Shan Lin Xi Winter Sprout - Song Tea

Tea

Nov 29

Written By Christian Lee

Notes of cotton candy and un-buttered popcorn.

Name: Shan Lin Xi Winter Sprout

Source: Song Tea

Price: $22 / 30g

Harvest: Unknown

Origin: Shan Lin Xi, Taiwan

Varietal: Dong pian / Bu zhi chun

Tea Quantity: 6.6g

Brew Temperature: 205ºF

Water Quantity: 150mL

Brew Time: 60s

Wash: No

Visual Notes

This tea is a rolled, slightly oxidized oolong. The colors range from a pine green to a super dark green, bordering on black. There are occasional brown specs from the small leaf stems sticking out. The size of the tea leaf does range a lot, with the largest leaves being about 5x as wide as the smallest. There is a very minor amount of tea dust in the packet that becomes very noticeable in the first infusion.

The first infusion brews to a light shade of dandelion yellow. The tea is cloudy, with visible specs floating around and sinking to the bottom. On successive brews, the color lightens in saturation, edging more towards a champagne gold.

Scent Notes

The dry tea leaf by itself gives off syrupy like sweetness to it. The hot tea leaf gives off a slightly smokey sweet smell, like burnt sugars and charcoal. The tea itself isn’t as aromatic. The tea leaf gives off notes of popcorn without the butter, and has a deeper earthiness to it as well. There is a feint lingering cotton candy sweetness in the empty tea cup as well.

Tasting Notes

There is very little silkiness to the texture, leaning more towards hot water. The flavor is light sweet, with an unmistakable note of cotton candy. The flavor is rather quite subtle, consisting of a mellow quality with no distinct flavors, and only after the finish does the sweetness start to reveal itself. A cotton candy like sweetness builds on the center and edges of the tongue. I really think this is one of the most unique after tastes with the most boring main taste. There is no notable or describable flavor to me. There is no bitterness at all, no floral, fruity, spiced, or green notes. All there is a warmth from the hot tea and a light lingering sweetness on the finish.
Not many qualities of this tea has changed. The main difference is that the sweetness tends to be a bit stronger and comes on a bit faster, and has shifted away from a cotton candy and more towards a stevia sweetener. There is a slight bump in bitterness, but overall the main flavor of this tea is quite dull.
There are not many changes between the second and third infusion. The main difference is a bigger prevalence in bitterness on the first sips, and a loss of sweetness throughout the tea. By the third infusion, I don’t think that this tea has anything worthwhile to offer.

Rating: 3.5/5

This tea did not live up to my imagined hype. I expected this tea to be special based on the description on Song Tea’s website and their love of this tea. What I experienced is a one trick pony tea that has a unique cotton candy sweetness and nothing else. The tea itself had very little distinct flavor, and the only notable taste was of cotton candy on the finish. Even then, that is rather subtle. Perhaps the first sips are interesting, but after that, there is nothing that makes me want to come back for more.

The scent of the tea carries sweet notes of cotton candy and roasted notes of un-buttered popcorn. The flavor itself is dull with mild bitterness on successive infusions. The finish is sweet but mellow and short lived.