Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[jayinhk]

Drinking last spring's SLX--still quite lovely. I may roast what I have left at 120 degrees C to see how it turns out. I'll definitely be roasting some of my Vietnamese gaoshan to see what happens as I have a fair bit of it!

[kuánglóng]

I was just sad to have finished a thermos session with SeaDyke TKY because it came out especially smooth and mellow this afternoon and evening. When I get it right, it's so very comforting.

Sipping old Sea Dyke SX right now. I've kept some of it in a porcelain caddy for more than a year and it has turned pretty sweet and smooth in there.

I've never had anything but the SeaDyke TKY, the one Dad's calligraphy buddy introduced him to. I should check out the SX some day: it sounds like it may share the same decent, steady quality that is so desirable in the TKY.

I've never tried the Sea Dyke TKY but the SX has some of that comforting quality you've mentioned as well and if the time is right I do enjoy it just as much as some fancy hand-produced yanchas that cost xy times as much.

[jayinhk]

Baking 150-180g of Spring 2014 Vietnamese 'gaoshan' at 120 Celsius right now...let's see how it turns out! Baking in a big Pyrex dish. I'll move the tea around every thirty minutes. My whole living room smells like the green oolong now.

EDIT: The smell went from green to buttery sweet and floral in 30 minutes, and the leaves have turned significantly darker. The tea wasn't all that to drink after two years, but the amount of aroma the leaves are giving off indicates there is plenty of aroma and flavor there! It looks like I'll get a nice medium roast after a few hours of baking. I have an exhaust fan in the kitchen, but it couldn't handle the aromas from the tea. I turned on the exhaust fans over the stove, too, and now the smell is bearable--the baking tea was making my eyes water!

The true test of this tea will be 3-4 months down the line, after it has rested some. I may push the tea to 130 Celsius to see what I get, as I am quite fond of my dark roast TGYs; maybe I'll see what 120 turns out like and then bake the tea again down the line if I don't like it at 120.

On the Chinese market, Sea Dyke have introduced premium Shuixian and Dahongpao offerings. I have yet to try them, but I will at some point (as long as they can ship to Hong Kong without issues).

[ethan]

Drank a hell of a lot of Dongfang Meiren, that is Oriental Beauty or Eastern Beauty in Pinglin today. Bought the best that I found which is very good though different than what I bought in January. Putting the tins in my big suitcase, I remembered I am flying home on Delta though I came on Emirates which means 1 checked bag instead of 2. I may have a situation here.

The aroma of the dry leaves is relatively mild & drinking seems sweeter. I sort of brain-dead as I tried so many. W/ me was a French lady I met at my hostel. She could not handle all of the infusions; so, only when I thought we found a candidate for buying did she take more than one swallow. This last offer hit me as best & I did not say why. She agreed & drank 3 rounds w/ me & purchased a tin. Words might come back later. Cheers

[ethan]

Got some Tie Guan Yin today that is 50% oxidized. It is oxidized & roasted (lightly I believe), resulting in flavors of black tea & green tea balanced beautifully. I feel I get what is best from green (or perhaps more accurately green oolong) w/o what I don't like w/ what I like from a good basic but somewhat complex Taiwanese black. Really a good find & another new pleasure. Cannot remember exactly how many, but we drank at least a few infusions of this when testing.

[ethan]

This afternoon drank several rounds of High Roller, the traditionally made tea from LiShan. I was preparing it in 2 vessels differently & running them through infusions together to have a real learning experience. Conclusions: Lower temperature & quicker steeping produces great green gaoshan flavor stronger than taste of the roast. This way the purpose of the roast it seems, is to smooth the green rather than to feature itself greatly. A bit higher in temp &/or longer in steeping brings out a balance of the 2 main characteristics of the tea, the fresh mountain green flavor & wonderful flavor of protracted slow roasting in a terrific blend. Water in the high 90s C & long steeping turns up the roast to give that strong charcoal roast taste that almost buries all other aspects. (Answered something for me on whether wood or charcoal was used. I thought maybe wood because I did not taste any charcoal when at teashop or when I made it in hotel in Tainan.)

Anyway, quite delicious & as I use a few grams for 6 ounces to get several infusions, economical enough.

[Mozwik]

I have a friend who married a Taiwanese girl and now lives in Taipei. Luckily he comes back to visit each year and he brought me back a nice stash. Right now I am drinking some lovely Li Shan. It has a bright yellow liquor but a big buttery mouthfeel. Very nice and my current favourite. I only have 1/4 Jin so need to use it sparingly as it's another 10 months till he comes back

[jayinhk]

Woke up to a good high roast Three Stamp shuixian from a Hong Kong dealer (not the Three Stamp on my site, but I'll definitely add this one too, as it is excellent). I've had the 125g can for four years now! The roast has subsided almost entirely and I'm getting some aromatics that wouldn't have been detectable through the roast and dominant shuixian character, which has also receded almost entirely. It's like a different tea after some age and is really quite lovely, and is also very mild and smooth drinking. It was a great way to wake up!

[ethan]

Mozwik, You don't need to use your stash sparingly over 11 months. You can use it up, then buy some tea. Lots of people buy tea. We can help you, if you want help. Cheers.

