Taiwan Sourcing

A few weeks ago I placed my first order with Taiwan Sourcing and was nervous it would take months to get here as there is a country-wide postal strike currently ongoing in Canada. To my pleasant surprise it arrived yesterday and it couldn’t have come at a better time because I am running extremely low on tea. Praise the tea gods!!!

For this session I used a 180ml gaiwan using 10g, one initial 10 second wash followed by a 10 second brew, increasing by 10 to 20 seconds for each additional infusion.
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Mmmmmmmmm. Mm. This is way more delicious than I thought it would be. I wanted to try some teas high in GABA for a few different health reasons and was expecting the value to be in the medicinal effects rather than the taste and experience. Clearly this tea provides both, and it’s absolutely glorious.

As described by TS themselves, this tea has a very strong sweet potato flavour. It actually tastes remarkably close to a classic holiday dish my family loves which is a sweet potato and marshmallow casserole (mashed potato on the bottom, baked marshmallows on top). After that first impression though the sweetness tastes less sugary and more of wildflower honey which makes sense given this is blended with osmanthus flowers. The liquor is a lovely shade of yellow, almost peach-like, and quite thin compared with some other oolongs I’ve tried. There is just absolutely no astringency, it’s smooth, and almost a bit cooling down the throat like mint in terms of sensation.

Later infusions of this tea bring out more savoury notes, still heavy on the sweet potato though. Remarkably there is a general pumpkin spice flavour towards the end, maybe cinammon and cloves or something. The overall taste is extremely clean with loads of depth and layers.

I can’t yet attest to the effects of the GABA as I imaging it takes a few days or weeks to build up in your system to have long lasting effects, but I will say this cuppa makes me incredibly relaxed, sociable, and feeling good. Highly recommend trying it!

How could I resist another bug-bitten green oolong, especially when the name suggested it’d be fruity? Of course, this made it into my cart in 2017. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The wet leaf aroma is of mandarin oranges and flowers. The first steep has notes of flowers (maybe lilac or osmanthus), cream, grass, and a hint of orange, but nowhere near what appears in the aroma. Steep two gets slightly more astringent, but also creamier and more floral, in a lilac/sweet pea way that weirdly reminds me of baozhong. The orange is still really subtle and mixes with grass in the aftertaste. The next few rounds highlight the orange a bit more before acquiring spinach and vegetal flavours around the sixth steep.

At its best, this tea tastes like a floral mandarin orange creamsicle, but I don’t think I have the brewing parameters quite right. I might raise the temperature in my final session to see if it brings out the orange.

Another sample courtesy of Togo :)

I didn’t quite know what to do with this tea since I had never had a balled green tea (unless I count gunpowder green) but I think I did ok!

Teapot time :) 5g, 100mL, 195F dropped to 175F for the third+ steeps, 10s rinse followed by 9 steeps at 10/15/20/25/30/40/50/60/75s.

It took me forever to place the dry leaf smell, which wasn’t terribly complex but it was very fragrant – Grape Nuts cereal with something green vegetal and a hint of honey. Some tanginess tickled my nose when I sniffed the warm leaf. The rinse carried the same notes of Grape Nuts, tang and vegetal.

In the first steep, the tea had a very light grainy aroma. I could taste Grape Nuts and citron with a lingering finish of lemon, faint cream, grass and wheat. The liquor was noticeably drying and remained so throughout the session. The tastes were the same for a few more steeps, with the liquor thickening up and producing a really pleasant tart aftertaste. Mid-session turned oily and the grass taste turned vegetal, similar to spinach. At one point, I picked up on unplaced fruit and florals in the aftertaste and an unexpected strong returning sweetness. After this, the tea rode out with it’s oiliness, tartness, and astringency and fading tastes of Grape Nuts and butter. I ended the session at the ninth steep due to the astringency.

Overall, I really enjoyed the flavor profile though the astringency makes a snack a requirement. It didn’t really pull me in but the session was still very enjoyable. I was pleased that this tea didn’t have any of the funk I’ve experienced in other GABA teas. When I’m ready to cry my money away at Taiwan Sourcing, I’ll be looking to try a more recent harvest of this tea.

Filtered Santa Monica tap water just off the boil throughout. Poured from a pear-shaped purple clay tea-pot into a glass cha hai, and served in a porcelain (“peony”) cup.

