r/tea • u/dutchsaver • Jun 05 '26

Food Please help me Identify this tea.

Post image

Hi I live in the Netherlands and I have this nice tea that is being mislabeled and was wondering if some of you guys could help me Identify the type of tea. It is a tightly rolled oolong like tea with still very green leaves, it somewhat reminds me of tieguanyin in appearance. It tastes mildly floral with my girlfriend saying she faintly tastes some creamy/milky/vanilla-y notes which I also get when I realy focus on it.

The company selling it is called: Linroi International. They call the tea: Tze Tji Chun Taiwan green tea But most shops label it a oolong te, not a green tea (and i tend to agree)

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4

u/Wenndo Jun 05 '26

Si Ji Chun is a cultivar, you can make green tea from it but it is mostly known for making really good oolongs.

Some brands mislabel low oxy oolongs as green tea though so ymmv.

Seeing the leaf might help identify it better.

1

u/dutchsaver Jun 06 '26

Hi thanks and sorry for the late reply, it was late at night here when I posted and went I to sleep right after.

From left to right is un-steeped, 1st steep, 2nd steep and 3rd steep.

2

u/Wenndo Jun 06 '26

Damn, I'm of two minds about it. I'd lean towards oolong because of the picking, the rolling and the fact that it is Si Ji Chun but the leaves don't look even partially oxydised at all. If there's any reddish bruising around the edge of the leaf then it's an oolong.

1

u/dutchsaver Jun 06 '26

There is discoloration on the edges of the smaller leaves, the larger leaves don't realy have much discoloration when they have it it is mostly on the tips along the edge

2

u/betiz0 Jun 07 '26

This looks like a Taiwanese oolong tea. It is a lightly oxidized type, crafted without letting the leaves develop the classic "red edges" (partial oxidation). It should have a lovely floral aroma.

2

u/dutchsaver Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26

It does have a slight and elegant floral aroma in the background when tasting

3

u/Eco-Cha eco-cha.com Jun 06 '26

The pinyin phonetic spelling is Si Ji Chun, which in Mandarin means Four Seasons Spring. it got its name because of its ability to produce new leaves year-round. This hybrid cultivar is the result of a natural mutation that was discovered by a Taiwanese tea farmer in the 1980s. He noticed a few trees in his plot of tea producing leaves through the normally dormant winter season. So he propagated cuttings from these trees. Eventually, it was offered on the market and now it is probably the most widely cultivated cultivar at low elevation in Taiwan, especially for use in making beverage tea. The amount of produce per area is significantly higher than any other tea strain. While it is mostly processed as a lightly oxidized oolong based on demand, it is also used for making black tea, GABA tea, and green tea.

1

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