What-Cha's Taiwan 2003 Aged Green Heart Oolong

What-Cha's Description
An aged Oolong dating from 2003, possessing a deep and complex taste of walnut shell and ripe fruit, which evolves with each steep.

My thoughts
Let me preface this review with a disclaimer: this is my all-time favorite tea, so if I begin babbling incoherently halfway through this post, just bear with me and I'll try to pull it together by the end.

While my overall favorite class of oolongs tends to lean towards the heavier roasted and/or medium oxidized family, this one is such a unique standout that it has virtually no competition. This one falls into the odd category of a light-medium roasted, unoxidized oolong (well, oxidized enough to not be a green tea anyway). I first tried this tea nearly a year ago on a whim with an early What-Cha order, and knew immediately I had found a winner. I'm not one to stock up on a single tea (I rarely have more than 50g of anything that isn't a puerh cake), but I'm currently sitting on roughly half a pound of this one.

Dry leaves - Rolled in the traditional Taiwanese way, the leaves have a deep bronze sheen with forest green undertones. They look a lot more roasted than the actually are. I don't know if that's a product of 12 years of age or what, but it certainly looks like it'd be a much darker oolong than it is. The aroma is where this tea begins to take a step above the rest: a wonderful blend of dried herbs, overripe stonefruit, a hint of malt, and deep, rich florals all mingle together to create some of the most unique smelling tea leaves I've ever encountered.

Brewing parameters - 200F, 20s first, 5s second, +5s after. A longer steep at first to wake the leaves up, then short gongfu style steeps after that.

Tasting notes - Overripe stonefruit, black walnut, dried herbs, floral, honey, wheat, minerality

This incredible tea starts out with a rich, full flavor of way overripe fruit. I can't really pin down which fruits in particular, but it makes me think something from the drupe family. Apricot maybe? Or cherries. Maybe strawberries. Ok, those aren't a stonefruit, but whatever. The fruitiness is accompanied by the flavor of dried herbs, most akin to basil and oregano I think, followed closely by a honey sweetness and the distinct flavor of black walnuts. It will take you a few cups to really catch everything that is going on in this tea, because the flavor profile is so complex.

With each progressive steep, the profile changes. I mean, this is true of most teas, but the difference between steeps here is remarkable. As time goes on, the herbal flavor slowly mellows as the walnutty flavor intensifies. The fruitiness mostly stays the same, however, In later steeps, a sweet florality starts to take hold, alongside a mild taste of wheat. Not so much malty, more like a baked bread kind of flavor. Even a trace of minerality pops up in the later steeps, which is fairly unusual for a Taiwanese tea.

As amazing as this tea is, I think the most unique aspect of it is the incredibly long-lasting aftertaste. I've talked about teas here that have a nice aftertaste, but none of them can even touch what this tea brings to the table. The flavor is one of an intense peach blossom and honey, and will hang around in the back of the mouth for nearly an hour after you finish the cup. I really do mean an hour. It's pretty impressive, this tea's staying power.

There, did I make it through without going completely incoherent? If the above is mostly unreadable, here's the TL;DR: buy this tea right now.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here, and from Mountain Tea here.

Mountain Tea's Amber Oolong

Mountain Tea's Description
Why roast tea? A masterful roast imparts complexity to already quality leaf. The general rule of thumb is that firing enhances flavor rather than adding it. Amber Oolong is a friendly introduction into the world of roasted oolong.

My thoughts
This is a medium roasted oolong of the Jin Xuan variety. Jin Xuan oolongs are always good, but roasting them can bring them to a whole new level. Case in point, this beauty grown by Mountain Tea in the Wushe Mountains in Nantou, Taiwan. This was just one of those teas that I knew I would like even before I ever tried it.

Dry leaf - The leaves are rolled in the standard Taiwanese way. The aroma is reminiscent of a bakery: wheat, sugar, baking spices, it's a wonderful smell. I'm not sure if I get the bananas as Mountain Tea describes, but it's a great aroma nonetheless. There is very little of the smoky/roasty aroma that many roasted oolongs have, which tells me that this tea has had enough time to mellow out since it was last roasted. Also a plus.

Brewing parameters - 200F, 60s first, +15s after. Also a great candidate for gongfu style.

