I’ve always thought Yunnan Sourcing was a great name for an online tea shop. It invokes an image of both the origin of the tea and the person who retrieves the tea. Furthermore it’s a name that commands respect by using the word sourcing, it says up front that this is the place to go for Chinese tea. Well now the folks at Yunnan Sourcing have opened a sister web store Taiwan Sourcing. While Yunnan Sourcing’s user interface has started to look a little dated the brand new Taiwan Sourcing storefront feels sleek, modern, and minimalistic powered by the new utility Shopify. Tempted by their newness to the market and secured by my trust in the quality of Yunnan Sourcing’s products I made a sizable first order a little while ago.

I ordered the “Spring 2015 Jade Oolong Sampler 4-pack”.

Wu She High Mountain Jade Oolong

Lala Shan High Mountain Jade Oolong

Alishan Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong

Master Four Seasons Organic Oolong

I’ll be giving a quick review of each of these teas in this post so strap in! I’ve used six grams of tea for each of these and just off boiling water, rinsing once and then doing about ten to fifteen second infusions.

Wu She High Mountain Jade Oolong

Wu She is a new region to me and to many other Western tea drinkers I suspect. Grown at 1400 meters and according to Taiwan Sourcing the material of this tea was a “beheaded” tree, meaning the top branch was cut off to allow more nutrients to spread to the other lower branches. I’m not botanist but that seems a little strange to me but I’ll buy it.

Once wet these leaves smell like cool rain in the spring and with another second wash of water start to give off the aroma of baked bread. It starts off subtle with a light body but grows and grows brighter and brighter with each passing steep. Its more vegetal than I would have expected but that’s a good thing as the creamy texture reminds me of spinach and buttered peas. Out of curiosity I tried a lower temperature water, I just let the near boiling water sit and swirl in my pitcher for a while and I found that the leaves gave off a sweeter taste. We have a winner here for sure.

Lala Shan High Mountain Jade Oolong

The dry leaves here reminded me of candy a bit and when I rinsed them I was met with a buttery and sweet aroma like movie theater butter and kettle corn. Upon tasting I find that it matches the sent perfectly with a creamy body and an upfront presentation of the butter notes. It still has some of that vegetal verdant flavor that a low oxidation and roast level tea. As we go one through the session I notice just how well balanced and resilient this tea is, even as the flavors eventually mellow out the body sticks around and keeps the experience in balance. Fantastic tea.

Alishan Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong

Right away after scooping out this tea one can’t help but notice just how large the leaves are even though they have been rolled up tight. The rinsed leaves have a great aroma of sweet fruits, particularly peach. The first infusion starts out of the gate with one of the strongest yet silkiest bodies I’ve ever tasted. Its flavor is very subtle and it’s the clean as a whistle feeling you get in your mouth afterword that really makes this one memorable. It’s like a good vodka, clean refreshing and offers amazing texture. Its well worth your time to take out a leaf and just admire how large it really is, you can tell just how high quality it is picked at about 1100 meters.

Master Four Seasons Organic Oolong

Our last tea is the common four seasons. Grown at 450 meters at the foot of Dong Ding mountain it has the smallest leaves of the sample pack for sure. These leaves however smell fantastic after the rinse, the aroma is almost roasty, very thick and fruity-floral like that zebra gum I had as a kid. Okay, that’s a big stretch but its where my mind went. The moderate body gives way to a very sweet flavor. Not very vegetal but its sweetness combined with the distinct creamy texture of good Taiwan oolong gives the taster a buttercream like experience. One of the better four seasons I’ve had.

These are all great oolong teas and I’m so impressed I can’t wait to dig into the other offerings. If I had to pick one tea to buy again I’d probably go with the Lala Shan. It was just such a memorable and unique experience, although that’s true of all four of these teas. Hopefully this review will be helpful to those of you who have an eye on the newly minted Taiwan Sourcing. Until next time listen to some great psychedelic metal.