Mountain Stream Teas

This red oolong has a great multi-faceted flavour with depth that’s fairly uncommon. It lacks a bit in terms of its aroma and, to a lesser extent, the mouthfeel. The thickness is pretty good, and there is a very nice bubbly quality to it, I just found it to not be coating enough to provide the best possible experience. It is possible, that you need a “mountain stream” water for that though ;)

It might be that my expectations for red oolongs are generallly skewed. I like them a lot, but since the first one I ever tried – the Longan Nectar by TS – was far better than any other I had later, I tend to rate them lower.

I spent a while this morning picking the last of the persimmons off my aunt’s tree… upwards of 80 fruits, not including the handful pecked by birds and the resident fat squirrel. The tree has produced at least 300 large, edible fruits over the past 4 weeks. I ate some persimmon cookies last night after having a garden salad with sweet chunks of persimmon in the mix. And I had a cup of this tea this evening. Maybe it’s wishful thinking but the fruit note in this tea might also include persimmon. Or just be persimmon. The fruity note is so smooth and out of reach, almost like I was stretching the picker basket all the way to the top of the persimmon tree to get the last few orange fruits.

I love a good red oolong and this is one of the best I’ve had. Highly oxidized, no roast and tastes very close to a black tea.

Fall 2017 harvest. Gone gaiwan: 3g, 60mL, 212F, flash rinse (these nuggets open up quickly), followed by 11 steeps.

This is a smooth, sweet tea that left me grasping too much to pick out distinct flavors so I’ll leave you with an impression. It’s like a dish of highly fragrant baked fruits, perhaps enclosed in a light layer of buttery pastry which becomes evident in later steeps. Seems like a mix of quince, apricot, peach, plum, faint dark cherry, studded with raisins and baked with a good sprinkling of brown sugar and golden syrup. Tones of baking spices and vanillin are also present. Later it turns a little tart, like a mix of orange and apricot, with some light mineral and mouth-watering qualities. There is a roasty note present throughout but it’s not a roasted tea and the flavor integrates well.

On top of all that, the tea is fragrant with perhaps fruit tree flower and rose notes. The liquor has a syrupy thickness that makes for a satisfying, loud swallow. It’s quite sweet and can get a little astringent in the throat but that transforms into a nice returning sweetness.

This red oolong’s fruitiness, floral quality and sweetness remind me of Yunnan Sourcing’s Big Snow Mountain Black Tea with Rose Flowers but this red oolong is calmer and more refined in the mouth like a smooth Taiwanese black and has a greater range in its fruity flavors. This tea also performs well western style. That, combined with its flavor profile, sweetness and not having to fiddle around with temperatures, inclines me to recommend this as a dessert tea for people wanting to branch out from flavored teas or those with added ingredients.

I finished this one off last night with a friend, and I never quite got the same notes no matter how consistent or different my brewing styles were. Gong fu cha in my shiboridashi yielded an influx of buttery corn bread notes accented by osmanthus and lilac, and then passed into a floral crescando of honeysuckle, osmanthus, lilac, and then ended with some faint honey hints and lime hints in the end. Western had more honeysuckle notes, with fresh greens, collards, and lime zest barely in the accents. There were times were it was more sweet like butterscotch, and times more vegetal. I’ve gotten more fresh notes like sugarcane and watercress with a very small amount of leaves western. Butter, lilac, honeysuckle, osmanthus, and lime zest reoccurred the most in flavor.

This was almost my favorite of the sampler because it was fairly versatile. I did occasionally have some astringency here and then reminiscent of a sheng because of how I brewed it, but it was definitely oolong and on the greener side. I’d recommend this for those looking to get a cheaper alternative for a snow pick. I’ve coveted others for a heavier price, and this one was different enough to stand out from previous Li Shan’s I’ve had. Rating for me personally as a result of the occasional astringency is between 88 and 92

After some resting/aging period, this tea is smoother, has slightly fuller body and better balance as well as a nice minerality in the aftertaste. Therefore, I upped the rating and will look forward to further changes over time. This tea is like the opposite of a daily drinker :D

This is a very unusual tea. It literally smells and tastes like fenugreek. If someone gave me this labelled as fenugreek tea, I wouldn’t doubt them for a second.

