Review: Eco-Cha Intro to Oolong 3 Pack Reviewed by An International Tea Moment
March 07, 2014
An International Tea Moment has a very interesting review up on 'The Implications of Roasting'. The Eco-Cha 3 Pack comes with an unroasted, a lightly roasted, and a heavily roasted tea. This review takes you through the three types and compares the flavor profile of different roasts. Have a read to learn which roast is your 'cup of tea'. See the great photo below from An International Tea Moment of these three different teas.
"My appreciation for Oolongs has grown exponentially over the past few years, and these examples only reinforced that appreciation. There's an oolong for every mood. The heavily roasted Dong Ding for the morning, the Shan Li Xi for a mid afternoon pick-me-up, and the light, sunny Jin Xuan to end your day with a smile."
Batch #50 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club starts off 2020 with a freshly harvested Alishan High Mountain Oolong Winter Tea from our ongoing source in Meishan Township. This very small batch of tea was their final day of winter harvest. The leaves were not yet fully mature, and offer a fresh, distinctly aromatic and complex flavor profile.
The photo above is this month's batch of the Eco-Cha Tea Club undergoing solar withering on November 11, 2019. This was the final day of winter harvest for our source of Alishan High Mountain Oolong Tea, and we were able to procure enough of this very minimal batch to share with our Tea Club. This date was 3 days after Li Dong (立冬) in the lunar calendar, and the winter harvest of High Mountain Tea had for the most part been completed in central Taiwan.
This summer 2017 crop of naturally cultivated and well bug bitten and matured leaves were processed as a traditional Oolong, which mainly means that they were well oxidized. The work that went into oxidizing these leaves was considerable as well as skillful. The leaves needed to be worked, and they got worked well! The result is a full-bodied, substantial brew that offers a very satisfying balance that starts with a mild smokiness, leading into a fruity body with mineral notes, and finishing with something reminiscent of old school Charms lollipops. It really does have a distinct plum powder/confectioner's sugar finishing note that is cushioned by that smoky mineral base. It's a mouthful!
