Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

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


May 25th, '16, 00:00
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by daidokorocha » May 25th, '16, 00:00

I had Ethan's Roasted TGY tonight again and :shock: that lid smell is incredibly fragrant. the taste was a bit different this time, with more graham and spice notes coming through on the first few infusions before revealing more of what I got last time. Delicious tea!

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May 25th, '16, 02:01
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by victoria3 » May 25th, '16, 02:01

Ethan
Yes, I agree finding that perfect aroma & flavor palate is an expensive excursion all its own full of twists and turns. This afternoon I sampled 4 'greener oolongs' (Ali Shan, Dong Ting, Zhejiang Tikuanyin & Lu Gu) in my local Bird Pick tea shop and getting the right steeping time to tea ratio wasn't so easy. In the end I chose the one closest to my High Mountain which was the Lu Gu. Well see how it goes....
ethan wrote:Victoria,
I enjoyed reading your post, especially "very light sweet floral and slightly musky nose". When I was sampling tea in Taiwan & said I wanted specific flavors etc., it was as if I were from another world. Rather than describing flavors & scents, strength: light or strong; quality: top, medium, or low; & price were how tea was categorized mostly.

People called what I tasted as a fresh, vegetal flavor "sweet". When I tasted some black tea that I obviously liked & then called it "sweet", they said "top-quality".

Unfortunately, getting what one wants in flavor & aroma while avoiding what one dislikes (e.g. bitterness) is not easy & often expensive. I have had an easier time being satisfied w/ roasted oolong & oriental beauty than w/ the greener part of the world of oolong.

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May 25th, '16, 02:47
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by victoria3 » May 25th, '16, 02:47

I think Zhangshu Lake oolong is only at the fathers tea shop winghopfung so I haven't tried it yet. I find the daughters selection generally more refined but then I might be influenced by the boutique scale. Bird Pick is having an online-only sale right now so it's a good time to try new stuff. In the shop they are very generous with tea tastings before buying. Per your recommendation, I'm getting Osmanthus bloom to add some variety to my oolongs.
debunix wrote:
victoria3 wrote:I have been enjoying Taiwan High Mountain Oolong Tea from Bird Pick (my local Los Angeles tea provider) for two years now as my go-to travel oolong.

I buy their Zhangshu Lake oolong for similar situations--great cool brewed, lasting all day without going 'off', and brewed hot and fresh. I've not tried this one but will next time I'm at their shop.
victoria3 wrote:I've ordered several new oolongs from Norbu based on Teachat recommendations of debunix.
Glad to be of service. I'm finishing off some odds and ends and it won't be too long before I need to make another order myself.

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May 25th, '16, 11:53
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by debunix » May 25th, '16, 11:53

I haven't made it to Bird Pick's brick & mortar store yet...need to try it one of these days.

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May 25th, '16, 23:05
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » May 25th, '16, 23:05

Waking up to 6g of dahongpao in a little 65 ml zini pot. Crushed leaf on the bottom. Nice and punchy first brew; dark, sour, bitter and flavorful. Strong mineral taste and some roast flavors. Light floral fruitiness in the first few infusions, tapering off to mineral, roast and coconut (!). Great way to wake up. :)

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May 26th, '16, 22:30
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » May 26th, '16, 22:30

Second tea of the day yesterday was a superior grade of high fire shuixian I didn't know the roaster even offered. Smoother in every way, and it went an extra infusion or two that was just better and cleaner tasting. Excellent mouthfeel and flavor. It's nice to have options; the Three Stamp is more intense in flavor and just...different. I'm definitely keeping both around for my own consumption.

Starting off today with high fire tieluohan from a different HK company; Cheung Hing Tea Hong. This tea comes prepacked in 8g, paper-wrapped portions and I dropped the full 8g into a 100ml milk chocolate-brown zini pot. This pot really does wonderfully with all of my oolongs and brings out the flavor to a surprising extent; I think it performs better than my F1 zini as it mutes the tea where it needs muting and brings out what needs bringing out. I get more aroma and flavor with this pot than from my F1 pin zini pots. While the lid is a little wonky, I think it might be my favorite teapot of all because of how well it performs with my teas.

The tieluohan has excellent body, and dark chocolate/mature coconut flavor from the roast, as well as something else I can't quite describe. Light, but pleasant sourness and very light bitterness. So delicious, and much cheaper than the SX, too. Somewhat like the high fire SX, but totally different. I'm definitely on a high fire HK wuyicha kick right now!

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May 29th, '16, 18:43
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by victoria3 » May 29th, '16, 18:43

Got my brewing parameters down for Norbu's Li Shan - Med-Light Roast - Taiwan Oolong Tea - Spring, 2014. This is one fine elegant oolong. Since I couldn't find my gaiwan, I brewed in my new traveling Yakishimei Shiboridash from O-Cha (hot fingers but it worked) at 8.4/150ml/195/50sec, a perfect 1st steep for me. Delicate, yet very present, and lingering palate with a sweet floral and musky aroma. A winner with long lasting flavor.

