My Recent Brew
Shui Xian translates (according to Wikipedia) to water sprite. It is a darker oolong, as you can see from the steeping pictured here. I really like the cultivar of tea because it has a lot of diversity to it. The aged Shui Xian I've had was really floral and beautiful, this one was nutty. I find quite a few of the Wuyi oolong teas have a nuttiness in the flavor for me and I wish I had better words to describe that because it's not like eating a handful of any particular nut I could think of. The closest I've found is some of the green teas I've had for hot tea at local Chinese restaurants.
But this is much smoother, richer, and salivary. As with every other version of Shui Xian I've had, it lends well to multiple steepings. I'm one of those that will do as many as I can until the flavor is either too bitter or akin to water. As an aside, the bags these teas come in are just so beautiful. If you were going to judge a tea by it's cover, all around this one wins.