The large, moderately compressed rolled leaves are a beautiful and mysterious shade of dark purple and yield a distinctive, slightly odd vegetal/weed aroma when wet.

First steep at 45 seconds, and subsequent steeps at around 20 – 30 seconds.

Atomic tangerine liquor (with a drop of carmine when pushed); toasty aromatics with hints of dragon beans and old flat-bed pickups driving down a dusty rural road; gentle, slightly sweet, mineral-kissed palate entry with roast sweet potato skins and chestnuts leading into a smooth harmonious finish. No bitterness, char, or astringency. Creamy mouth-feel. The character remains much the same over a long session, with a floral quality emerging by the fifth infusion or so. By the seventh infusion, I’m feeling the impact of the caffeine more than the GABA.

Even though this tea is already 1 and a half years old, I only opened the vacuum sealed package a few days ago. Right after opening the pack I am hit with a sweet aromas of grass, honey, pear and cookies, which is a little strange since there is no roasting process here. After the wash, the wet leaves also give off some sweet potato smell, which is fairly standard for GABA teas.

The body is too light for my liking though. And when I tried a more aggressive steep, I got a fairly astringent brew. This is often a problem I have with green teas, the window between a very light body and strong astringency either isn’t there or is too narrow. Nevertheless, the character of this tea is kind of what you would expect from a Jin Xuan GABA enhanced tea. It is not too milky, but you get it there. Other notes are mostly grassy and sour ones with just a hint of floral and sweet tones in the aftertaste.

Overall, it is quite a unique tea, although not surprising given the description. I like its scent a lot, as well as the GABA effects which are stronger for me in TS offerings than other GABA teas I have tried. However, since the taste and texture didn’t align with my preferences, I cannot really recommend it. I can definitely imagine other people liking this more than I did though.

It’s been almost a year since I last had this tea. I was hoping the roast settles in the meantime, and to a reasonable extent, that has happened. It is definitely more interesting now, but I still don’t find it very complex.

The dry leaf aroma is fruity and vegetal with notes of cookies and fruit tree flowers. Only a light roastiness appears after the rinse. The taste is bitter and tangy with flavours such as burnt bread, butter, charcoal, star anise, and plant stems. There is a similar character to the long-lasting aftertaste, which is further more sweet, woody and fruity. Still the most memorable aspect is the mouthfeel though, which is very mouth-watering and active. It has a buttery, tingling, viscous, and astringent character, without being too drying.

A mouth-watering medium bodied oolong with silky and slightly powdery texture. Both the smell and the taste are dominated by roasted notes, a bit too much for my liking personally. The smell is very crisp, with some hints of cookies and figs. As for the taste, I didn’t find it overly complex. It is somewhat sweet and buttery, with a nice balanced & nutty aftertaste.

As of now, I would prefer the lighter roaster classical Dong Ding from Taiwan Sourcing. I am interested to see how this one will develop though, it surely has some potential.

What a lovely experience drinking a tea like this is! The smell is strong with prominent notes of banana and some spruce. I like the taste too, which is also somewhat fruity. I can taste cooked apple, grapes and a bit of egg (shells?) in the background. The aftertaste is slightly bitter and reminiscent of pine tree.

Where this tea got me though is the mouthfeel. It is so incredibly thick and velvety from the very first infusion! If you add the effect of the tea on your sensory perceptions, which is very enjoyable by itself, what you get is one of the best teas I have tried!

By the way, listening to some cool music should absolutely be part of every session with a tea like this.

P.S. Oh, and one more thing. This tea can really make you sweat if you drink fast, at least that’s what happened to me. It seems to be more warming than any other tea I’ve has thus far.

P.S. 2: I have just made a final infusion by simmering the leaves for about 30 minutes. It is quite different from all the other ones, being more nutty, sweet and a little bit shou-like (both in taste and colour). Very nice I must say.

This tea has had a very interesting progression. I only had 25g of it that I finished today, but I think it aged in a very interesting way, so I may try to get a decent amount of a newer version for a little black tea aging experiment.

Some extra notes from today’s session:

The dry leaves have a strong fruity smell, mostly reminiscent of apricots. In the wet leaves, I get a lot of the “barrel aged” aroma, while the empty cup smells mostly of honey, flowers and dry grass.

