Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[jayinhk]

Please excuse my further questioning but, what exactly do you mean by first pour when the water on the pot evaporates?

As for tonight, I finished off a few Japanese green sessions and decided that before bed I would brew up some not-so-classy high roast tieguanyin by sea dyke. The cheap 2 dollar stuff for 125 grams in the yellow box. I boil 12 oz of water at 195 and then put two heaping teaspoons, let it sit for a few minutes before covering, and then just let it steep for a random period of time, perhaps 20 minutes or so before I start drinking. Then I just drink to the bottom over time. Sort of like grandpa but without refilling at any point. It makes for a rather intense and yet still rather mellow fruity, sweet, astringent drink with a long-lasting brightness on the palate. Exactly how I love it... I grew up drinking sea dyke and I do not know if I will ever be able to let it go. Great stuff on the cheap for bulk brewing. I have no problem getting through these boxes.

David, many people who use Yixings for gongfucha pour boiling water and/or tea rinse over their pots. The water forms a film, and then evaporates. I time my first few infusions this way with many of the oolongs I drink.

[daidokorocha]

Please excuse my further questioning but, what exactly do you mean by first pour when the water on the pot evaporates?

As for tonight, I finished off a few Japanese green sessions and decided that before bed I would brew up some not-so-classy high roast tieguanyin by sea dyke. The cheap 2 dollar stuff for 125 grams in the yellow box. I boil 12 oz of water at 195 and then put two heaping teaspoons, let it sit for a few minutes before covering, and then just let it steep for a random period of time, perhaps 20 minutes or so before I start drinking. Then I just drink to the bottom over time. Sort of like grandpa but without refilling at any point. It makes for a rather intense and yet still rather mellow fruity, sweet, astringent drink with a long-lasting brightness on the palate. Exactly how I love it... I grew up drinking sea dyke and I do not know if I will ever be able to let it go. Great stuff on the cheap for bulk brewing. I have no problem getting through these boxes.

David, many people who use Yixings for gongfucha pour boiling water and/or tea rinse over their pots. The water forms a film, and then evaporates. I time my first few infusions this way with many of the oolongs I drink.

Ah, no wonder. I have never used yixing! In fact, I never have used a gaiwan either for gongfu brewing. I typically use shiboridashi I generally stick to Japanese teaware for everything. In Japan I have seen a great variation in shiboridashi, and so there are many to pick from depending on your purpose. To me, shiboridashi is the best brewing vessel.

[debunix]

I'm enjoying a thermos of SeaDyke TKY myself right now. So tasty & reliable.


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[ethan]

Got caught in rain today so came home wet & cold. I've been drinking many infusions of roasted TGY & organic dayuling from Taiwan. Today they don't taste much different from each other.

As I found my favorite way to prepare these teas, they taste more alike. I use a small thin-walled porcelain pot filled w/ about 70 ml of 88C water & < 1.5 grams of tea. I steep for < 15 seconds. I drink a little of each infusion directly & pour the rest into a server that gets mixed w/ other infusions.

(Sometimes when the leaves have little left to give I add cooler water & let the pot sit for an extended period.)

Between noon & now I've drunk > a liter of tea & feel a mild version of chaqi. A wonderful aftertaste has mingled w/ the taste of the 2 meals I ate during these extended sessions. Quite a nice way to handle a chill.

[debunix]

An odd lack of fresh-brewed tea today: started with hot-start, cold brewed Zhangshu Lake oolong, and intermittently have been finishing off a thermos of Sea Dyke TKY, topped up with boiling water earlier today. So nice to deal with pleasant uncomplicated teas at times, but looking forward to something a little more involved this evening.

[jayinhk]

Drinking a very good locally-purchased qi lan shui xian in a brand new F1 heini pot. I've had this tea aging for a few years in glass. Results were good, but I originally bought the pot for pu erh, so more testing is needed. The lovely orchid flavor came across cleanly and the tea seemed smoother than in my usual pot, so it was very pleasant. I usually use pin zini for this tea, but I have to see how it performs in hongni!

