Haku Tea
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Gongfu Sipdown (2945)!
Normally, I try to break down the liquor of a tea into all the different tasting notes that make up the sum of a tea session, but in this case, there was just one incredibly dominant tasting note. Sure, early steeps before the leaves had fully opened up had a bit of a caramelized sugar note and slightly baked bread taste, but when this tasting note made itself known, it was gameover for everything else. What was that tasting note!? Lychee. Intense, juicy, sweet, and floral lychee. Were it not for that beautiful coppery amber liquor, I could have sworn I was just drinking the fresh fruit juices of a bunch of perfectly ripe lychee. I was sitting for this session, but if I hadn’t been, I have no doubts that this tea would have stopped me in my tracks. If you’re looking for a fruitier oolong, I don’t think I could recommend this one highly enough!!
…I also didn’t exactly intend for this past week to be so oolong heavy, but with the focus on finishing off tea samples it just became obvious to me that I was sitting on a lot of one session oolong samples. It was actually really nice, though, because all the oolongs I sipped through were so diverse and different from one another!! I think for sure I sign I need to be better at remembering to give this area of my tea stash a little more love.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLxWamUAPeJ/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNq8UlzwmFU&ab_channel=AbbyWebster-Topic
The last one from the Haku Discovery Box I got at the Toronto Tea Festival. This is a lightly-oxidized, lightly-roasted, high mountain (1200m) oolong. 4g in a 100ml gaiwan, 205F water, initial steeps of 20-30 sec, gradually increasing. The scent is lovely and floral, and it lingers in the cup after drinking. The flavour is sweet, floral, with a light vegetal note that gradually increases through subsequent steeps. It was good for at least 6-7 steeps, at which point I started to lose interest but it probably could have gone for another 1 or 2 at least. Very nice!
Flavors: Floral
Preparation
3g in 300ml cold steeped overnight and into the afternoon. Hot damn, this is good! Gorgeous clear medium gold liquor, nice floral aroma when I go to sip even though it’s right out of the fridge. Tastes like a bouquet of flowers and fresh crisp watery vegetables. Very refreshing.
Finally unpacked and set up all my gongfu tea stuff, though I have no idea where my gong dao bei and filter have wandered off to. Anyway, decided to start with the Haku Discovery Box that I picked up at the Toronto Tea Festival, and with the lightest oolong in there. It’s a pouchong oolong, so the “spring in a cup” description certainly fits! The dry leaves are dark green and lightly twisted, with a light floral scent that intensifies a lot when they’re placed in a warm gaiwan. I did 3g of tea, 75ish ml water at 90 degrees C, steeps of 15/30/45/60 etc. seconds. First couple of steeps were intensely floral, not quite lilacs but similar. Then it gradually transitions to a lightly vegetal sweetness like nectar. Very fresh and light. I was slightly worried about caffeine this late at night but I actually felt really relaxed afterward. I’ve taken the other 3g and added it to 300ml water for cold steeping overnight. Even though there’s still snow on the ground out there, this tea makes me feel hopeful for spring. :)
Flavors: Floral, Nectar
Gongfu!
This session was actually crashed by a very curious squirrel who seemed to have no issues with getting up and close on the same ledge I was brewing the tea on. However, before being forced to relocate to elsewhere in the park, this was such a fresh and fragrant brew with really intense and naturally sweet floral notes of lilac, geranium, and gardenia. Especially the lilac though, which was kind of perfect because all the lilac bushes in the area surrounding the park are in full bloom right now. The liquor of the tea was also very soft and buttery, with a slightly green snap to the taste alongside a really silky note of coconut cream.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKDP8esSfir/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TipZ9_-RJ-w&ab_channel=Release-Topic
Gongfu!
Pulling out one of my tinier gaiwans today for a little tea session. Just large enough to get a taste of this new-to-me addition to my stash, and with beautiful hand painted pink detailing that I already know is going to compliment the notes of this oolong quite well! You can call it optimism, but I’m ready for winter to pass and spring to roll on in, so I’ve been leaning into that fresh and fragrant feeling through my tea sessions as of late. This one is so bright and floral, as if sticking your nose straight into a bouquet of lilies. Honey-sweet with an underlying creaminess, maybe a little coconut water on the backend with that clean, crisp feeling you get from freshly washed linens. It’s a beautiful tea that showcases some of my favourite tastes and aromas in greener/less oxidized Taiwanese oolongs.
