Shan Lin Xi

2021 sipdown no. 110

This one has a fairly strong vegetal mixed with the sea scent when dry. Thank goodness it wears away a bit as it steeps. I can safely say that my reigning green oolong favourites are still Ali Shan and Si Ji Chun.

1st steep: 200° F, 4 minutes
2nd steep: 200° F, 5 minutes, 30 seconds

Cold Brew!

I’m officially on “summer vacation” from now until July 5th so I’m looking forward to catching up on tasting notes, drinking lots of tea outside, and binge watching some new shows. Of course there will be lots of cold brews too – including this bad boy, which is kick starting the vacation! This tea is just super refreshing to sip on during this extremely sunny day w/ plenty of crisp notes of freshly mowed grass, fragrant light florals, sweet vegetal garden peas, and a buttery coconut finish!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQgmZVLD52M/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIMnyx8dCoM

[winter 2020 harvest]

Sweet and floral with notes of sugar, cooked lemon skin. It’s a lovely tea that reminds me of lemon custard a bit. It has a distinctive character while being very much true to its category. I find the energy to be a bit too dizzying though.

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.

Spring 2020

Dry leaf smells like spiced walnuts, pineapple-mango-coconut, vanilla sugar and flowers. Wamring brings out a sweet, creamy vegetal character with spinach, coconut cream, walnut and vanilla sugar. Intoxicating. Rinse brings out a more pungent, tropical fruit character with pineapple, mango, coconut and jackfruit on a spinachy base.

The leaves quickly unfurl. The tea is silky, oily, mouth-watering with salt and other minerals. Complex, rich and evolving aromas, tastes and aftertastes. The strength of the aroma gives the illusion of sweetness, but I’d say the tea is rather mineral-salty and somewhat tangy. Lofty notes of coconut cream, vanilla sugar and rich white florals on a crisp lettuce-straw base change to macadamia and coconut to cream and butter. The aftertaste contains the fruitier notes of the tea. The sweet aromatics blend seamlessly into the aftertaste and when that subsides, the fruitier notes of the tea display with green apple skins and pineapple. Some gentle cooling in the mouth early and later, an impression of sugarcane fills the throat. At the end of the session, coconut and floral vanilla make another appearance in the aftertaste. Burps bring out some of that spinach quality of the warmed leaf.

This tea easily takes boiling water and lower and does well with a variety of brewing methods. I couldn’t stop preparing cup after cup. It’s really that easy-drinking and addictive. A beautiful representation of Shan Lin Xi. Thank you, Leafhopper :)

I’m drinking the spring 2020 iteration of this much-loved Shan Lin Xi. I’ve written notes on the 2017 and 2018 versions already and there’s not much to add, but I had to give a shoutout to how great it is.

Steeped according to my usual parameters, I get that lovely jammy cherry, orchid, cream, wheatgrass, papaya, spinach, and lettuce, plus some new-to-me notes of coconut and vanilla. That SLX balsam note comes out in later steeps, along with some honeyed florals. The creamy vanilla cushions the vegetal fade, which, as in other harvests, comes too soon for my liking.

I just chugged eight steeps of this tea in less than an hour and a half, which is kind of a record for me. In spite of its lack of longevity, this is one of my favourite oolongs and I’m raising the rating accordingly. Other teas can spend years in my cupboard, but I’ll be surprised if this one lasts more than a month.

My favorite oolong from Camelia Sinensis,

I often tend to prefer the roundness of middle infusions in oolongs, but this one starts majestically.