Exploring the taste of Lishan

Lishan tea plantations

This spring, I selected several high mountain Oolongs from very close mountains: Tsui Feng, Tsui Luan, LiShan and FuShouShan. Usually, they'd be all be lumped as Lishan (or FuShou Shan). This horizontal tasting of very similar Oolongs is a great practice to feel the subtleties of different mountains.
I recently received an e-mail from a reader, passionate for tea, who works in a famous tea shop (in the Western world) that specializes in Taiwanese Oolongs. What he wrote made my day:

"I tried the Lishan I ordered from you and it was very different than the ones offered at the place I work at. Your Taiwanese Oolongs seems to be much sweeter and higher notes that sings while the ones I try at my place are a bit more vegetal (sic) and thick."

There are numerous reasons why it's not easy to find real Lishan Oolong outside (and even inside) Taiwan. One of them is that too few people know the real flavor of this noble location.