I decided to crush some of the leaves instead of using longer steeps. As a result, the brew is smoother and thicker without getting too rough around the edges. The bitterness stays with you in the aftertaste, which is interesting, it takes a long time until it transforms. Also, it somehow reminds me of the bitterness found in some raw pu-erh – like the YS Dehong Ye Sheng Cha for example.

When I came home today, I was craving some raw pu-erh, but in the end I decided for this one and it was a good choice. In some strange way, its profile is not too distant from an aged sheng, definitely not your standard black tea. I have to increase the rating, because this session I enjoyed it more than the last time.

This is a very robust, balanced and fragrant tea, it ticks all the boxes of a good large leaf black tea. The body is medium, so I like to push the steeping time a bit. That brings out a bit more of the bitterness, which I enjoy, but even lighter brews are delicious. I get reminded of some Assam teas as well as Yunnan teas from the Ye Sheng varietal. The smell is sweet and floral and the aftertaste is significantly protracted.

At first, the smell seems similar to Japanese green teas, but then I notice an a floral & sweet note, a bit like honey, but not quite. In fact, it reminds me of breckland thyme to a large extent. The taste is fairly sweet and mild with only a hint of umami. I didn’t find any bitterness and only very little astringency from the third steep onwards. Next time, I can maybe use hotter water to see how the tea reacts. The mouthfeel is velvety and body is medium for a green tea.

Overall, it reminds me of some early spring chinese green teas I have had, but I like this one more because of its stronger flavour and thicker body.

Prepared it with less water and only a minute steep in comparison to last time. The rating isn’t “worse” I think it’s just a little more strict than my last rating.

A good flavor, it’s very dark but still is malty-sweet.

Drinking this again and I have to say I am even more impressed than last time, especially in terms of the taste, which I actually enjoy as well. And as I mentioned before, the floral aroma is just incredible, like the cha qi, which put me in a very pleasant state of mind.

What a wonderful smell this tea possesses. It is very floral and sweet, reminiscent of some high quality honey.

The liquor is medium to full bodied with oily and slightly drying mouthfeel, which becomes minty and cooling afterwards. It is a very refreshing tea to drink and the taste is fairly complex. It took me a while to appreciate it though, at first I wasn’t very fond of it. There are some vegetal, buttery, floral and astringent notes, but nothing really stands out. The aftertaste transforms the sensation into somewhat fruity, sweet direction and lasts for a very long time.

One other thing to mention is a very noticeable and calming cha qi, probably my favourite among the oolong teas I have tried.

P.S. Originally I was going to rate it around 75, but with the aftertaste and cha qi kicking in, I had to reconsider the rating and change it significantly.

This is Winter 2017 harvest. The dry leaf has a sweet, pungent, and intoxicating aroma of flowers. In the preheated gaiwan a sort of fruity, buttery aroma joins the flowers. The taste is much like the aroma: very floral, fruity, citrusy (like lemon meringue pie or lemon cookies). Thick, buttery, and lubricating mouthfeel with a long lasting aftertaste (of lemon pie). This tea was amazing, probably the best oolong I’ve ever had, but I feel like just knowing how expensive it was made me keep thinking: “I paid for the name of the mountain, not the tea”. Which is probably true, but I’m happy to be able to experience such a rare gem in the world of high mountain tea.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhumhB5hCHk/

While nothing much stands out as remarkable about this tea, it was one of those I constantly reached for, and I finished off my supply in near record time. The most impressive thing about it was the leaf quality; after they unfurled, I isolated some of the largest and most intact leaves I have ever encountered in an oolong. All in all, this is a good quality, aesthetically pleasing green oolong, and it should be approachable for drinkers of all stripes.

Spring 2017 harvest. I really love the look and colors of these leaves. It has a nice spiced herb aroma that permeates from the leaves, and a – what I’ve come to understand, but unable to put it into words, other than to say – classic Taiwanese tea character. It took awhile to get the parameters right, but once I did, I had a great experience: raw, pollen heavy, honey; sweet, with a thick mouthfeel; slightly floral at the base with notes of fruit.

This is an incredibly smooth tea, very floral with some subtle sweetness. There is absolutely no bitterness and only a very little astringency, but the mouthfeel is slightly drying and, interestingly, also mouth-watering.

Out of the oolongs I have tried, this one is definitely the closest to Darjeelings. It can also yield a lot of tea as long as you keep the early steeps short enough. Today I did 10 infusions giving 1l of tea from 5g of leafs.