Jay, Interesting that time allowed aromatics to shine when previously they were buried under the taste of roasting. I have a lot of roasted tea & mostly in 50-gram well-sealed bags. I'll put some away. I can open them & put them in tins or put them closed in tins...etc. Any suggestions?

I have been drinking a traditionally slow-roasted Lishan oolong, which in my use of names to make it easier for me to pronounce, I call High Roller. One time I thought low-temp brought out the green tastes but this experience has not been duplicated. Other people taste some green flavor but I get a wonderful but not so dynamic experience--roast. I don't have ceramic tea caddies on the road so look forward to putting the tea in one to see if it opens up more flavors. Is great now but....

[jayinhk]

Mozwik, You don't need to use your stash sparingly over 11 months. You can use it up, then buy some tea. Lots of people buy tea. We can help you, if you want help. Cheers.

Jay, Interesting that time allowed aromatics to shine when previously they were buried under the taste of roasting. I have a lot of roasted tea & mostly in 50-gram well-sealed bags. I'll put some away. I can open them & put them in tins or put them closed in tins...etc. Any suggestions?

I have been drinking a traditionally slow-roasted Lishan oolong, which in my use of names to make it easier for me to pronounce, I call High Roller. One time I thought low-temp brought out the green tastes but this experience has not been duplicated. Other people taste some green flavor but I get a wonderful but not so dynamic experience--roast. I don't have ceramic tea caddies on the road so look forward to putting the tea in one to see if it opens up more flavors. Is great now but....

Ethan, just keep in the container. Four years seems to be the amount of time that works best with high roast Wuyicha. No idea as far as rolled oolongs, but I have some lovely aged chin shin oolong.

[Psyck]

<...> I have a lot of roasted tea & mostly in 50-gram well-sealed bags. I'll put some away. I can open them & put them in tins or put them closed in tins...etc. <...>

I like to seal them (with plastic clips) in their original bags or store the sealed bags in tins. I don't like to open them up and store them in containers as I don't think the extra air contact would be good for something that is going to be stored for years.

[ethan]

Thanks for advice on storing roasted oolong. I will keep the vacuum packs intact & put them into tea tins.

Back to Donfang Meiren, or what we call Oriental Beauty.

Today I went to Wang tea company. It boasts it has been in operation for > 100 years. It is a 5-minute walk from where I stay. Pleasant & friendly place w/ the types of tea there sold in a few grades. Elsewhere I had already bought some very good Dongfang Meiren but had not found it to be the same as what I got last January. I mentioned this expecting a fairly long response. Instead it was suggested I try some of theirs & see if I liked it. Of the 5 grades, started w/ the middle one. Good, not thrilling. The next to best grade seemed much better to me; moreover, it is very interesting, complex, & features tart fruit flavors. I committed to getting some; then, I asked to try the top grade. I did not like it. Surprisingly, it was quite astringent. (Staff definitely liked it, coming to empty the server of stacked infusions. To them the dryness was a slow, prolonged release of flavor.)

So, there is more tea going into the package that I am posting to myself in America tomorrow.

[ethan]

Everyday I have been drinking traditionally slow-roasted Lishan oolong nicknamed High Roller. It's not really difficult to get exactly what I prefer from this tea; but I have missed the mark a few times. A quick rinse is not enough to open this up; the pearls need to sit in my warm (pre-heated) gaiwan w/ the lid on. Then I cannot exceed 85C for the water. The results: delicious high-mountain green oolong flavors w/ the smooth taste of roast & hint of mint. This is what it tasted like in the shop when I decided to buy a lot of it.

If I want roasted flavor to be very strong, all I need to do is up temperature; however, then all subsequent infusions will lose the chance of featuring other flavors except in a very subtle way (for my palate, others disagree).

I love this tea when I prepare it as I should prepare it: &, there is no bitter gaoshan aftertaste. I think that is what oxidation, aging, & roasting are meant to do: smooth teas, add some flavor of roast w/o burying the good gaoshan qualities the maker started with.

[jayinhk]

Drinking aged baozhong from Tony @ Origin Tea (from before Origin Tea). I've had the last of the bag aging in a pewter caddy. Lovely aged taste and still plenty of interesting date/plum origin character since it's been roasted. Really a nice tea with calming energy and a pleasant flavor. Some light sourness, but it balances well with the overall profile of the tea. Really quite enjoyable. Once this stuff is gone, I guess that's it! Fortunately I have most of a 150g bag of good aged roasted baozhong to dip into that I've had for almost two years now!

[victoria3]

Back to back oolongs. I'm happy to say I'm now a fan of DongDing and doubly happy it does not have to cost a fortune. It's nice to have a tea with a broad range; one that can be enjoyed casually and also, when enough time is available to slow down and absorb every moment. Today, I tried Mountain Tea Medium Roast DongDing and really enjoyed it. It has some of those expansive chestnut roasted almost pepperminty notes that I found in Chen's Medium Roast Dong Ding. I haven't tried them side by side yet, but enjoyed both.

Here is Chen's Medium Roast Dong Ding in my new HongNi Duo QiuShui by Fang Jian Fen (from Ferg via Tony at Origin). A beautiful teapot with the Heart Sutra Buddhist Scripture inscribed on it. Sipping in my 19thc Canton teabowl.
Next to it, Bird Pick High Mountain Oolong, in my Chinese houhin (for a Japanese client) that I've finally broken in after three years of airing and seasoning.