The dry leaf aroma is very weak and slightly vegetal. In the wet leaf I can smell just … fenugreek. And some milk in the background. First infusion was super light with almost no taste, but the later ones were ok. I could taste fenugreek, some bay leaves and gastric acid (no kidding!). It is somewhat savoury and bitter, and overall quite imbalanced. It has light body and the mouthfeel is powdery and drying.

All in all, not a very good tea, unless you are in love with fenugreek (which I actually quite like personally). I can’t deny that it’s a unique experience though.

Been down with a head cold for the past week which has impaired my sense of taste and smell and relegated me to mostly genmaicha. Sucks, but almost a given whenever the seasons change. In the meantime, I’ll be reviewing a few teas from the backlog.

This wild Taiwanese oolong varietal was the most interesting sounding tea from my Mountain Streams sampler pack but unfortunately it turned out to be a huge dud. I suspected it was stale as soon as I opened the pouch. There was a vague aroma of cooked turnips in the dry leaf and stir fried vegetables, corn, and spinach following a rinse. However the taste was musty and really stale. It had almost no flavor as if the tea had lost its freshness a long time ago. Don’t know what’s up with that since this was a vacuum sealed pouch.

I got this tea as a free sample with my order, thanks MST! I won’t rate it though, as it is noted as being past its shelf life on the website. Since it’s already late today, I opted for less leaf and western brewing.

The aroma is surprisingly weak and initially I don’t really get much pomelo fragrance, if any. There is a sea air like scent though. After second steep, I can definitely smell the pomelo blossoms. The taste is somewhat light and very floral with bitter finish. I get notes of spinach and pomelo, as well as citrus zest in general terms. The aftertaste is quite long and displays the pomelo fragrance nicely. It is savoury too, reminiscent of sourdough bread in fact. The body is light and mouthfeel drying, but not really astringent.

Unfortunately, I found that the way the tea made me feel was quite unpleasant. It quickly got into my head and upset my stomach, even though I had dinner not that long ago.

After the rinse, this smells heavenly – sweet, fruity and woody. Unfortunately, otherwise the tea didn’t really speak to me. My main issues are that the body is too light, and mouthfeel too powdery (a little banana like). The taste is ok, but neither too complex nor satisfying. It is actually quite citrusy and slightly roasted. I didn’t get much of the fruitiness or sweet floral honey notes.

I’ve had this before, pretty sure it was Fall 2017 harvest but I don’t think I mentioned it in my last note. I bought 25g of the Fall 2018 harvest with my last Mountain Stream Teas order.

The two harvest years are notably different. I’ll stay away from comparing the two since I didn’t take great notes for either tea.

I will say this didn’t catch my attention gongfu. It was heavier in brassy tones than I was expecting. Nice lingering retronasal florals. Performed well with boiling water and lower temperatures alike. I’d rate it 79. Daily drinker material.

What this tea does do well is stewing in my thermos at 190F for a few hours. The creamy floral aromas come to the forefront. The vegetal characteristics become a smooth undertone, mingling with a moderate brown sugar and sugarcane sweetness. Medium-bodied. Relaxed, heady floral energy and a perfect amount of caffeine for me with the chosen ratios. 2017 rating was 84. For 2018, I’d also say 84 based on my stewing method but I probably won’t buy the Fall Pick again.

Recently, I haven’t been paying as much attention to tasting as I’d like.

The dry leaf is very fragrant with notes of vanilla, cream, florals and vegetal. Warmed was vegetal, lemon, sugarcane, cream and floral. With the rinse, I could also pick up on some pine. Brewed gongfu in a clay teapot, I noticed how fragrant the tea was, just overall pleasant. I did not notice much change in flavors, with the dominant notes being florals, lemon, cream and a brown sugar sweetness with some vegetal on the swallow. And dang, what a swallow. The liquor was very smooth and thick with oil, only a little astringent.

Brewed western in a glass mason jar, it was even thicker, almost like the leaves were suspended in a thin gel matrix. However, brewed this way, the astringency became much more prominent. I also noticed the minerality of the tea more and some kind of stone fruit, maybe apricot? It’s not like the apricot of puer tea, though. On the second steep, there was a strong aftertaste of something like spaghetti squash. Not sure, but definitely squash in character.

