Si Ji Chun (sìjìchūn 四季春) — four-seasons Taiwanese oolong

In the cup

Bright gardenia and magnolia over a fresh, smooth body — lively and clean, with a cool returning sweetness and a light to medium weight.

What it gives

A refreshing, everyday oolong — light and clean, gentle on the stomach and a fine cold-brew.

Si Ji Chun — four-seasons spring — is the great workhorse oolong of low-elevation Taiwan, grown above all around Mingjian in Nantou. The name is barely an exaggeration: the cultivar buds and crops almost year-round, yielding as many as eight harvests, which made it the backbone of the island’s booming cold-tea and bubble-tea trade.

Volume does not mean dullness. The leaf carries an intense, clean floral fragrance led by gardenia, with magnolia and a wild-ginger lily note behind it — a scent that meets you before the water is even poured. The cup is fresh and lively, smoother and sweeter in the prized spring and winter pickings, with a cool, lingering sweetness in the throat.

In the cup

Brew it gongfu, just off the boil, for a bright floral cup; or cold-brew it, where it truly shines — left in cold water for a few hours it gives a clean, sweet, gardenia-clear drink with no bitterness. Spring and winter leaf are the ones to seek; do not confuse the cultivar with Jin Xuan.

How to brew