OolongCaffeinatedSingle Origin · Taiwan

Ali San Oolong

Name: Ali San Oolong
Brand: Harney & Sons Fine Teas
SKU: 41603
Price: 38.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.62 (108 reviews)

A high-mountain oolong from Alishan

4.6 · 108 reviews

High-mountain tea terraces above a village in the Alishan range, Taiwan

Ali San Oolong

$ 38.00

Select Packaging Type:Loose

Select Unit:2 oz. Tin

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Description

Tea cultivation has only begun in the Ali San area of southern Taiwan in recent decades. Before that, deforestation covered the high mountains in the area. Now, the picturesque mountains produce excellent balled-style oolong teas, similar to those from southern Fujian Province. Ali San was one of the first areas in southern Taiwan to produce high mountain teas. Around 30 years ago, Taiwan's tea industry underwent a significant transformation. They shifted from producing traditional teas for export to the West to focusing on producing high-quality oolongs for the thriving local market. Now, we can all enjoy the delightful, lemony, and creamy flavors of this lightly oxidized oolong.

Mike's Rating

1 Briskness

2 Body

3 Aroma

Details: A lovely, high mountain oolong from southern Taiwan. We love its body and taste. We are glad that the trees were replaced by the tea plants!

Dry Leaves: Dark green rolled leaves.

Liquor: Light gold.

Aroma: Gardenia and lilac aromas topped with notes of crystallized sugar and fresh citrus.

Flavors: Ali San is among the creamiest of oolongs. It gives a nice coating sensation and some butteriness, along with lime and citrus notes and a quiet, underlying vegetal flavor.

Caffeine Level: Caffeinated

Body: Medium-bodied, creamy. This tea may be brewed multiple times.

Brewing Time: 1 minute rinse, 4 minute brew.

Brewing Temp: 212º

Ingredients

Oolong tea.

Loose Tea: Bulk whole or broken leaves

Tea Bags: Finely cut tea in paper bags

Sachets: Whole-leaf tea in mesh bags

Tea Pods: Single-serve pods for Keurig® brewers

Iced Tea Pouches: Large bags for batches of iced tea

Where it grows

Alishan, high in southern Taiwan

Alishan is a young tea region by Chinese standards. These high mountains were logged before they were planted, and tea arrived only in the 1980s, making Alishan one of the first areas in southern Taiwan to grow high-mountain oolong. Altitude is what you taste. Cool air and mountain mist slow the leaf down, and slow growth is what gives this tea its creamy weight and its lime-and-citrus lift. The leaves are rolled into tight balls, the same style perfected across the strait in southern Fujian, and they open over several infusions. One note on the name: the Chinese word for mountain can be transliterated as San or Shan, and we use both.

RegionAlishan, Chiayi, Taiwan

Map of Alishan, Chiayi, Taiwan — Alishan, Chiayi, Taiwan

From our tasting table

We choose the cup

Every single-origin tea we list is chosen the same way, at our tasting table. About forty years ago Taiwan turned its tea industry inward, away from bulk export and toward high-quality oolong for a discerning market at home. That is the tea we go looking for. Alishan sits high enough, and is picked carefully enough, that the good lots are very good and the ordinary ones are merely pleasant. We are not the grower, and we will not pretend to be. What we bring is the patience to taste until the creamy one turns up.

At the Harney & Sons tasting table, Millerton

At a glance

TypeOolong

Caffeine ContentCaffeinated

FlavorsAli San is among the creamiest of oolongs. It gives a nice coating sensation and some butteriness, along with lime and citrus notes and a quiet, underlying vegetal flavor.

Mike Harney's Ratings

Aroma

Body

Briskness

A lovely, high mountain oolong from southern Taiwan. We love its body and taste. We are glad that the trees were replaced by the tea plants!

Tasting notes

Aroma: Gardenia and lilac aromas topped with notes of crystallized sugar and fresh citrus.
Dry Leaves: Dark green rolled leaves.
Liquor: Light gold.
Body: Medium-bodied, creamy. This tea may be brewed multiple times.

This season's lot

Picked high, chosen fresh

Alishan is a mountain, not a single garden, and its growers do not all make the same tea. Elevation, weather, and the hand that rolls the leaf all move the cup. So each year we taste what the mountain offers and carry the lot that earns the name: the gardenia lift, the butter and lime, the coating creaminess that keeps going through a third and fourth brew. The name on the tin stays the same. The tea inside has to keep proving it.

How to Enjoy It

Hot

With its oolong tea base, you'll want water at a full boil (212ºF).Steep 1 rinse, 4 brew. minutes.

What Customers Say

4.6 out of 5 · 108 reviews

floral and citrus notesbuttery, creamy mouthfeelafternoon and daily ritualmultiple steeps, good value

The balls unroll to huge green leaves, creating a greenish-gold liquor with the aromas of a gardenia bush with early flowers, full sweet ones, and the remaining green buds on the bush.

— TKW