[jayinhk]

Two minute steeps of 2013 dancong in a large Chaozhou pot. First time using this pot. Seems promising...smooth and nice orchid aroma. I think the pot will work well with dancong once it is well saturated with tea solutes. I wasn't planning on using this pot with dancong because of its size and thickness, but it seems like it will work well.

[wei301]

Drinking a very good locally-purchased qi lan shui xian in a brand new F1 heini pot. The lovely orchid flavor came across cleanly and the tea seemed smoother than in my usual pot, so it was very pleasant.

Hi, jayinhk, may I ask what kind of tea is "qi lan shui xian"? I've tried qi lan yancha, and shui xian yancha. Is "qi lan shui xian" a mixture of both? Thanks.

[jayinhk]

Drinking a very good locally-purchased qi lan shui xian in a brand new F1 heini pot. The lovely orchid flavor came across cleanly and the tea seemed smoother than in my usual pot, so it was very pleasant.

Hi, jayinhk, may I ask what kind of tea is "qi lan shui xian"? I've tried qi lan yancha, and shui xian yancha. Is "qi lan shui xian" a mixture of both? Thanks.

I think qi lan may actually just be a shuixian cultivar or a shuixian with different processing. This stuff has a very clean and strong orchid taste and aroma to it. Traditional Hong Kong dealers are notorious for just selling tea with a name...no story behind it! No harvest dates, no processing info, nothing, just a name. If you like the tea, you buy it. lol

[daidokorocha]

Last month I got a few oolongs from Dragon Tea House and boy have I been disappointed in two of them. These two are their Alishan and their Premium Tieguanyin. I found this a real shame because I used to order their tieguanyin (not even the premium) all the time as my daily drinker I took with me everywhere and loved it. However, I will say that perhaps it is just because I have not brewed oolongs in a year and am getting back my brewing technique and recently experimenting with brand new pots. Yesterday the tieguanyin magically came alive, although a few tweaks are still needed. The Alishan today fared better than it had, but I am still not completely happy with it. Something tells me there was a reason it was on sale? More leaf perhaps might do it. As it was, it went 7 steeps before I decided to give up the session, but for the most part the flavor always seemed a bit... distant. Mostly fruity-floralness. Reminded me of a weaker version of a Gui Fei I had recently in the tropical fruityness of it but without the stronger honey notes and butteriness. These flavors were absence before though for whatever reason and the brews were dominated by a sort of stale roast taste that wasn't very appealing. For whatever reason they have improved and I look forward to using them up now. I know not to expect too much out of very cheap tea, but they were giving me absolutely nothing. I am much more satisfied now.

[ethan]

This tea tastes good but not like it should. It does not look as I remember it looking before.

Yesterday, I opened a sealed foil pack of Bai-Hao Oriental Beauty from Thailand. I bought it in March (2016) at Tea-Village in Pattaya. Vee told me that this particular harvest from 2015 was unusual.

Vee is exacting & analytical; so, I assumed the tea was much less different than he was saying it was. We had been drinking tea for 3 hours so I refused an offer to try some before buying. I did not even look at it.

It tastes good but more like the white tea I have from Nepal than it tastes like the Bai-Hao I bought at Tea-Village in September 2015 or March 2015. Those teas tasted of cinnamon & other spices. Some people even thought spices were added (which they were not). No taste of spices in this latest batch of Thai oriental beauty.

Anyway, what I have now is quite pleasing & produces many infusions (> my white tea does). I found it best to use 80 - 82C water (not my usual 88C). Lingering sweetness is especially nice.

The tea is very good but not as expected. No worries, but I must remember to sample whenever possible.

[jayinhk]

Drinking a Chaozhou-roasted Da Hong Pao. Not a very high grade, but it is distinctly DHP. Mild, but excellent flavor (tastes like a good DHP should, just nowhere near as intense). Processing and roast are good, IMO, and higher than a lot of the DHP on the Mainland Chinese market, which is now roasted lighter than is traditional. The roast dominates, especially in the second infusion onward. Not a bad DHP for casual drinking. Interestingly this tea performs better in a finer zini shuiping than in my F1 hongni, perhaps because of the dominant roast.

