Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[JRS22]

A long session with Wuxi 3 Stamps Shu Xian from TeaLife HK brewed in a Japanese pot. It's a red shudei pot from Maekawa Junzo with a direct filter. It's a small pot but with a very wide opening so it's easy to fit in the tea without breaking the leaves. After 8 delicious steeps I can feel a buzz but I don't have to get up early tomorrow so it's ok if I can't sleep tonight! Each steep tastes a bit different, not weaker, so it never gets boring.

[jayinhk]

Revisiting Chen's traditional charcoal roast dongding (via kyarazen). Wow, this tea is amazing now. The roast has dissipated significantly. Getting sweet plum and coconut notes and this tea is clean with nothing at all unpleasant. Just lovely. The roast was quite dominant earlier this year, but it's now a much more pleasant tea after resting some! This tea is definitely worth the asking price.

Yes it's great, the wet leaves are super aromatic and beautiful chestnuty earth shades to look at. I'm saving them. Roasted sweet chestnuts, slight camphor, maybe plum, but never had coconut notes appear. Likely your locations humidity interacts with dry leaf to unveil unique properties.
Also, Chen's Charcoal Roasted DaYuLin is a supreme experience, and his Roasted High Mountain tasty as well as a fantastic value.

Could just be my palate or my water--brewing with Vittel and local water (mixed). Vittel on its own, once boiled, leaves lots of calcium carbonate behind in the kettle, which irritates my throat. Our local water here in HK is very soft in comparison.

I can see why you'd say chestnut, but it's not quite chestnut to me, and I don't notice any camphor, but again, I could see why you'd say that.

I might have to look at his other teas down the line. I have lots of perishable tea to get through while I can!

[jayinhk]

A long session with Wuxi 3 Stamps Shu Xian from TeaLife HK brewed in a Japanese pot. It's a red shudei pot from Maekawa Junzo with a direct filter. It's a small pot but with a very wide opening so it's easy to fit in the tea without breaking the leaves. After 8 delicious steeps I can feel a buzz but I don't have to get up early tomorrow so it's ok if I can't sleep tonight! Each steep tastes a bit different, not weaker, so it never gets boring.

Lovely setup! I like the pot and the clay like it would do well with high fire Three Stamp. I brewed some Three Stamp out to five or six infusions earlier this week and yes, there is still flavor there, but the roast dominates (to me)! Glad you're enjoying it. I put some of the Three Stamp into an old Hong Kong-made pewter caddy earlier this year, but it looks like the humidity got into it. I'll have to give it some heat to get the moisture out of it.

[victoria3]

Yes JRS22 beautiful Japanese pot. Love the large lid opening, shape and clay.

I just had a great combination; aged rhum from Martinique followed by Chen's Roasted DongDing. Wow, they are both incredibly aromatic and the rhum intensifies the sweet aspects of the roasted DongDing. Very nice together.

[hopeofdawn]

Drinking a dan cong special reserve from one of the few local tea shops I still buy from-the New Century Tea Gallery (most of my buying is online these days, as my palate gets more picky). It's a lovely oolong, full of aroma and flavor, and forgiving enough for me to dump near-boiling water on it at work without turning bitter on me. Sadly, no pretty teaware pics since I can't have open cups next to the equipment at work.

[ethan]

Drinking Dr Chen's High Roller tonight, I played w/ temperature quite a bit. I started at 92C which led flavor of the slow charcoal-roasting to dominate. W/most teas that are fairly well-roasted, once an infusion has those flavors dominating, subsequent infusions are similar; however, dropping to 85C for the 2nd infusion brought out green gaoshan green oolong flavors w/ this High Roller. 3rd & 4th infusions were at 88C which produced a good balance of the two competing types of flavors.

In short, so tasty & interesting.

I do not always learn proper names, but at least "High" reminds me the leaves are from heights of Lishan & "Roller" that it is handrolled (& since I don't care whether tea is handrolled or machine-rolled, it is a memory clue for traditional roasting).

[victoria3]

Switching up my morning half asleep routine to now include Hua Yin Chen's very economical Medium Roasted High Mountain. Pleasantly aromatic first thing and flavorful steeped in Hokujo's 250ml kyusu. A nice big round of steeps in the morning is perfect. I'm also going through teaware withdrawal symptoms, as I'm getting ready for a trip, having to decide what teaware to take and all the beauties I'll be leaving behind.

