I got 4 excellent steeps with boiling water. The flavor profile is different, sweeter and with less or none of the smoky roast overtones I was getting with 195° water.jayinhk wrote:Let me know what you think! I'm drinking Thai baozhong today. It seems to lack flavor, so I may roast it!
Re: a recent wuyi vendor tour
Re: a recent wuyi vendor tour
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm going to have to add brewing suggestions to each of the teas on the site as I've noticed a few people brewing the oolongs cooler than is traditional, and perhaps, optimal!JRS22 wrote:I got 4 excellent steeps with boiling water. The flavor profile is different, sweeter and with less or none of the smoky roast overtones I was getting with 195° water.jayinhk wrote:Let me know what you think! I'm drinking Thai baozhong today. It seems to lack flavor, so I may roast it!
I was reading an article yesterday and some say shuixian in Bangkok was roasted to a high level so tobacco and opium smokers would still be able to taste their tea! Hong Kong was full of opium dens at one point; maybe shuixian was the tea of choice among the Fujianese opium heads in the earlier part of the 20th century. Opium addicts drinking high fire shuixian is quite an interesting mental image to me!
Sep 27th, '16, 01:54
Posts: 760
Joined: Aug 1st, '12, 08:20
Location: not anymore Bangkok, not really arrived in Germany
Re: a recent wuyi vendor tour
jayinhk wrote:Glad you enjoyed it! I'm going to have to add brewing suggestions to each of the teas on the site as I've noticed a few people brewing the oolongs cooler than is traditional, and perhaps, optimal!JRS22 wrote:I got 4 excellent steeps with boiling water. The flavor profile is different, sweeter and with less or none of the smoky roast overtones I was getting with 195° water.jayinhk wrote:Let me know what you think! I'm drinking Thai baozhong today. It seems to lack flavor, so I may roast it!
I was reading an article yesterday and some say shuixian in Bangkok was roasted to a high level so tobacco and opium smokers would still be able to taste their tea! Hong Kong was full of opium dens at one point; maybe shuixian was the tea of choice among the Fujianese opium heads in the earlier part of the 20th century. Opium addicts drinking high fire shuixian is quite an interesting mental image to me!
It has more to do with the fact that high firing protected the tea during the journey over the sea, and people here just then got used to the high firing of Yancha. Some people said to me that it helps them tasting when they are used to the extremely spicy food here. Slowly less high fired Yancha gets occasionally available here as well.
Re: a recent wuyi vendor tour
Just what I read in a translated Thai article about Three Horses (the Thai tea company). The original owner got his start selling shuixian. I agree that high roast tea was roasted for better stability (and it holds its flavor better with age, too).
Sep 27th, '16, 06:23
Posts: 760
Joined: Aug 1st, '12, 08:20
Location: not anymore Bangkok, not really arrived in Germany
Re: a recent wuyi vendor tour
jayinhk wrote:Just what I read in a translated Thai article about Three Horses (the Thai tea company). The original owner got his start selling shuixian. I agree that high roast tea was roasted for better stability (and it holds its flavor better with age, too).
Research of my tea teacher came to the result that originally Yancha was not that high roasted as many yancha, including Shui Xien, are today - but roasted just the right amount. I also strongly contest the notion that high roasted Yancha keeps its flavor better. Good Yancha, well stored, does develop with age, not as profoundly as sheng pu erh, but it still considerably increases in depth.
I have some lesser roasted (not minimal roasted, as some are now today as well) of top quality stored for 10 and 15 years myself, and these teas are simply fabulous.
Re: a recent wuyi vendor tour
From what I've read, tea that was made to travel has long been roasted more than what was consumed in the place of origin.theredbaron wrote:jayinhk wrote:Just what I read in a translated Thai article about Three Horses (the Thai tea company). The original owner got his start selling shuixian. I agree that high roast tea was roasted for better stability (and it holds its flavor better with age, too).
Research of my tea teacher came to the result that originally Yancha was not that high roasted as many yancha, including Shui Xien, are today - but roasted just the right amount. I also strongly contest the notion that high roasted Yancha keeps its flavor better. Good Yancha, well stored, does develop with age, not as profoundly as sheng pu erh, but it still considerably increases in depth.
I have some lesser roasted (not minimal roasted, as some are now today as well) of top quality stored for 10 and 15 years myself, and these teas are simply fabulous.
I have access to very good high roast Wuyicha that has been stored in pewter for twenty years right here in Hong Kong, and I find its character is closer to what it was when fresh, just more mellow. Lighter roasted stuff seems to change in flavor more significantly, but is still very enjoyable. I enjoy both, really, as long as the humidity hasn't gotten to it and the base material was good to start with! Too low or too high of a roast also makes the tea fade out to nothing, however, so there is a range of roast levels that age well, IMO.