mentioned in Camellia Sinensis’s description being another name for cape gooseberries. That note actually fits really well into the flavor profile for me.
Derk, I got the cherry note as soon as I opened the bag, but I can’t say for sure whether that was related to Camellia Sinensis’ description! Sometimes you get what you look for.
Power of persuasion penetrates perception. And I also swear tea tastes different in different climates. Some of my oolongs are more floral up here in Michigan compared to when I had them in Florida with the hot weather.