[Zared]

Sipping on an aged Butterfly brand fujian teabag. Using 3 bags in a 50ml gaiwan it has nice aged herbal and mineral quality but gets bitter rather quickly. Much better with just a single bag. Not sure how old this is but I'm guessing it's probably from 80's. It came sealed in plastic but bags are only wrapped in paper. Nothing fancy but than again I only payed $1.25/box of 20 at store near my house. I'm gonna buy a brand new production of this to compare.

[ethan]

Sipping on an aged Butterfly brand fujian teabag....Not sure how old this is but I'm guessing it's probably from 80's. .. Nothing fancy but than again I only payed $1.25/box of 20 at store near my house. I'm gonna buy a brand new production of this to compare.

when I see "aged," I think of tea stored purposefully to improve w/ time. Is it wrong to assume, this box of teabags is just very old? How much is a box of new teabags?

[jayinhk]

Sipping on an aged Butterfly brand fujian teabag....Not sure how old this is but I'm guessing it's probably from 80's. .. Nothing fancy but than again I only payed $1.25/box of 20 at store near my house. I'm gonna buy a brand new production of this to compare.

when I see "aged," I think of tea stored purposefully to improve w/ time. Is it wrong to assume, this box of teabags is just very old? How much is a box of new teabags?

A lot of 'aged' tea on the market was aged accidentally--put to the side and forgotten about. Those old teabags are probably worth much more than the asking price to collectors and tea heads in today's market.

[Zared]

Sipping on an aged Butterfly brand fujian teabag....Not sure how old this is but I'm guessing it's probably from 80's. .. Nothing fancy but than again I only payed $1.25/box of 20 at store near my house. I'm gonna buy a brand new production of this to compare.

when I see "aged," I think of tea stored purposefully to improve w/ time. Is it wrong to assume, this box of teabags is just very old? How much is a box of new teabags?

I'd say flavor\aroma are more important than intent in determing if something is aged or just old.

[ethan]

Zared, I agree w/ you 100% that ultimately the aroma & flavor delivered is what really matters. Dong ding teabags I bought in Taipei are giving me 2 good infusions & one fair one so conveniently. I don't know what is written on the packaging. I was told "dong ding" & the price. I like them & their price (not expensive but > 6 cents a bag you paid for the butterfly brand).

I've become the eccentric uncle w/ the tea (around the holidays) & those teabags make it unnecessary for me to be bothered w/ teaware etc. when I go w/ my little contribution to a gathering of friends & family.

[ethan]

Quite cold in Boston today. After walking to supermarket & back, I settled down w/ the 50% oxidized, roasted TGY bought at Maokong to make a serious effort to enjoy drinking & experimenting w/ this oolong. 20 seconds at 88C; 20 sec. at 85C; 30 seconds at 92C; & 45 seconds at 96C produced 4 infusions considerably different from each other. Got much flavor of green TGY & charcoal roast in all infusions. Flavor & smoothness of oxidation developed as the tea session progressed. This is tasty & interesting.

I think the first couple of sessions of this did not impress me as much because I had been drinking Father's Love from Dr Chen everyday. A couple of day's w/o drinking that, & this 50% ox. TGY did not suffer by comparison.

4 rounds in 40 minutes gave me a caffeine buzz. That was a surprise.

[jayinhk]

Quite cold in Boston today. After walking to supermarket & back, I settled down w/ the 50% oxidized, roasted TGY bought at Maokong to make a serious effort to enjoy drinking & experimenting w/ this oolong. 20 seconds at 88C; 20 sec. at 85C; 30 seconds at 92C; & 45 seconds at 96C produced 4 infusions considerably different from each other. Got much flavor of green TGY & charcoal roast in all infusions. Flavor & smoothness of oxidation developed as the tea session progressed. This is tasty & interesting.

I think the first couple of sessions of this did not impress me as much because I had been drinking Father's Love from Dr Chen everyday. A couple of day's w/o drinking that, & this 50% ox. TGY did not suffer by comparison.

4 rounds in 40 minutes gave me a caffeine buzz. That was a surprise.

Also drinking Taiwanese tieguanyin today (Muzha). This stuff is relatively green. Purchased in Taipei in December 2015, I believe I reroasted this stuff at some point. Nice orchid flavor and milk, with huigan, nice mouthfeel and just a touch of bitterness and sourness. I went five infusions. The fifth was a long one as I got busy with other stuff, and it was quite strong. I think the Muzha stuff is good for six or more infusions! All infusions with water at a rolling boil.

[hopeofdawn]

Indulging in some private reserve Oriental Beauty from Taiwanteacrafts--I try not to drink this too often to keep it special. Definitely worth appreciating--beautiful aroma and taste!

And since I'm home for a change, a pic!