Testimonials & user reviews

Beauty to competition-grade batches from the Hsinchu County Summer Competition: a 3-Flower winner from 2023, two 2-Flower winners from 2024 and 2025, a 2026 competition-grade batch, plus a handful of other high-end examples from vendors specializing in Taiwanese oolongs. To be clear, I didn’t brew all of these side-by-side once and press out an opinion as fast as my Western-style fingers could type. I’ve been getting to know high-end Oriental Beauty for several years, and this latest batch from Tea Hong stands out to me, both in immediate comparison to award-winners and in my longer explorations over time. 5 grams of leaf, 100 mL Rural Life gaiwan. Exhaust the leaves in 3 steeps – and pay attention to how you pour. The first steep is the most important to get right. A whole bag is just a single sample. This is the kind of tea you need to drink multiple times to feel like you’ve experienced it once, and the more I get to know these leaves, the more I realize it’s got everything – but not all at once, of course. In some cases, certain notes can be prominent in the aroma, but subdued in the liquor. Hauntingly beautiful layers of lavender, geranium, and gardenia flowers, plus clover honey, grape skin, fresh moss, cinnamon dust and high-fat cacao powder, dry cedar, apricot jam, ripe banana, lemon peel, green apple, hints of wintergreen, ginseng, and bergamot, plus champagne-like notes of brioche and pear. Although time has tempered the wintergreen notes, it’s still warm in the throat and cool in the mouth – so aside from the flavors representing the full spectrum of what I find in competition-worthy batches, the sensations are also on-point. I especially enjoy the way this tea makes me feel; it’s uplifting and invigorating mentally, but calming and relaxing in the body. Quality of this caliber doesn’t last long anywhere between Emei and Beipu. Tea Hong’s 2023 Oriental Beauty is the kind of tea that would be secured before it ever reached an open market – somebody would immediately buy the whole lot because it is on par with award winners. … and I think I know somebody who did just that 🙂
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ly concentrated, and dynamic across a full session. The qi is strong but it has traction control, so the experience ends up being powerful yet restrained. There's a lot of character in these leaves. The way the flavors open up and change, the way the huigan builds, there's a lot to appreciate in each sip, it's all so cohesive and comes together flawlessly. I'm looking forward to getting to know this one better as I continue to work through this bag, and more in the future - this is very good maocha. At the time of this review, it's exactly 10 years old. It still has some youthful characteristics - notes of fresh-cut tobacco, clear and distinct tropical hardwood, with a very textured mouthfeel - but it's also tempered, with lots of ultra-smooth qualities already developing nicely. I'm captivated by how smooth, fleshy, and jammy the fruity notes are - I get raisins, fresh fig, and hints of stewed plums, and there's some nice overtones of florals which are subtle, but contrast nicely against the layers of tobacco and hardwood. There's definitely something silky and oily going on with the mouthfeel, it has enough presence to cut through any bitterness and leave a really smooth mouthfeel behind in the aftertaste, but it's not so strong that it has its own set of distinct flavors. It blends seamlessly with the flavors and makes all of the edges feel rounded and polished. The finish is nice - the fruity and floral qualities eventually fade but there is a sweetness which persists, along with some notes of olive wood and various roots.
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ea Hong's Long Jing Supreme shines like a beacon of Light. What captures my attention the most with this tea is the aroma. The aroma is persistent, clear and warming. Try it out for yourself - prepare the tea as you would and save a portion to cool down. Smell the tea soup the next day. Do the same with the leaf once you have done brewing and let dry, uncovered overnight. You will awake to a bouquet of nuts, soft green moss and something savory (chips ? toasted sesame ?) lingering in the finale. This aroma is mirrored in the taste of the tea liquor. Depending on what you want from this tea, it can brew up as strong and sharp, vegetal or smooth, creamy and long-lasting. Now with Tea Hong's latest 70 g format, you will not find a better value Long Jing at less than 1 usd per gram. PS - Be sure to steep the leaves for a long time before discarding the leaves in your garden. Use this concentrated steep to prepare this fantastic recipe - https://www.teaguardian.com/tea-hows/3-tea-recipes-for-festive-season/#Longjing
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temperatures & long steep times fool you - this is actually quite a complex gastronomical experience, one that is ridiculously easy to brew up. I find the focal point of this tea to be its silky-smooth, buttery-soft body... it's just such a thick and luscious sensation that greets you right when you take a sip, and hangs out on the palate even long into the aftertaste. In terms of the flavor profile, I get overt and thick notes of mango flesh - bright, fresh, tropical and dank, with sweet undertones of plums and berries, plus soft hints of spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. The thick note of mango flesh is intertwined with the buttery-smooth body of this tea, the two seem inseparable in the cup, and even the lingering sweetness in the aftertaste these two notes continue to be present in unison. The aroma coming off the bottom of an empty cup, as its cooling, has a distinct herbaceous quality to it, reminiscent of sweet pine, rosemary, and sage. There's some pineapple fruitiness in there somewhere too. The leaf quality is superb. The leaves are quite large, processed very uniformly, and not over-compressed. They unfurl slowly and reveal thick, full leaves that were clearly handled well in every step of the making of this tea. This is very complex oolong - especially considering Si Ji Chun is a rather generic cultivar. It's popular because, as its name suggests, it can be harvested in all four seasons which makes it ideal for mass production in all of Taiwan's tea-growing regions. The market is saturated with Si Ji Chun that, at best, is acceptable quality. It's difficult to find truly exceptional representations of a cultivar that is ultimately intended for mass production. This, however, is about as premium as Si Ji Chun gets. The price is quite humble considering this tea is a flavor bomb that is impossible to over-brew. However you brew it up you're likely going to have a really good cup.
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tasted anything like this and liking it!
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d choice for these tall tea shards in a vessel that would not crack with heat fluctuation. Strained it into a tall pitcher using a gold tea filter. I can definitely taste the apricot and grass tones. Just lovely.
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