[bankung]

2014 Qiqu yancha from matouyan. Divine.

So sweet, complex, gentle and upliftings.

[daidokorocha]

The ounces really sneak up on you...

I did three teas back-to-back-to-back. All tieguanyin, two of which I received from Ethan. I cannot express my gratitude enough for the opportunity to try the teas you sent me. Certainly, some of them I would have probably never have had the opportunity.

The two I tried tonight from Ethan were a Roasted TGY and the Black TGY.

The roasted TGY was very nice. The roast was very mild, never really coming out in the flavor. Floral, fruity, with a very creamy mouthfeel. This one gave a very nice lid smell. I went with Ethan's recommendation at, I quote, "1 heaping tsp. in 5 - 6 oz. of 88 - 92 C water for 15 seconds for 1st, 2nd, 3rd infusions & more time for more infusions." To be exact, I went at about 90.5 C, a very heaping tsp at about 5 oz. I must say Evan, I tried out the 15 at first, but decided to tack on some extra seconds. Either way, I went 6 steeps I believe. Very nice even at the end.

The Black is one I particularly liked. I did it boiling, very heaping tsp for 2 minutes per 5 oz. Yes, I would love to drink this one more often. Ethan said the first and second infusions are the best, but personally I found much joy in the third infusion. I only did four for this one and that one sure was sweet. All delicious in their own way. Fairly honeyed. Definitely TGY in nature with similar notes to the roasted TGY but with unique characteristics. Especially seeing that I could steep it 2 minutes and it came out so very smooth. Next time I think I will probably try 15-25 seconds for the first two infusions before extending it to ~3 minutes just to try to catch some of the characteristics more in comparison to other other TGY.

Finally, I decided to end the session by comparing to the cheapest roasted TGY I have, which is of course yellow BOX seadyke. I'm actually nearly out of this stuff. I did 93 c, heaping teaspoon to 5 oz. First infusion at 15 seconds was actually incredibly fragrant. This actually holds up well in comparison to the other two in terms of TGY flavor. However, the complex mouthfeel of the other two is just not there whatsoever. The color of the brew is darker but that is to be expected seeing as Ethan's leaves were very nice while these are cut up to pieces. Second steep and third steep sees a bit more roast coming in gradually. There is something less smooth about this tea in comparison in terms of taste; It is much sharper. Then I decided to steep it for 2 minutes. The brew comes out quite dark, big roasted taste, darker sweetness. When I make this I typically do it in a glass and let it sit there for 15 minutes before drinking it, so this is the taste (on steroids, I suppose) I am typically accustomed to. When you do this, you lose a lot of those light floral TGY notes in favor of a much more bold brew. As I do not usually brew in the manner I did tonight, I was surprised at the first steep. Saying that, it does not feel as quality throughout the steeps and it is much dirtier to brew this one. Despite that, I enjoyed it as an end to the pleasant session even though my stomach was bursting.

I probably will want to do the black TGY tomorrow again with different parameters. There are many interesting possibilities... but I wish not to go through my supply before my fiancee arrives back from visiting her family as I want her to partake in the tea with me.

Thank you again Ethan for the opportunity to taste these teas.

[jayinhk]

2014 Spring medium-high roast Shui Jin Gui from JKTeashop. Quite a nice tea; pretty high roast level and distinct (but pleasant) sourness along with a unique fruity flavor that lasted several infusions, even if the first infusion was the most flavorful. Kind of like DHP, but definitely very different too. I don't have much experience with Shui Jin Gui and this was really very enjoyable. Smooth and flavorful drinking. Drinking it from my favorite 40ml nian go F1 Yixing--this pot seems to bring the best out of any oolong I put in it! I've gone three infusions and I expect the fourth to be the last.