Brewed grandpa in a thermos, both the oiliness and astringency really stuck around. My tongue was slick for a few hours with no food. Here the brown sugar and spice notes that Daylon R Thomas talked about were very prominent. I could see Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I think I liked it best brewed grandpa because of that quality.

I don’t think this is my favorite of the four Lishan I’ve tried in the past few months, but it is worth picking up a larger quantity and having better attention paid to it. I’d also like to try brewing it at a temperature lower than the recommended 100C to see if that will tame the astringency.

Spring 2019 harvest

I was torn about how to rate this tea. I love it cold brewed but not so much prepared hot. Cold, or rather ambient brewing, was able to extract the best flavor from this tea. It had this almost ethereal floral flavor of honeysuckle and perfumey lilacs, punctuated by occasional bursts of hyacinth, and sweet grass notes in the background. Tastes like drinking perfume but in the best, most delicious possible way. Easily a 95+ rating for the ambient brew.

However, this tea was not as successful hot steeped. It produced a somewhat uneven flavor, more savory than flowery. Vegetal with a lemongrass sharpness.

I’m sure there is a way to bring out those luscious floral notes by hot steeping but I couldn’t quite figure it out. That’s okay though, I’m content to ambient steep as long as this warm autumn weather we’re having continues.

This baozhong isn’t the most nuanced but it makes for a good cup of tea. Its got a lot of sweetness and a thick, syrupy mouthfeel. The usual baozhong lilacs are there as well as violets, gardenia, and a touch of melon. I steeped this 4 times in a gaiwan with steep times of 1m, 20s, 50s, and 2m.

I’ve switched back to gongfu’ing my baozhongs and I’m starting to enjoy them again. It’s richer and the flavors are clearer than grandpa steeping which is probably better suited for the more expensive competition grade teas.

I’m bumping up the rating as I’ve discovered its potential in Western and tumbler brewing. I’ve gotten headier florals like osmanthus and a little bit more pineapple in the finish, and more cucumber in the body. I was impressed with how much sweeter it was despite losing some viscosity. I used a simple french press, which I never press with actual tea giving me a huge cup, and then I finished it off today with a new tumbler with a removable cup and a large chamber for leaves. It was magical and sweet tonight, with the iris, osmanthus, and other floral hints ending with a sweet finish, again like cucumber or perhaps pineapple, but then better described at the moment like green grapes. It was refreshing to say the least, and thickened out in the next four rebrews reclaming its general floral fruity and fresh body combo. If you get this tea, it might be better suited for tumblers with open space or western sessions. It surprised me that I did not enjoy it as much gong fu, but I have a bit of a sweet craving tongue when it comes to my gaoshans.

I had a little bit of a hard time with this one. The first brew was gong fu a while back, and I got generally squashy and corn impressions with a body that was so thick that the body almost rounded about my mouth in a green bubble. I got some fruity hints, but they were not pronounced until the third steep. I got eight brews last time in my shiboridashi, but the flavor was overall green, floral, vegetal, creamy, and herbaceaous.

The same could be said for the grey today, as it was crispy cool and rainy. A tangerine scented buttery broth and florals named the first long steep of 36 sec, and more flavor was obvious in the second brew. I got something like stronger cilantro and weaker pineapple in flavor, and hyacinth in the faint scent. The third steep had a iris like smell, and the body was much the same, iris, and cilantro. I did a short 30 second next steep, and it was just light, green and vaguely citrusy. The next one was better at about a minute and a half, having more tangerine, pineapple, squash, and a continually fresh herbaceous character. The current steep is thinning out back to the cilantro pineapple combo I described earlier.

This tea can have a great mouthfeel and subtle character, but it has not yielded a particularly powerful cup yet and does not have the staying power of the winter pick or the fall. I have to admit that I need to experiment more with its parameters, but it has not wowed me yet. There were days that I thought it was better than the spring, and days like today that I thought the 2018 batch was better. It’s certainly a good tea, but it is on the subtler end and I think that Mountain Stream has better batches.

Gone western, 3g, 8oz, 195F, 2/3/4m. Spring 2017 harvest.

