Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

Owes its flavors to oxidation levels between green & black tea.


Apr 1st, '15, 04:28
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Apr 1st, '15, 04:28

Bai hao

This is somewhat special for sure; yet, I cannot fully describe why.

My first impression is of common roasted oolong flavor, but as the flavor lingers, one happily realizes there is more happening. The taste remains in my mouth for a long time & changes to flavor that is better & more refined. My belly starts to feel slightly warm & full in a satisfying way. A great tea to drink to drink w/ long pauses in its consumption allowing the pleasure in the mouth to move to the throat.

Given to me by the owners of Tea-Village in Pattaya, Thailand. They keep some of their best teas off their shelves for themselves & friends. Thankfully, it is easy to become their friend. Lita (Thai) & Vee (Russian) are charming & well-informed making a serious effort to find good tea to sell as well as teaware & a small amount of coffee (some surprisingly excellent ones from Vietnam).

I bought a good Chinese porcelain gaiwan & a tea caddy from them at fair prices on my last visit as well as a Thai green tea which I will post on in green tea thread.

Apr 2nd, '15, 15:29
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by puyuan » Apr 2nd, '15, 15:29

the_economist wrote:Drinking on the job: 2004 Shuixian from Origintea. Chocolate with some plum.

Image

The "chawang"?

Oh, man, do I like this tea...

Apr 6th, '15, 04:12
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Apr 6th, '15, 04:12

Bai hao again, but this time prepared in a yixing pot that I use for roasted oolong.

The difference between the gaiwan & yixing pot: Tea from the pot has flavors that present themselves immediately w/ a pronounced tartness being very forthright instead of just a note. The pot's tea also only has a note of spice which is not so clearly the taste of cinnamon which is strong in tea from the gaiwan. Also there is astringency (pleasantly) w/ the lingering tart aftertaste from the tea of the pot.

This bai hao is great. When I started trying oolong seriously, I had some excellent (but quite expensive) "oriental beauty" but don't remember such complex flavor that lingers so long. I also don't remember the gaiwan & yixing producing tea that is so different yet equally good.

Does anyone have a source for good, inexpensive bai hao or oriental beauty? I don't have much of this one.

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Apr 6th, '15, 08:45
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » Apr 6th, '15, 08:45

Drinking Vietnamese oolong...like average TW oolong. Sweet, smooth drinking..a pleasant break from heavier Wuyi oolongs. No bitterness or unpleasantness whatsoever. Glad I have 300g. I think another trip to Vietnam is in order once I get through all of my Vietnamese tea.

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Apr 6th, '15, 11:02
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by JRS22 » Apr 6th, '15, 11:02

jayinhk wrote:Drinking Vietnamese oolong...like average TW oolong. Sweet, smooth drinking..a pleasant break from heavier Wuyi oolongs. No bitterness or unpleasantness whatsoever. Glad I have 300g. I think another trip to Vietnam is in order once I get through all of my Vietnamese tea.
Please post the details. When I was in Vietnam last year I tried a locally grown green tea but it was very very bitter. I was told that lower temps etc wouldn't help - that the tea was always bitter. I may return in October and I would love to bring home some tea.

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Apr 6th, '15, 11:08
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » Apr 6th, '15, 11:08

Picked it up in Chinatown in Saigon...vacuum packed. The standard green is good when brewed cooler...you were mislead. It appears Vietnamese drinkers LIKE drinking their green tea bitter and overbrewed though! The oolong is for the Chinese community and I bet it is exported to Taiwan too.

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Apr 6th, '15, 15:12
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by JRS22 » Apr 6th, '15, 15:12

jayinhk wrote:Picked it up in Chinatown in Saigon...vacuum packed. The standard green is good when brewed cooler...you were mislead. It appears Vietnamese drinkers LIKE drinking their green tea bitter and overbrewed though! The oolong is for the Chinese community and I bet it is exported to Taiwan too.
I could easily have been misled by our guide because he probably never actually prepared his own tea. He was an excellent guide though on our trip through the mountains northeast of Hanoi. If I return to Vietnam next fall as planned we'll be going to Saigon and some other destinations in the south. I still haven't been to Bangkok's Chinatown so maybe I'll make it a point to visit there as well as in Saigon.

Photos of packages of good teas would be welcome because I won't have much extra luggage space.

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Apr 6th, '15, 20:58
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » Apr 6th, '15, 20:58

Posting pics on here is a PITA, but the bag is marked high mountain oolong. The tea dealers have expensive Chinese TGY, but it was priced so high I didn't want to take the risk. I live in Hong Kong, so there's lots of good tea around, as long as you're willing to pay for it!
Last edited by jayinhk on Apr 7th, '15, 21:29, edited 1 time in total.

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Apr 6th, '15, 22:54
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by debunix » Apr 6th, '15, 22:54

Oddly enough, trying a new thing with a traditional roast Ti Guan Yin (some of the lovely 2009 version from Norbu): grandpa style. It's just lovely--bringing out the plummy notes from the first infusion.

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Apr 12th, '15, 16:01
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Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by Muadeeb » Apr 12th, '15, 16:01

[img]//images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/04/12 ... b5611b.jpg[/img]

Yesterday I received a 90ml yixing from William and my first order from Norbu. This was my first steeping of the 2014 traditional roast TKY in my new pot, which I'll be pairing with roasted oolongs.

Right now I have some 2008 loose sheng and its a good match with that too.

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Apr 13th, '15, 01:34
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by debunix » Apr 13th, '15, 01:34

My first session today with the Jiri Mountain Hwang-Cha from Morning Crane tea was so lovely--sweet, tart, fruity--that I finished those leaves and just started over with fresh leaf in the same treebark pot. Mmmm.

Apr 13th, '15, 04:41
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by Bok » Apr 13th, '15, 04:41

jayinhk wrote:The oolong is for the Chinese community and I bet it is exported to Taiwan too.
They do for sure. Actually most of the drinkshops, selling bubble tea and others only use tea from Vietnam and Thailand. Economically their prices don’t make sense otherwise…

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Apr 13th, '15, 07:17
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by Rui » Apr 13th, '15, 07:17

Tie Guan Yin from TeaVivre.

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Apr 14th, '15, 01:55
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » Apr 14th, '15, 01:55

Bought some oolong from a very old tea store near my office yesterday. They specialise in pu erh, but I previously bought an entire 600g of oolong for cheap that turned out to be excellent for the money. I decided to buy some of their best oolong, since I just got a new tea caddy.

The owner said it was from Fujian, and like Dongding. It wasn't too expensive, but it also wasn't very good in the gaiwan. Only a faint hint of flavor. I believe this green oolong has been sitting in a massive tin can for way too long. I'm going to try refreshing it in a Pyrex dish in the oven tonight (at 50 Celsius).

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Apr 14th, '15, 12:51
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by hop_goblin » Apr 14th, '15, 12:51

Mediocre baked dong ding

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