The Scent of Early Spring
Mountain Stream Teas Teaducation Subscription Service
April, 2026
Fresh, wind blown meadows full of wildflowers, the sweet perfume of fruit trees flowering and the warm, soft smell of the early spring sun are in the box this month. As the 2026 Spring tea harvest season gets underway, we are happy to share some of them with you this month. These teas are best had sooner rather than later to really enjoy the freshness!
What are the teas we will look at this month?
Included this month are:
- Sanxia Green Tea, 400m elevation, 1-3% Oxidization, handpicked on March 14th 2026, Sanxia, New Taipei, Qinxin Gan Zhe
Tasting notes: Sweet peas, floral, fresh wind blown grass
- Orange Blossom Milk Oolong, 400m elevation, 20% Oxidization, scented on March 24th 2026, Jinxuan Oolong, fresh Orange Flowers, Ruisui, Hualien County
Tasting notes: Rich milky, sweet orange citrus florals with thick mouthfeel
- Pomelo Fragrance Milk Oolong, 400m elevation, 20% Oxidization, scented in March 15th 2026, Jinxuan Oolong, fresh Pomelo Flowers, Ruisui, Hualien County
Tasting notes: Full blast citrus floral perfume, great milk oolong
What Is ‘The Scent’ of Early Spring Taiwanese Teas?
In a word, freshness. And Florals too! Teas produced before the Tomb Sweeping festival in early Spring have a blast of freshness that is as unmistakable as it is short lasting. By Summer, these teas have passed their prime, but if you can get them fresh it like literally tasting the warm breath of Spring. Especially if you live in a place where spring hasn’t quite arrived yet!
How To Use Pomelo Flowers To Scent A Tea
Pomelo Flowers have an intoxicatingly beautiful perfume, but taste absolutely terrible. To make Pomelo Flower Oolong is not an easy task! First, 80% finished fresh spring picked milk oolong and meticulously hand picked pomelo flowers are prepared. The flowers have to be picked at exactly the right time, which thankfully is easy to do as pomelos create a ton of flowers in the spring! The tea and flowers are then laid together, but not mixed. They are dried together without touching over a long period of time with low temperatures, in a special roaster/dehydrator with constant airflow. As you can imagine, it is a wonderful time to be around the tea gardens and factories for pomelo flower season. The smell is wonderful!
Orange flowers are a little easier to prepare, as they actually taste pretty good. To create our Orange Blossom Oolong the orange flowers are placed in with the tea and dried together!
The Bad Reputation of Scented Teas
We have never, and will never, share artificially scented teas. These teas are a perfect example of how good scented teas can be. Floral scented teas have always been a traditional genre in Han Chinese tea culture and when done correctly are an important and justifiable part of the high quality tea cabinet, even if they might have a bad reputation from us ‘tea nerds’. And a justifiable bad reputation of course! Most scented teas a lazily and dangerously bathed in chemical slop. These are not however, and if you have a friend or loved one that only drinks scented teas, it is worthwhile to share some of this with them. The fewer people drinking ‘jasmine green tea’ tea bags the better!
The Teas
1. Sanxia Green Tea:
If you like green tea, this one if for you. If you don’t like green tea, this one is also for you! Full of all the pleasant taste profiles of green tea without the bitterness and astringency it is one of the first teas produced in Taiwan every spring and also the best green tea we have ever tried!
2. Orange Blossom Milk Oolong:
Sweeter, more subtle and smoother than the more famous Pomelo Fragrance Oolong, this one has many fans for its smooth citrus floral and thick mouthfeel.
3. Pomelo Fragrance Oolong:
The strongest floral blast of any tea we carry, this one is as memorable as it is good. Even if you are not a fan of the scented teas, it is hard to deny the power of this one!
The Mystery Tea
Can you guess the cultivar of this one? It is a familiar cultivar made in the early spring and it is right one the border of green and oolong teas. Smooth vegetal and florals that are familiar but hard to recognize in this very green and fresh oolong.
The May Box
The May box will be a cultivar study of the famous Jinxuan (Milk Oolong) style of teas. We will try to gather as many versions of this tea as we can to give you a deep understanding of
Spring Harvest Season Update
Fingers crossed, it is looking like a very good harvest this year as a solidly cold and decently wet winter was good for tea in the north and higher elevations. Mingjian and the Eastern Beauty lower elevation regions are starting a drought though, so we will keep you up to date on if that becomes an issue for future harvests this spring. Lets hope for some rain!
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