Dry leaf smells of wintergreen, hay and light earth. Golden hay-colored liquor smells sweet and herbal-licorice with some hay. Starts of lightly sweet-minty with hay, minerals and some tartness that reminds me of quince or fresh loquats off the tree at my old apartment. Very light aftertaste of licorice-mint and white peach. Faint malt shows up in the mouth second steep and the mintiness continues to grow and exudes from my chest and ears. It’s not strong enough for me to consider it menthol but it’s definitely noticeable. The tastes and light-medium bodied mouthfeel remain relatively unchanging throughout all three steeps. I’m sweating and have the impression of stepping out of a sauna into some Canadian polar air.

I previously brewed 4 grams and the sweet, herbal-licorice of the aroma became pronounced in taste, along with more of an earthy flavor.

I really enjoy ruby whites but this is pretty expensive and I fight buying more.

Meh, this tasted like a generic Chinese green with soup/broth like characteristics. Its thin, spindly leaves closely resemble a mao feng in appearance and also in the way it steeps. Dry leaf has an incense like aroma. I detected notes of stir fried bok choy, okra, and wood. The wet leaf smelled medicinal and camphor like. This one steeps slower than a typical green tea. It needs hotter water and longer steeping times otherwise it tastes like hot water. After some experimentation, I settled on 190 F and 2.5 minutes. Despite the long steep the flavor was fairly subtle. The first steep produced an almost colorless liquor, vegetable broth like taste with a light sweetness. On the second steep I bumped up the temperature to 200 F and doubled the steep time. This infusion brought out more vegetal character from the tea including notes of zucchini, artichoke, and okra.

Despite the name, there’s little resemblance to a Jin Xuan oolong nor is there any milkiness to the tea. I like my greens grassy and robust. The just wasn’t to my taste and not unique or interesting in flavor.

I’ve had this one for a while and I could not decide how to write about it. I am very happy with it, but I’ll admit that I liked the others a hair more in the sampler.

Lucky Me hit the notes pretty hard western. It starts out vegetal, fresh, sunny and springy like a Mao Feng, and gets fruitier in the subsequent steeps. My style was a little longer, using 2.5 min in the first steep and 5 grams for 10 fluid oz. The first steep was lemony, but very fresh like corn (somewhat), green beans and squash with a rounded finish. Second steep at 3.5 min was more lemony with some florals in the smell. Actually, more was going on in the smell. Orange blossom, clover, and creamy lilac hints were popping up. The body was still green, but more juicy with a drier finish. Third was more citrusy and fuller in the mouthfeel. I’d say it was somewhat viscous, but creamy more than anything else without too much thickness. It does not coat your throat like the Snow Pick or the Fall one does, but it does have honey notes just before the finish. I’ll add more about what I get western later.

As for gong fu in my 20, 15, 20, 35….method , I personally get more pronounced florals using this style, namely more lilac and honeysuckle notes in steeps two and three. The body is otherwise thinner, but still very sunny, yellow and clean with the same pleasantly dry finish.

This tea was not as pronounced as its counterparts from Mountain Tea, or nearly as powerful as Tillerman’s Lishans, but it is very easy to drink for a decent price. It is a little bit too pricy for the taste since I can get a similar or better profile for cheaper in another Li Shan or even a Four Seasons. That is not to say it was a mediocre tea, just something for an above average daily drinker…at least it will be in my possession. I’d recommend checking out the other seasons in the sampler, namely the Fall. On the other hand, this is great for people who like green teas, and it does have the notes I like in my greens anyway.

I normally don’t like orange flavoring in tea but is this is a very nice blend as far as flavored teas go. While it does have a citrus kitchen cleaner like smell, the floral orange taste is subtle and natural. The tea starts off citrusy and slight sour before transitioning to an orange blossom honey like sweetness. It reminds me of an earl grey with its bergamot like flavor and dried orange flowers sprinkled throughout the tea leaves. I grandpa steeped this using slightly less than a gram of tea in an 8 oz glass.

Spring 2019 harvest.

This was kind of a ho-hum tea. Thin-bodied and mostly vegetal with some milkiness and hints of osmanthus and pear. Mild aromas of sweet cream, oranges, and flowers in the wet leaf.

I initially brewed it following Mountain Stream Tea’s instructions which call for boiling water. The tea had some dryness and peaked early, around the 4th steep. Dropping the temperature down to the 185-190 F range got me more steeps but also made the tea taste like hot water.

I tried brewing this multiple different ways including western and cold brew but this just seemed to lack any distinctive flavor.