Tasting notes - Brown sugar, toasted wheat, nutmeg, toffee, overripe peaches, caramel, rum, pecans

The aroma of the dry leaves intensified by a million as soon as the water hit the leaves. The entire room smells of a dessert bakery. It reminds me a lot of monkey bread or pecan pie. There are not many teas that can make me hungry, but this is one of them. It just smells so delicious! The first sip brings about notes of brown sugar, toffee, and toasted wheat, which quickly changes into caramel, then very juicy overripe peaches, then to spiced rum finish. This tea has a lot going on, it's almost difficult to keep track of it all. Again, there is very little of the roasted taste I expected initially.

Steeps 2-4 mellowed out somewhat, the fruity aspect becoming more prominent while the toffee and rum components becoming less. There is just a hint of roasted pecans showing its face through the sugary and spicy fusion. It's more refined than the initial steep, but no less delicious.

Steeps 5-8 are dominated by the toasted wheat attribute, quickly followed by mild peaches and caramel. The sweetness has subdued, but it's still a wonderful brew.

In the interest of full disclosure, I made this for a friend a couple weeks ago, and she said it smelled like bong water. I'm not a stoner myself, so I wouldn't know (I still think it smells like pecan pie), but some of you might agree. For what it's worth, she did love the tea itself, despite her thoughts on the aroma.

If you're looking for a dessert tea that isn't chocolatey in any way, look no further than this one. It's certainly unique in the fact that it's like a bakery in liquid form. I've had no other teas that can claim that attribute.

You can buy this tea directly from Mountain Tea here, and also from What-Cha here.

Mountain Tea's Light Roast Sumatra Oolong

Mountain Tea's Description
Grown in the mineral rich, volcanic soils of Sumatra, this tea has a unique aroma and flavor of passion fruit. After a quick 30 hour roast, we were able to bring about notes of roasted chestnuts and honey.

My thoughts
A couple months back, I ordered a handful of different oolongs from Mountain Tea. Mostly medium- and dark-roast stuff, but this one  intrigued me, so I bought a couple ounces. Nearly all of Mountain Tea's stuff is grown in their gardens in Nantou, Taiwan, however this one being grown in the big Indonesian island of Sumatra makes it somewhat of an outlier. Also having a very short roast time makes it a bit unusual too, at least within my tea stash. Once I got the teas (within 48 hours of ordering. Seriously, their shipping is fast), this one was sort of forgotten behind the medium-roast dong dings and dark-roast tieguanyins. I recently rediscovered it, and I love what I found.

Dry leaves - The forest green leaves are rolled in the normal oolong way. The aroma is very unique; I'm still having trouble pinning down what it is I'm smelling. Vegetal/herbal base, fruity hints, floral undertones, with just a tinge of roastiness. It's different than what I was expecting, though honestly I don't know what it was that I was expecting. It smells awesome, that's for sure.

Brewing parameters - 190F, 60s first, +15s after. These tend to be my go-to numbers for most lighter rolled oolongs, going a bit warmer for darker roasts.

Tasting notes - Roasted chestnuts/almonds, floral, honey, passion fruit

Wow, ok. This is a good one. The aroma of the brew is a thick, sweet, honey/floral blend. If I had to pick specific florality (yes it's a word), I'd say rose and lily-of-the-valley, mixed with wildflower honey, and just a touch of roastiness to set this apart from a green oolong.

The taste of the broth itself is no less amazing. It starts off quite similar to the aroma, but quickly turns to a wonderful juicy fruitiness that I guess is the passion fruit that MT claims. To be honest, the only passion fruit I've ever had is the Chobani yogurt flavor, and this tastes fairly similar to that, so I'm gonna say that passion fruit is accurate. The whole shebang is covered by a mild roasted chestnut taste from start to finish. I can also detect hints of overripe peaches in the finish and lingering aftertaste.

One thing that really stood out to me with this tea is that it makes my mouth water immediately after the sip. I've never had a tea that actually, literally made me salivate. I can typically get 7-8 steeps from these leaves before they give out, with steeps 3-5 being my favorite of the bunch.

The complexity that this tea offers really makes it a standout in my stash. It could actually compete with the 2003 Aged Green Heart Oolong that Mountain Tea (and also What-Cha) offers, which is unquestionably the best tea I've ever had in my life, but that's another review for another time.

You can buy this tea from Mountain Tea, here: http://mountaintea.com/collections/roasted-oolong/products/light-roast-sumatra-oolong