Received a sample of the Spring 2018 harvest with my latest order, thank you!
I hate to write another dissatisfied review about Mountain Stream Teas but I think perhaps this tea is stale like the Shanlinxi Milk Oolong. The Lightly Roasted Jade Oolong does have the roast going for it, though, keeping a quick decline in quality at bay.
Dry leaf smelled mostly toasty with light burnt sugar and maybe some floral and vegetal tones. Warming the leaf brought the floral to the forefront, turning perfumey in nature. Rinsed leaf smelled of toast, cookies and peach.
First steep was light, grassy and vaguely fruity with a hint of rancid butter. Medium bodied, light aroma, drying. After the second steep, the leaf smelled like almond oil, seaweed and cherry. Liquor tasted of generic fruitiness, osmanthus, soap in a bad way and dry grass. At least there was a decent peach aftertaste. Third steep was dominantly grassy with osmanthus-cherry-pine, a little butter and very light toastiness. The toastiness became more pronounced in the fourth steep and I ended the session on the sixth steep when the floral perfume became the dominant note.
Overall: unimpressed. Clunky, too toasty for a tea lightly roasted, hints of rancid butter and soap, floral perfume. Longer gongfu steep times bring the toastiness out in full force.
Flavors: Almond, Burnt Sugar, Butter, Cherry, Cookie, Dry Grass, Drying, Floral, Grass, Osmanthus, Peach, Perfume, Pine, Soap, Toasty, Vegetal
