2026 Spring High Mountain Oolongs Blind Tasting
Mountain Stream Teas Teaducation Subscription Service
June, 2026
This month’s box is a great overview of the stellar 2026 High Mountain Spring Tea Season in Taiwan. We thought a terroir blind tasting was in order this year and we even included a special experimental tea. 2026 is turning into a banner year and this box has some great examples of why!
What are the teas we will look at this month?
Included this month are:
Nanhu Mountain Spring Oolong, 1500m elevation, 10% Oxidization, Jinxuan/Qinxn, hand picked in May, 2026, Nanhu, Ilan
Tasting notes: Floral, sweet, thick mouthfeel mouthfeel, fruit aftertaste, buttery
Alpine Golden Green, 1300m elevation, machine picked in May, 2026, Chilaishan, Nantou, Qinxin cultivar, 20% hybrid green/yellow/oolong processing
Tasting notes: soft sweet yellow fruit and florals, sweet/tart fruit
2026 Spring Pear Mountain Oolong, 2000m elevation, hand picked in May, 2026, Lishan, Nantou County, Qinxin cultivar, 20% oxidization
Tasting notes: rich vegetal florals, high mountain breeze, lingering aftertastes
The Mayor’s Alishan (No Roast), 800m elevation, 20% Oxidization, Jinxuan, hand picked in May, 2026, Alishan, Chiayi
Tasting notes: Rich creamy vegetal, smooth fruity florals, hints of vanilla
Phoenix Valley Shanlinxi Oolong, 1600m elevation, hand picked in May, 2026, Shanlinxi, Nantou County, Qinxin cultivar, 15% oxidization
Tasting notes: subtle floral, thick mouthfeel and smooth vegetal
Terroir(Area) Matters
Soil, cloud cover, sun angle, average temperature, common processing methods, slope facing direction and many more variables go into each and every cup of tea. In this month’s box we have a group of teas that are all called ‘Taiwanese High Mountain Oolong’. They are similarly produced but with some very terroir specific differences. For the June Blind Tasting, your challenge will be to tell them apart, which is not an easy thing to do. Here is what to look for:
Nanhu: Grown in a very unique granite dominated soil, the minerality of this unique high mountain oolong gives it away. Also its dark floral aftertaste is one that no other mountain has.
Phoenix Valley: Most popular in the local market, teas from this area are differentiated by a noted thick ‘muddiness’ between the sweet florals, vegetals and fruit flavors of this tea. It has a very full mouthfeel.
Alishan: Made with a different cultivar than the other teas, it has a much more noticeable ‘nai xiang’ ,or milk feeling, in its mouthfeel than the other teas. It is also from a lower elevation so has a sharper vegetal and the hint of vanilla is something you only really get from an authentic Alishan Milk Oolong.
Pear Mountain: The softest, most ‘luxurious’ tea of the bunch, the florals, vegetal and florals are distinct and easy to separate in the palate. Warm vegetal upfront, fruity mid mouth and a beautiful and memorable aftertaste are the tells for this one.
How To Compare The Teas
You can use the standard brewing process that is on the packages but these teas offer a great chance to try ‘bowl brewing’. Take 3-5g of each tea, throw it in similar size bowls, add boiling water and leave it for a while. You can taste them hot and as it cools down as well and it gives a very good idea of the nature of the teas.
The Other Tea
Made from the ‘left over’ soft leaves on our friend’s garden on Chi Lai Mountain, he decided to experiment with it and created what he called a ‘Yellow Tea’. It isn’t quite exactly a yellow tea, but it has a couple of the softer vegetal notes of that genre, along with a spattering of green teaish flavor with a bunch of oolong thrown in. It is another one of our ‘Hybrid’ type tea experiment offerings. We are not too sure what to call it but we do know it will become the favorite of few people who get to try it. Hope you enjoy it!
The Mystery
This month’s mystery is to see if you can tell difference between the high mountains of our year’s batch of High Mountain Oolong. This year was a great harvest season so each terroir stands out nicely. Good Luck!
The July Box
The July box will hopefully be filled with some bug bitten beauties but we will just have to see. The weather just turned hot and the bugs haven’t really started biting but there is still time. If we don’t have enough bug bitten teas we will come up with something else, but we hope that the bug will get to biting soon!
Leave a comment