Roasted Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong Tea
US$20
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Flavor: Cedar, dried fruit, pipe tobacco aroma. Roasted cashews, apricots, mineral notes. Sweet/tangy, smoky finish.
Garden: This tea is from the same source as our Shan Lin Xin High Mountain Oolong Tea. Our friend entered a batch from his fall crop into the winter 2022 Lugu Farmers' Association Dong Ding Oolong Tea Competition. It did not receive an award, so we had the opportunity to procure it at a great price! We tasted this batch side by side with our award winning Dong Dong Oolong selection. They were noticeably different, but it was clearly a matter of taste for anyone outside of the competition quality standard. We are very appreciative to be able to offer both batches for the educational experience!
Harvest: Hand-picked in medium batches, fall 2022. Shan Lin Xi, Nantou, Taiwan.
Elevation: 1500m
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Before being roasted, these leaves were destemmed in order to allow for a more uniform degree of roasting. Stems retain moisture and are much less permeable, so it's necessary to remove them for optimal roasting results. In the process of destemming, some of the leaf nuggets are slightly crumbled or separated into smaller nuggets. The goal is to have mostly leaf material with minimal stem material in order to roast the leaves evenly.
When leaves grown from this region are groomed and roasted to the quality standard of the Lugu Farmers' Association Dong Ding Oolong Tea Competition, they are indeed a representative of world class tea. The character of this tea is complex, yet balanced. It has a broad spectrum of aromatic and flavor notes ranging from sweet, fruity, nutty, to foresty, and roasty. It's one Taiwan's top 3 tea types in quality and tradition.
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Our friend who manages the plots of tea that produce our Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Tea decided to allow two plots out of three to rest this winter, and only harvested the new growth from his main plot. Tea trees benefit significantly when they are allowed to periodically just behave like trees. Feeding them with fertilizer and trimming the surface growth on a seasonal basis to promote even new growth, then harvesting the new growth is taxing on the plants. They are continuously working hard to compensate. So leaving them alone every couple of years will maintain their health and longevity. We truly feel that the level of management and skill that is employed from this source is the of the highest standards we've seen in our 20 plus years of research. It's a privilege to source this tea.
Our source of this tea is firmly committed to the practice of transporting the freshly picked leaves to a factory at about half the elevation of the tea farm in order to provide ideal climate conditions for processing. Specifically, there is more sunshine and less fog at lower elevation, along with more available outdoor space to provide an optimal environment for solar withering - the initial an pivotal stage of Oolong Tea processing. It is this level of professionalism combined with the more environmentally friendly aspect of using a factory located in a residential area rather than on a remote high elevation tea farm that makes us committed to this source of quality Taiwanese High Mountain Tea.
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Mug: 8g tea in 300ml 100°C water. Steep for 3 minutes. Re-steep. Adjust to taste.
Cold Brew: Use 6g of tea per liter of water. Brew tea at room temperature for 2-3 hours, and enjoy. Or you can put your cold brew bottle in the fridge to brew overnight and be ready to drink the next day.
Gong Fu: Start with a 1:18 leaf to water ratio, e.g. 10g of tea leaves for a 180mL teapot. Use boiling temperature water and brew for about 50 seconds. Increase brewing time with each successive brew. The leaves can be brewed 6 times.
This tea maintains the lightness of Shan Lin Xi, with a nice roasted finish. A perfect combination, giving it a bracing feel with out the heaviness that some roasted teas have.
A very smooth and satisfying tea. It pairs well with Autumn. I made a special trip to obtain fresh spring water to enjoy this tea at its very best. Highly recommend.
This tea has everything I want in a tea. This tea has some fruitiness, sweetness, and also nuttiness. There are other flavors as well. But it is so well balanced that no flavor overpowers any other flavor. In addition to the flavor, I could just sit and drink in the aroma of the tea. I normally like my tea more roasted, to me this one was roasted to perfection. I liked this tea so much, I just want to buy them out of it.