As you probably already know, I have a subscription to one of Curious Tea’s subscription boxes (you can read all about it in this post). I’m excited to try this month’s teas but I got three additional samples in this month’s box. One of these three samples was a Gui Fei Oolong tea from Taiwan and that is the tea I tried a few days ago.
Gui Fei Oolong
The Gui Fei oolong is a tea from Yunlin County in Taiwan. Yunlin County is located on the Western side of the island. Gui Fei oolong classifies as a mountain oolong as it is grown at an altitude of around a 1,000m. This tea immediately caught my attention because it is made from the ‘Qing Xin’ or ‘Green Heart’ cultivar. One of my favorite oolong teas (Alishan Competition Qing Xin Oolong) is made from the same cultivar. An important aspect worth mentioning is that during growth, little green leaf hoppers nibble the leaves. Because of this, the plant will react by producing more polyphenols, leading to flavours that are typical for ‘beauty teas’. In general, the flavour profile of this ‘beauty tea’ mainly consists of warm honey. On the website, this tea is described as having a “supremely unique wild honey flavour, with sweet, floral and woody notes”. (Source)
This amazing map is from Curious Tea’s blog. It shows the location of Yunlin County in Taiwan.
The dry leaves are rolled into small little balls.
The wet leaves have completely opened up and have a darker colour.
Tea tasting
Brewing details
- Water 90°C
- 5g of leaves for a 100ml Chaozhou teapot
- 1 rinse
- 6 steeps (15 sec + 5 sec each steep)
Before rinse
The smell of the dry leaves is woody and floral. Also some hints of warm honey.
After rinse
The floral notes are more prominent when smelling the wet leaves. Some light honey as well.
Steeping
1st steep: light floral notes from the start in combination with warm honey. The aftertaste is really sweet. This is a subtle steep to start with.
2nd steep: warm honey and floral notes with an amazingly sweet aftertaste. The aftertaste is almost like a piece of candy.
3rd steep: the warm honey from the earlier steeps seems to be less prominent. You can still spot some hints of warm honey if you are looking for them. Also some pleasant floral flavours.
4th steep: the honey is more prominent again. It seems like the floral notes have diminished drastically. No real aftertaste either. The woody flavours that were noticeable when smelling the dry leaves started to emerge during this steep.
5th steep: this steep is all about honey. WOW! Amazing taste of honey. Very thick and prominent honey. The aftertaste is even more honey. Delicious!
6th steep: also honey during this steep but barely noticeable this time. I have the impression that the leaves wanted to go out with a bang and did this during the 5th steep. During this steep, however, only some traces of the previous steep remain. The flavours are still pleasant but only barely noticeable.
1st steep
2nd steep
3rd steep
4th steep
5th steep
6th steep
Conclusion
I really loved this oolong tea! It was a back and forth between warm honey and floral notes. This creates a complex tasting tea that is enjoyable to drink. This is the second tea made from the Qin Xin cultivar that I really like. It’s difficult to put into words what I experienced during the fifth steep. It was like an explosion of honey that really makes you question if you deserve drinking this tea. All of the steeps were decent and definitely worth the money but steep 5 was exceptionally good.
Want to buy this delicious tea? Visit Curious Tea’s store. It’s definitely a must-buy for this price!
