Tea Tasting Saturday #27 - Fenghuang ShuiXian

First of all, Happy Birthday, America, and Happy July 4th, y'all!

Now, Fenghuang ShuiXian (pronounced "Shooey-Shyan," according to Michael Harney) is not a tea that Harney sells in sample sizes, so I had to order a full tin. With my first cup of this tea, I was delighted to think that I have an entire tin of this one to enjoy. This is one of my most favorite teas I've sampled yet!

Category: Oolong Tea

Purveyor: Harney and Sons

Dry leaf appearance: Thin, wispy tea leaves in mostly dark olive green with some variations of brown bits mixed in.

Wet leaf appearance: Still thin and wispy looking with only a few pieces that resembled a flat, open tea leaf.

Steeping temperature and time: 1 teaspoon of tea, 205 degrees, 3 minutes.

Scent: A good gift shop! That was the surprise scent that greeted my nose when I first sniffed this tea. I should explain that to me, a *good* gift shop has that pleasant scent of floral and fruity candles and potpourri, so I wasn't expecting this to be such a scent-sational tea!

Color: Deep gold.

Flavor: Yum, yum, yum. This tea has a rich, full "mouth feel," and no astringency, but its chief selling point to me is that it tastes almost like a black tea blend with fruits and flowers. The "floral" note is faint, and the fruity flavor I found was something akin to honeydew melon. What a delightful tea!

Additional notes: Michael Harney says this tea "is a worthwhile oolong to know if only because no other oolong will remind you of a Bellini. Unlike the preceding Osmanthus, which gleans much of its fruit flavors from a flower additive, Fenghuang ShuiXian bubbles with astonishing peach flavors all its own."

Next week's tea: Bai Hao, or Fanciest Formosa Oolong