Taiwanese Lishsan... WHITE Tea?

Hello hello!

Today, in a special blog-post, I will be reviewing Lishan White Tea!! Yes, you read that right! The famed Taiwanese region in, well, Taiwan, is famously known for making some of the best green rolled oolongs in existence. However, when I saw that Grand Crew has gotten ahold of the white tea version of this famous region, I couldn’t help but wonder, "Is that even possible?"

However, while becoming a Grand Crew affiliate (and being sent a completely different tea to talk about), I asked them if they could include a sample of this tea so I could deviate from our project, and tak about this tea instead. With that in mind, I also told them (and now reassuring you) that regardless, I will still be 'tell it how it is' — even if it means being negative about any said-tea.

With that in mind, here’s my review on Lishan White!

Steeps 1-6

Upon my first two infusions of Lishan White, I quickly noticed this tea had the crips tasting notes of bee pollen, along with a faint note of elderflower. With a third-infusion, the crips notes of bee pollen quickly left behind the echoing the faint notes of kiwi-like fruitiness. However, by the fourth infusion, the light floral notes of elderflower quickly became brass and outshone any fruitiness, and by the fifth infusion, the pollen notes turned into the atmospheric soundscape of straw/hay. With the sixth infusion becoming more and more forward with the hay-like notes, a velvet-like texture started becoming sharp.

Steeps 7-14

With the strong punch that the bee pollen-driven notes of hay brought forward, a new note within Lishan white made itself known. In the presence of hay, a mouth-drying texture, and notes, of black licorice dominated the palate. After another infusion of black licorice, a faint warming undertone of cardamon, and lilies, made their self radiate over the tongue. With ninth infusion, the cardamon notes became more noticeable as the tea’s texture quickly softened to a lavish creaminess. This continued until the fourteenth infusion, where the tea slowly faded into nothingness. An hour after starting, this session was over.

Final Thoughts

To start, Lishan White is a tea that typically comes in the form of oolong tea. However, Grand Crew was able to release a limited amount of this oddity. To start, one thing I liked about this tea was how every single infusion of this gong-fu session brought something new to the palate. This tea evolved for every infusion and seemed to cover every aspect of the board. Another aspect I liked about this tea was how delicate it was.

However, although I liked how delicate this tea was, it might be one of its drawbacks. The every-day tea drinker may not fully appreciate the complexity of this tea, and without heavy concentration, this tea could easily become under-appreciated. With this tea’s high price point, this isn’t a tea to play around and experiment with.

Overall, this was a fun experience. Although I wouldn’t recommend this tea to just anyone, I would say this is a session worth having -- solely based on having a unique educational experience. I started my journey five years ago with the love and admiration of Taiwanese Oolongs, so it was eye-opening to see how this famed-region stood when coming in the form of a white tea…

Side note: Because of the high price-point, if you wanted to try this tea for yourself, then you can use the discount code theoolongdrunk10 and take 10% off your shopping-cart for when trying this tea.