Alishan Oolong Tea

Sure this is the real deal. Smells milky and tastes milky. Would defo time buy again!

It's very important to not use too much tea, or leave it to steep for too long - if you do then it tastes like a seaweed broth.Even with that taste I could still see why millions of people might like it as it's so smooth.After I brewed the first lot and found that the dehydrated leaves were attempting to escape the filter due to them having increased in volume so much, much more than any other tea I have previously made, it was obvious I had messed something up, so I decided it probably wasn't fair to review based on that experience.So I drank that pot, and made another 2 pots from the same leaves (so 6 cups in total) and it 'improved' - still not to my taste, but I could see why other people might like it.Today I made another batch.I measured the tea, rather than just using the one and a half heaped teaspoons that I use for all other teas in that pot. 3g per 200ml of water so for a 500ml pot I used 7g. I also closely timed it's first steep, about 1 minute and 15 seconds.I used water that had been left for a couple of minutes after the kettle boiled, no idea what temperature that is but it's got to be a few degrees short of boiling.The result is an almost imperceptible colouring to the waterWhen brewed correctly it's nice, it still has the smoothness of the first batch, it's almost totally clear of any sediment, and it has a very subtle taste, probably of Oolong tea (I've never had it before so I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like, other than that it probably shouldn't taste of boiled seaweed lol)Very early days, like most teas it's, at least for me, an acquired taste, but I don't actively dislike it.Possibly I may buy more, I've still got a lot of it to get through before that decision needs to be made.

I'm a big tea drinker but I've never tried Oolong tea before. Apparently it lies somewhere between green tea and English breakfast tea. So it can be quite light in colour (nearer to green tea) or a bit darker and closer to breakfast tea. This version is fairly light in colour.It took me 3 attempts to successfully make a cup of this. I used a steel ball tea infuser. The type with the spring loaded jaws for an individual cup. The first time I fully loaded the tea infuser but the tea leaves expanded so much that they pushed the jaws open filling the cup with pieces of leaves. The second time I half filled it and had the same problem. The tea leaves expand a crazy amount. You only really need a very small amount of leaves and the third time it worked a charm.I usually like floral light teas but I'm not sure about this one. It could be I'm still making it a bit strong (I usually like strong tea). A bit more experimentation, and research, is needed I think.Overall it's a good product. It arrived nicely packed and the leaves are very fresh. If you like Oolong tea I'm sure you'll be happy with this one. For me I need a bit more time with it to find the perfect amount and brewing time.

Oolong is a very wide category of tea that sits between green and black teas, and through skilled, labor-intensive processing, a tea-maker can coax anything from buttery florals to deep chocolate to roasted nuts to tropical fruit out of a single batch of leaves. It's done by carefully controlling both the oxidation and roast intensity of the leaf. Oolong is thus a premium, artisan produced tea, and one that It is unmatched in its breadth of flavour profiles and complexity of taste. Much like wine, expect to pay good money for a good oolong.The Alishan Jin Xuan that I tried is a green oolong, meaning that it has a low level of oxidation, and light roasting. The flavour profile of a green oolong is fresh and fragrant, and that would be a good description of this particular example.The tea comes beautifully presented, vacuum packed for freshness inside a double sealed bag. Unlike common black teas, some of which arrive as dust almost, this tea is whole leaf, tightly wrapped into small balls. A little is all you need - 2 grammes at most, and they expand greatly when steeped in boiling water. I like to use a traditional gaiwan when I make oolong, and I steep the leaves one cup at a time, for about two minutes before pouring off the liquor. Made like this, oolong will give you five or more cups of tea from the same leaves, and every cup will be slightly different as the flavour profile develops. This tea begins as a strong bright brew before developing more subtle buttery notes, becoming floral, with hints of jasmine and grass towards the end.So, those 75 portions of 2g can easily translate into five times that number of bowls of tea, and suddenly what you initially thought was expensive, really isn't at all, especially when you treat it in the way it deserves, and as a gourmet item. Seen in that light, this tea is very good value.CONCLUSIONWhen prepared properly this is a complex and delicious tea, best drunk mindfully and treated as a journey of discovery. It's well worth trying, and I rate it with five stars.