Mei Zhan is a tea cultivar from Wuyishan that produces a bold and rich oolong tea. Recently we've received a request from a tea lover to source this tea for him. And as curious as we're we made sure to get some more to try it out ourselves.
Most medium and dark roast rock teas are usually in pure black colour. The dry leaves of this Mei Zhan oolong is dark green, indicating that we're dealing with a light roast oolong. The smell is orchid like, but at the same time savoury and sugary.
We decided to brew this oolong in a glass gaiwan at full temperature. As you might know oolongs tend to require high temperatures to draw out it's flavours (no matter light or dark roast). Our glass gaiwan is pretty thick, so we don't need to worry about the isolation as well. As you can see in the picture below, the leaves turn vibrant green. It's even greener than our Tieguanyin, which usually shows brown-yellowish colours on the edges of the leaves.
It has this characteristic mineral rock flavour that's directly proofs that we're talking about a rock tea from Wuyishan. The first impression is that it's a floral kind of oolong, but just 1-2 seconds later there's this sugary caramel like taste that develops under the tongue.
This sensation in the mouth, kind of blew us away. We taste 2-3 types of new teas every day, to improve our online selection of teas, but rarely we're so entertained by something so unique. It's often rock teas that have such a potential though. Given the colour of the leaves, we expected something more fresh, green tea like flavours.
One weakness if this tea is that 5 grams lasts for 5-6 sessions. That's not bad of course, and it can be partly explained by the fact that it's a light roast mei zhan. Darkers roast oolongs tend to have more layered flavours slowly released up to 9-12 brews. This Mei Zhan, however, is explosive in the first 2 rounds and while becoming lighter, but still very pleasant to drink in the 3rd to 6th brew.
Try it Yourself!
Mei Zhan tea isn't available in our online store, but for a limited time we're offering this tea in a tin (see below) at pre-order price of 8.95 USD. Orders will be shipped in the first half of July 2017. Interested? Contact us at [email protected] and let us know you're interested in purchasing mei zhan tea.
Oops, you're late and you've missed the above deadline? No worries, feel free to contact us, and we'll try our best to still get it for you.
