My Da Yu Ling

On January 18th, I bought five jin of winter 2009 Da Yu Ling high mountain oolong tea from a nice little tea shop in Yingge, Taiwan. I was with my new friends Jeremiah and Allison from Oregon and we were sampling some great teas with a woman named Lin Xiu Hong. Although Miss Lin was a bit heavy handed in her brewing (it was strong!), I fell head over heels for this tea from my very first sip.

Da Yu Ling (大禹嶺) is located near Lishan (梨山) in Taiwan at around 2400 meters elevation. It produces small amounts of very highly esteemed oolong tea in the spring and winter.

For this review I used a small gaiwan with about 5 grams of dry leaf. I infused it 10 times using boiling water. To me this tea drinks like nectar. Its soup is fragrant with a thick orange-yellow color and very lively. My tasting notes included spirited, candy, clean and violet.