Four Taiwan Blacks from Mountain Stream Teas

Mountain Stream Teas is a new guy on the block, specializing in high quality Taiwanese teas.  Their selection of reasonably priced Taiwan black teas piqued my interest, so when I saw that they had a sale I jumped on a small amount of each.  I ordered 25g of the four blacks: Old Tree Assamica, Ruby 18 Black, Honey Fragrance Black, and Old Master Black.

While I drink a lot of black tea in general, I’ve only experienced a handful of Taiwanese blacks before.  My experience with them has been very positive, but they tend to be pricey, so I often avoid buying them.  Mountain Stream’s are quite reasonable, so we’ll see how they fare.

 

For this tasting I weighed out four grams of each tea into 60mL gaiwans.  The first tea is the Old Tree Assamica black. This tea purportedly comes from a 50+ year old garden of Assamica varietal bushes.

The leaves are big and loosely twisty, they almost have the volume of a white tea.  They smell of raisins and dried figs.

The tea brews a gold-orange, pretty light for a black tea.  It tastes lightly sweet with notes of dried apricots, malt, and perhaps a hint of chocolate.  The taste is comparable to certain Yunnan blacks that I’ve had, maybe even some Assams, but more delicate.  The mouthfeel is thick and oily, a good quality that I don’t often find in blacks. Later steeps reveal a lightly floral aroma and a citrus note comes to the forefront. Very good tea that I wouldn’t hesitate to reorder.

The next tea is the Ruby 18 black. Ruby 18 is hybrid variety of Assamica and a native Taiwanese tea varietal.  Developed in the 90’s, it is known for a unique menthol/licorice flavor.

The leaves a much smaller than the those of the Old Tree Assamica, tightly wrapped deep brown curls.  The aroma is very light, but I smell a subtle sweetness.

The tea brews a bright orange, a shade darker than the last tea.  The taste is both sweet and savory.  It has that classic black tea maltiness, but also strong notes of anise and fresh mint leaf.  The mouthfeel is brothy but clean.  It’s a very unique and complex tea, but I’m personally just not that into the flavors that it presents.

The next tea is the Honey Aroma black.  The tea Jin Xuan varietal leaves used in making this tea were allowed to be bitten by green leafhoppers before picking, which creates a response in the plant greatly increasing the sweetness.

The leaves are small, dark curls with golden tips similar to a black bi luo chun.  The have a lightly sweet bready/yeasty aroma.

The tea brews a medium orange, darker than previous teas.  Tasting the tea, it has a strong sticky sweetness like honey and tropical fruits.  It’s slightly medicinal and malty, and reminds me a bit of fall leaves.  It definitely has similarities to Oriental Beauty/Bai Hao oolong, which is also bug bitten.  This is a very tasty tea that I think would be a great choice to impress non-teadrinkers.

The last tea for today is the Old Master black, a Jin Xuan varietal black said to be made by a long time tea master. Currently sold out on the site, but they say the 2018 harvest should be ready in June.

The leaves are very large and loose like the Assamica Old Tree, and they have a sultry, earthy aroma of musk and pumpernickel bread.  Mmmmmmm.

The tea brews very light for a black, yellow-gold.  Like the Ruby 18 it is savory sweet, but also earthy.  This is a very smooth and complex brew with notes of dark grains, citrus, basil, wet earth, and fresh mint.  While not as “honeyed” as the Honey Aroma, it is still quite sweet. It has a big, marshmallow-like mouthfeel, and the taste lingers on in the mouth long after drinking.  On the website they describe the tea as “unpolished”, and I think that is a good descriptor.  You could also say it tastes very “natural” or “rustic.”

Gongfu fishy likes his leaves.

While all four were very good teas, I think I chose the best for last.  The Old Master black was hands down my favorite of the session.  I would definitely recommend Mountain Stream Teas if you are looking for Taiwanese blacks.

Taiwan Oolongs From Leafy Green Tea

Recently I was contacted by Leafy Green Teas, a budding new company with a small, curated collection of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese teas.  They kindly offered samples for review and they arrived in a nicely packaged box with a thank you note and brewing guidelines, which I assume they send with all orders.

While I suppose that a new tea drinker might be glad to have one, personally I find brewing charts/infographics like these to be a bit silly.  The correct temperature for brewing is pretty subjective (I find most of the temps in Leafy Green’s to be pretty low) and the brewing time doesn’t mean much without a leaf to water ratio. Anyways, the packaging was quite nice, and they used this straw-like stuff instead of of bubblewrap, which I haven’t seen before from a tea company and I think it’s a nice touch.

Ali Shan Jin Xuan

I decided to go for the Ali Shan Jin Xuan first. Taiwan jade/high mountain style oolongs were my first tea love, though these days I prefer roasted oolongs, so I thought I’d save the Dong Ding for later. I used the whole sample, a little over 8g, into my 120mL gaiwan. Maybe a bit much, but what can I say, go big or go home. 🙂

The dry leaf smells sweet, fresh, and slightly vegetal. I heat my kettle to 195F, the suggested temperature on their website, as opposed to the 176F listed on the brewing sheet. I give it a quick rinse and allow the leaves a few minutes to open up. The tea brews a nice light yellow green color and smells like spring.

This is a very refreshing tea that tastes of cream, kale, and wildflowers with a light sweetness. Light minerality. The sweetness and floral note linger in the mouth and cheeks for quite a while. The sweetness is very “green”, like biting into a juicy plant.

Very tasty tea! It’s been a while since I’ve had a good, fresh Taiwan jade oolong, and this is certainly one. Not super complex, but very refreshing and enjoyable, even for someone (me) who prefers there oolongs more roasted.

Dong Ding Light Roast

The dry leaf appears (big surprise) lightly roasted and smells of brown sugar and baked bread.  Again I use the whole sample, this time nearly 10g in my 120mL gaiwan.

It brews a light-medium yellow, but with no hint of green in the liquer like in the Jin Xuan. The flavor is creamy with notes of brown sugar, dry wood, candied citrus, and incense alongside greener vegetable flavors.

This is some really good stuff! It doesn’t strike me as being typical of Dong Ding, more like a cross between Dong Ding and a high mountain jade oolong. The roast is subtle and adds complexity without taking away from the green, “natural” character of the tea. The Jin Xuan was pretty good, but this one is great gets a hearty recommendation from me.

Overall I enjoyed both teas from Leafy Green and thank them for the samples! I look forward to seeing their company grow.