$10.99
Four Seasons Oolong Tea occupies the pole position of our starting line-up of fantastic rolled oolongs* from the mountains of rural Taiwan. It's our most economical High Mountain Oolong but a great place to start if you are new to this genre!
Due to high altitude, most of our High Mountain Oolongs are only plucked twice per year; once around late March and once around late October known as the "Spring Harvest" and "Winter Harvest" respectively. However, this cultivar is specially designed to be plucked up to four times per year. Known literally as "Four Seasons Spring" in Chinese, it attempts to deliver the flavor of a Spring harvest all year-round.
Farmer Zeng uses a tea-picking machine for this tea so we are happy to offer it to you at this very approachable price.
Four Seasons is no-fail brewing. It won't get astringent if you brew it too long and finishes clean.
The taste is subtle but discernible gardenia with a touch of cream. "Nice and easy drinking" is about right. Vacuum packed at the source!
$5 fast USA-based shipping. International shipping details are HERE.
You can order a 10 gr. sample in the pull-down menu below or get better pricing with higher volume.
Cultivar: Sijichun
Location: Lugu
Elevation: 500M
Harvest: Spring 2024
Brewing:
Standard Gaiwan (about 130ml or half a cup of liquid)
Warm up your gaiwan with hot water first, pour it out, then add 3-6g of dry leaf, depending on how strong you like your tea. Fill your gaiwan covering the leaves with fresh hot water (195°/90°c), pour out this "rinse", then add a second round of water. Cover your gaiwan and wait for 30 to 45 seconds. Pour everything into a decanter through a strainer, let it cool to a comfortable drinking temperature, then enjoy. Repeat this process several times, gradually increasing the steeping time by 5-10 seconds for each infusion. You can find a good decanter HERE, a good strainer HERE, and some nice cups to share tea with friends HERE.
Traditional Teapots
Depending on the size of your "gongfu" teapot, the old-school advice is to loosely cover the bottom of your teapot in High Mountain Oolong dry leaf. Follow the same perimeters of gaiwan brewing. Teapot brewing is highly individual so use this as a starting point and develop your own style based on what you like to get out of each tea. You can find suitable teapots at all price ranges HERE.
The Easy Ways
Coffee cup - Add one teaspoon to one cup of hot water (195°/90°c) for 4 minutes. Strain and enjoy. Repeat up to three times.
Coffee press - If you have a coffee press or a nice traditional western teapot you want to enjoy, just double the above - 2 teaspoons to 2 cups of fresh hot water. Or with practice, you can use less tea and longer brewing times.
NOTE: Tea balls and similar brewing methods are not recommended.
On-the-Go Grandpa-Style
When I'm out working, I like to use an drinking thermos like a Yeti. The key to these is to use less dry leaf. I use about 1/2 teaspoon or 3g. You can use boiling water and let it set for around 5 minutes until you cover it. It should be at a good drinking temp for quite a while now. When you're dry, just refill and repeat all day long.
*What's a "rolled" oolong? A part of the processing, Farmers wrap the raw leaf in a cloth and roll them in a rolling machine. Rolled oolongs come in little nuggets of tightly compressed tea. An oolong is any tea that is oxidized between around 15% to 90%. This tea is around 20% so it's greener on the spectrum.