Second tea from my Mountain Stream Teas sampler. This was a lighter Li Shan than I’ve had before. It’s described as having “clear beginnings to a sweet and sour stone fruit finish.” Tasting it, there is indeed a nice interplay of green apple tartness and sweeter, fruity notes. Slight herbaceous notes kick in in the finish. This tea is less flowery than your typical high mountain oolong. The florals appeared briefly around the 3rd steeping but faded rather quickly to vegetal notes.

It began like a green tea, peaked quickly and then flattened out as it settled back into a green tea. It didn’t have the viscous body nor the rich mouthfeel I’ve come to expect from this kind of tea. There were lots of enticing smells coming from it – custard cream, tangerine, clover honey, etc – but unfortunately very little of it came through in the taste. Overall, a passable Li Shan but far from extraordinary.

It’s been a while, and I do have a few back logs for this company. This was given as a generous sample, and thank you!

I’ve had this kind of tea a few times before, and it’s name gives you what you should expect: a viscous smooth and honeyed black tea. It is on the softer side of blacks having a slight chocolate note followed by a dry middle to a sticky, honey ending. Earlier notes had some minerals in the thick texture, and some passionfruit hints going into the honey notes. I’d say there is a little bit of fruitiness to the tea, but since it has a honey fragrance, the honey note can always have a fructose like profile so fruitiness is but an akin descriptor. The earlier notes also were a little bit bittersweet; however, I would not describe the tea as astringent of fundamentally bitter. Middle notes were a little bit more malty, albeit light. Some raisin and wood hints, but something like apricot or plum in steeps four and five. And yes, I did this gong fu beginning 30, 45, 50, 60, 80 with 190 F water.

I would recommend this tea as an easy goer for those who like lighter blacks or want to try honey profiled teas as this one is typical. It is also a decent example of Taiwanese blacks since they are equally viscous and malty, and this does have the benefit of having a nice aroma when brewing. I might not reach for this in the future only due to my oolong preference, but I would otherwise not say no to this tea if offered. The price is also decent at $28 for 100 grams.

I was really excited when I saw this tea online. TTC once carried a pomelo flower scented oolong that was out of this world good. It’s still one of my top 10 Taiwanese oolongs of all time. I was hoping this could match the TTC tea but sadly it pales in comparison. The pomelo fragrance is just barely there and tastes like it faded a long time ago. Some unexpected bitterness was encountered when cold brewed and grandpa steeped. It was a little better when gongfued but still had a very faint pomelo flavor. The underlying Jin Xuan is thin-bodied and doesn’t contribute much to taste either.

I just saw that this tea was discounted on Mountain Stream’s website with a note explaining that it was now past its shelf life. That’s a little surprising considering it was harvested only a few months and sealed but would explain my experience. I do appreciate the vendor’s honesty though. May consider trying it again in the future if I can get my hands on a fresh batch.

Received as a freebie with my order, thanks!

I have to preface this review by stating I… don’t really care for honey blacks. :$

Real-time review. I’m preparing this according to MST’s gong fu guidelines. About 4.5 g, 100mL, 195F, steeps of 30/45/60/+5-10.

MST be throwing me off. Nothing says this is roasted but that’s what I taste.

Dry leaf smells like, well, imagine Honeycomb cereal. Rinsed leaf scent is hard to pick out because it seems perfumey above all else but hiding in there is roast, wood, and a mix of citrus-red cherry-rose. The brew starts out very light in the first steep and gets successively stronger in aroma, taste and texture. It moves from light roast and sweet into a progressively darker but light-bodied liquor with notes of citrus-cherry-honey. The light roast flavor underpins it all. It’s a bright tasting tea considering it tastes roasted, with a long and brilliant citrus and honey aftertaste. The bottom of the cup is retaining a scent of honeycomb. There’s an incredible body buzz that comes with it, too. I feel like I’m puddling, spreading out, then sucking parts of myself back in. Imagine the movement of an amoeba. A grinning tea-stoned amoebaaaah.

Oof. Don’t drink this before a work meeting or a test. I can’t even finish my review.

Edit: Got 6 steeps by letting the last one sit for 5+ minutes. There’s also a very strong tangerine zest feeling throughout my whole mouth. Added a rating.