Today I’ll be checking out a selection of oolongs from Wang Family Tea – Bagua Shan Honey Scent, Lishan Lightly Roasted, and Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted. This tea company took the NW Tea Festival by storm with their delicious Taiwanese oolongs. I have previously reviewed their Sun Moon Lake black teas.
All oolongs I used a ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size. They were all gongfu style steeped in boiling water.
Bagua Shan Honey Scent Oolong from Wang Family Teas
Thank you Wang Family Tea for including plenty of information about their teas. Bagua Shan Honey Scent is from Bagua Shan, Nantou, made of Jin Xuan cultivar and finished with a medium roast.
The leaves are huge rolls! The scent is sweet honey and floral. Steeped up, the leaves smell liked roasted honey.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Bagua Shan Honey Scent oolong tastes milky, honey, and interestingly like a mild lychee fruit. The tea is silky to drink with a sweet aftertaste.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The leaves are taking some effort to open up, making the session longer. With these infusions, Honey Scent distinctly has a fruity flavor that I’d say is closer to a rambutan (though lychee and logans are pretty similar, I selected rambutan as they are a bit creamier). After each sip, there is the rambutan and floral aftertaste. Some sips I can taste some roast. The sixth infusion has a touch of dryness left on the tongue.
Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Infusion: The flavor shifted heavily now to tasting strong honey and fruit with an equally strong dry fruity finish. For the final infusion, the tea is lightly fruity with a creamy fruity aftertaste, that is very dry.
Wang Family Teas’ Bagua Shan Honey Scent Oolong surprised me for the fruity profile. I got a decently long session as the tea opened up for some easy-going tea drinking. This tea is fairly approachable for new drinkers but will be well-liked by oolong drinkers for the lovely fruity honey flavor.
Lishan Lightly Roasted Oolong from Wang Family Teas
Lishan Lightly Roasted is a 2018 winter Qingxin cultivar that has been charcoal roasted. The dry leaf has a sweet and roasted smell.
During the rinse, the tea smelled like I making popcorn in my air popper.
First and Second Infusion: The flavor here has the wow factor and I dig it. Lishan Lightly Roasted tastes of popcorn – it’s sweet, lightly corny, mineral, and touch of toast. The tea has an excellent thickness to it, leaving a buttery feel in the mouth with an aftertaste is sweet rock sugar.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: Strangely, there is a coconut note here. Lishan Lightly Roasted sips in creamy popcorn and toast, odd peep of coconut, then break into a strong floral tulip note that lingers with each sip. With each steeping the floral note gets fresher and more vegetal.
Sixth and Seventh Infusion: The final infusions of Lishan Lightly Roasted are astringent and bitter to drink, but sport a long creamy spinach and tulip aftertaste.
Lishan Lightly Roasted I enjoyed as a roasted oolong fan. This is an example of a good tea with an excellent roast job as the mild roast job adds interest and enhances the butteriness of Lishan.
Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted Oolong from Wang Family Teas
Wang Family Teas’ Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted is a winter 2018 crop with traditional charcoal roasting. Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted has a strong roasted butter scent.
Steeped up, this tea smells similar to the Lishan Lightly Roasted but with a much stronger roast.
First and Second Infusion: Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted sips in of buttered toasted bread, with a light lingering taste of butter. The texture is slick and oily feeling to drink.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: The buttery flavor is getting stronger here, it even has a slight saline quality and a fresh aftertaste just like a stick of butter.
Sixth Infusion: The first flavor to taste here is the butter, but the tea is broken up by astringency and a bit of vegetal bitterness. Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted has a touch of floral in the aftertaste.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: I did an extended infusion and it came out really good. It’s strongly butter with a bitter and dry finish, but that buttery is real good. The eighth infusion didn’t make it, it initially tastes bitter, but finishes buttery.
Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted is for the types who can eat a stick of butter – it’s a simple tea with excellent flavor that sticks. It isn’t as complex as the Lishan Lightly Roasted, but the Alishan Jin Xuan Heavily Roasted is a satisfying drink.
(teas provided for review)
