MEM Tea does online tea sales, wholesale, and has a physical tea shop in North Cambridge, MA. MEM Tea sells unflavored tea, but they also carry a number of flavoured black and herbal teas. I homed in on their oolongs today, but they have many interesting options. Let’s try two of their oolongs today.
Alishan Oolong from MEM Tea
MEM Tea’s Alishan Oolong is from Nantou, Taiwan.
I’m going to do gongfu style for oolong then bowl style after. For gongfu style, I used 1 gram of leaf per 15 ml of vessel sizes, flash steeped in boiling water. The hot wet leaf smells buttery and floral.
First and Second Infusion: MEM Tea’s Alishan is sweetly crisp with a buttery thick body. The floral is soft and gently tulip. Some sips have a buttered caramel flavour over floral, especially in the second infusion. Actually, the second infusion I could have sworn I was drinking a milk oolong as it was overdrive thick and sweet.
Third and Fourth Infusion: The Alishan comes out more vegetal and crisp. There is a snap pea juicy bite to it, with a creamy buttery nut background. The aftertaste finally pops less floral but more crisp asian pear.
Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: This last set of infusions got more brazil nutty with each infusion with a spearmint fresh finish. There was just barely some astringency in this set of infusions. The last infusion I lost just about all the flavour.
Bowl style/ Grandpa: I threw in 2grams in a big cup and let it steep for 3 minutes, still using boiling water. This is to see how this Alishan will do western or grandpa style.
It is still heavy caramel buttery. It is less nutty but a bit more floral forward as the aftertaste is sweetly floral crisp with some minty vegetal freshness. Not a lick of bitterness drinking it.
Alishan’s leaf quality is actually pretty good. Nice big honking leaves. A bit stemmy and some chewiness.
Comments
MEM Tea’s Alishan Oolong is a lovely high mountain tea that leans on the buttery nutty side over floral. There is some floral, but overall it’s a pretty easy to steep tea whether you are doing western style, grandpa, or going nuts with gongfu. The quality is good too.
Fern Stream Amber Oolong from MEM Tea
The hot leaf of MEM Tea’s Fern Stream Amber oolong is softly fruity and a bit like baby powder in scent.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Oh wow, this is fruity! The flavour is nectarine and orange mango with a juicy rock mineral finish. The texture is slippery oily, which is something I like to feel in a good tea. Some sips are like butter that isn’t quite browned yet, but you went in and burnt the crap outta your finger to taste it. I get a touch of salvation too. The aftertaste is of copy paper and butter.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: Despite Fern Stream Amber oolong having a bit more oxidation compared to the Alishan, it seems a bit more sensitive to temperature. It has some bitter notes here, like sharp lychee skins and almond skins. It also got thin in texture. The aftertaste is nutty and stone fruity. The last two infusions got strongly bitter and sharp tasting, like concentrated stewed peppers.
Bowl style: In a bowl Fern Stream Amber oolong also starts strong with stone fruit and mineral flavour. It isn’t as thick and oily like gongfu style. The longer it steeps, the more buttery and mineral it tastes, but with a looming bitterness. I also got some astringency with this extended steep that wasn’t in the gongfu version and I still had my 7th infusion next to me to compare.
Comments
Fern Stream Amber is a strong starting oolong with great texture, interesting fruity, mineral, and buttery notes. This oolong doesn’t resteep well and is a bit sensitive. I would do the 200F temperature and just resteep it a couple times. However, those early infusions are quite good and I enjoyed it.
Overall, I was quite pleased with the oolongs I got from MEM Tea, especially the Alishan. Both were decent oolongs and the price is fair. They offer inexpensive samples. If you are in the North Cambridge, MA area, they have a shop which also has classes and events.
(tea provided for review)
