#ali mountain

Actually, I learned something interesting from this place. Apparently, in China, semi-oxidised teas are actually known as "blue tea", where as the name "oolong" only refers to a specific type of "blue tea" (as the word "oolong" means "black dragon", I assume it's referring to the tea that is shaped like that... darker, longer, and rolled and twisted length-wise instead of ball-shaped, like ali shan). 

Comparative processing methods for tea. I'm sure this is very informative. If you speak Thai. Which I regrettably do not.

Taiwanese "oolongs" (I guess I should use the term "blue teas"), from my limited experience, generally tend to be very lightly oxidised. Ali shan teas are probably the most famous of the Taiwanese tea varieties and an excellent example of this. It's so lightly oxidised that it tastes more like a green tea than like most other oolong teas I've had. Green tea is 100% unoxidised and sometimes too little oxidation of a tea can upset the stomach, but, despite this, some producers still try to minimize oxidation of these teas in order to achieve the specific grassy-yet-buttery-and-milky taste or to allow the tea leaves to be easily rolled into the spherical shape.

Proof that size doesn't matter.

Basically, Taiwan is an awesome place for tea, especially "oolongs" (I should probably use "blue" again). Ali shan is mostly picked during the winter months from the Ali mountain, which is basically right in the middle of the island. Of course it depends on personal taste, but of all the ali shan teas, maybe the "best" one (certainly my favourite) is jin xuan, which is the name of a cultivar developed in Taiwan during the 1980s (totally just learned that from Wikipedia right now.)

Among the endless amounts of names, the tea is apparently also called "winter tea" (because of its picking time) and "milk tea" (because of its milky flavour). Good ali shan jin xuan, to me, doesn't really taste so much like milk as it does butter. It really tastes like buttered green vegetables! Maybe that's not particularly appetising for some, but for me it's fucking delicious so let me get that.

Whole, unbroken leaves. Fuck yeah.