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGY0cx4yQhe/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScBqWkDyxZw&ab_channel=PhoebeGo
Gongfu Sipdown (2530)!
I really thought the Golden Boluomi was going to be hard to top, but I think this oolong tea has done it. The tasting notes shifted in a lovely way over the coarse of the session, with cocoa notes pushing through in a more pronounced way from the third steep onwards and even some slight coffee notes at the tail end. However, for the entirety of the session there was one consistent flavour that won me over almost immediately: rich and toasty grilled corn. The kind that has almost caramelized during the roasting process and that has just a hint of char to it. So smooth and delicious. I’ve got one more sample from Haku to taste through, but this is definitely the oolong to beat!!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C35uXFiuZHa/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWp_w4vHBGg
Gongfu!
This Taiwanese oolong was maybe my favourite tea I tasted at last year’s Toronto tea festival, so I was so excited to restock it in a larger amount at this year’s festival. I have to say, the 2024 production may even be better because it was the crystal clear and ever so slightly caramelized pineapple note in last year’s harvest than made me fall in love with the tea, and this session was practically oozing that sweet, tropical pineapple flavour in the backend of the sip pretty much all throughout the session. So many oolongs that tout tropical fruit notes simply don’t deliver the way this one does.
In addition to that spectacular flavour, this is also such a pleasantly warm and toasty tasting oolong with supporting flavours of roasted quinoa, brown rice, pine nuts, brown butter and just a general overarching nuttiness. Just a special sort of oolong that I cannot recommend enough!
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DF8YBriSx79/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcsrAtOsdmY&ab_channel=FreeLunch
Gongfu Sipdown (2519)!
As such a lover of all things pineapple I was very skeptical of this smooth and medium bodied oolong, but it quickly won me over. Though I can’t help but wonder how much of this was suggestion bias, I really did get a lot of pineapple notes from this tea along with basically all of the other named tasting notes from the packaging: charred and roasted peanuts, and a hint of malt. There was also some gentle floral character to the undertones, and the fruit and floral duo in particular made me nostalgic for some oolong blends I fell in love with in my early tea drinking years that I miss quite dearly. But backtracking to the pineapple; what I tasted was specifically a rich and golden grilled pineapple note where it’s succulent, sweet and just a little caramelized. The kind of pineapple that kind of falls apart and melts in your mouth. Certainly not as intense as the real deal and with a lot of accompanying mineral and roasted notes more typical of an oolong. Very impactful and authentic to this tea’s namesake, bias or not…Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C25n4zPuEjY/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGdu0KNNRYg
Gongfu Sipdown (2517)!
So I actually first saw Haku Tea on instagram and I was really intrigued by their oolong selection but, if I’m being honest, I was having a hard time judging whether I was really interested in the tea or just the incredibly sleek branding. I had no idea they were a Canadian company, and I got SUPER excited when I saw them at the Toronto Tea Festival because I got to scope out the tea selection in person.
I ended up getting their discovery box which had session size samples of pretty much all their teas (except one). I’m definitely going to be having a fun time exploring this in the next short while.
I decided to start with Misty Mountain which seems to not only be their lightest oxidized oolong but also their best seller. I definitely drink more roasted/heavily oxidized oolongs than lighter ones, but I was pretty impressed by this one. The leaves were beautiful with a fresh floral aroma even when dry that just got so much more potent and aromatic the moment the water hit the leaf.
The longevity was great. I got about eight pretty solid infusions, though steeps three through five were for sure the sweet spot. It was very floral with notes of sweet pea, magnolias, and clean linens – kind of an overall “Bath & Bodyworks/Body Shop” vibe but in the best way possible. Not fake and headache inducing but just really natural interpretations of those more iconic/overused scents from their lotions and candles. Maybe a bit of green melon, though not a ton. Some steeps had this very pleasant “peaches and cream corn” note. If you’re not sure what I’m referencing, I don’t mean literal peaches but rather a specific varietal of corn that is naturally quite sweet.
Definitely set a high bar for the rest of the samples to meet!
Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2s0PrrOpqr/?img_index=1 (First Pic)
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvK0YIKQCE4