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May 29th, '16, 23:09
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by john.b » May 29th, '16, 23:09

I tried a decent Dong Ding style mid-roasted Thai oolong over the weekend, the first I remember ever trying. Lightly oxidized oolongs are ok from Thailand but they tend to come across as mid-range teas, perhaps not interesting to tea enthusiasts looking for that next level, or maybe that's just my own negative preference bias against them due to over-exposure.

It was ]from the Chaidim vendor (http://www.chaidim.com/).

It's hard to qualify how "good" is good, of course. I recently tried a competition grade Nantou mid-roasted oolong that a friend sent and that was a little better. What I mean is the level of roast really was medium, with clean flavors, body in the right range, and flavors based around predominant cinnamon, so positive in nature.

I naturally love Wuyi Yancha more since that different and more interesting range of flavors and feel really clicks with me, so it would be easier to place it if the tea were that type instead. All the same, it's nice to know decent mid-level oxidized and roasted oolong is coming from here, and it will only be a matter of time until others step it up and it becomes less of an anomaly.

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May 30th, '16, 09:07
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » May 30th, '16, 09:07

Drinking Dayuling in modern zhuni; this pot is finally performing as it should. I have a heck of a tea buzz now. Gaoshan has a buzz all its own. That might be due to UV radiation at high altitude. Great, lingering flavors from this tea. I had to stop because of the buzz...I'll continue after dinner. :P

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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » May 30th, '16, 09:58

"delicate but very present" -- that's so well-phrased, Victoria. It expresses what I have experienced many times but did not have exact words for. Thanks.

John B, I do admire your dedication. Sometimes at Tea-Village, Vee would say he had a Thai oolong that was not very good but...... & I would stop him & say I did not want to try it.

The organic vendor you found in Bangkok is limited in variety so it will be interesting to see whether the business survives.

I start my day now w/ Imperial Pearl from Mountain Tea because I decided to begin w/ the lower quality of my teas. I am using 80C water for 1 1/2 minutes for 1st infusion & 1 minute for 2nd. The lower temperature & shorter steeping emphasizes tartness which I like (especially for morning tea).

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May 31st, '16, 03:12
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by john.b » May 31st, '16, 03:12

It's interesting to see how any vendors make their businesses survive in Thailand, given the limited demand for anything beyond bubble tea and lemon tea and "Thai tea" here, that orange powdered-tea stuff. Of course Vee in Tea Village does it by having both a shop and an online business, and by offering lots of different things, a range of quality levels, herbs, blends, teaware, ready to drink bottled tea, whatever they can sell.

That other vendor is selling retail products through other outlets, not so much focused on direct sales. And he is also working on wholesale volume-level sales, a completely different thing, along with the range covering both tea and herbs. It was just a fluke that he somehow carries a decent Thai Dong Ding-style oolong, with mid-roasting oolongs in any way never coming up here.

I'm more curious about how Tea Side makes it work, since they sell great teas, the best Thai teas I've tried, but those are limited in demand, and I'm not sure how many people have even heard of them. They have a broad range of Thai hei cha, but the market for that would be really thin, no matter how good it was, or how good the value. They carry the same version of Thai Oriental Beauty I think I've read of you drinking, or at least I think it is.

To drag this to more talking about oolong, I mentioned trying my first Ceylon oolong in that Bangkok Tea Expo post, from Dilmah. It was a real shame that it was tea-bag tea, the typical ground-to-dust version that wouldn't usually taste like much no matter what was in that bag. I drank a little and dumped the rest of the water into a cup with a sample of better Thai oolong in it, from Boon Rawd, the people that make Singha beer. That was still decent lighter Thai oolong, just ordinary tea to me, and normal loose tea confined by a pyramid style bag at that, but a lot better.

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May 31st, '16, 22:55
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by victoria3 » May 31st, '16, 22:55

This evening I really enjoyed Norbu's Ali Shan High Mountain Oolong Tea from Spring, 2015. Grown at +-5000 feet, it is very lightly roasted with only slight oxidation, something I prefer. A rich tasty perfect 1st steep at 11gr/150ml/195f/3 min. in my small Yixing pot. Sweet, floral, woodsy aroma with a long lasting sweet aftertaste. The aroma and flavor is hard to describe exactly but is wonderful how it lingers leaving an expansive dry palate.

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Jun 1st, '16, 00:12
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by jayinhk » Jun 1st, '16, 00:12

I've been drinking from the same Dayuling leaves for three days now. On the last infusion, I forgot about the tea and let it go for quite a while. Strong sweet blueberry and grape flavors along with some bitterness--really lovely. Good gaoshan seems to go on forever for me!

Jun 1st, '16, 01:27
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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by ethan » Jun 1st, '16, 01:27

Tired but just don't feel like going to sleep. Reading posts of Jay & Victoria I prepared oriental beauty. Damn I am tired. This is the one from Thailand. For weeks I've been out of the better one from Taiwan.

I combined 2 infusions. Been doing this for a few weeks now w/ oolong. This has resulted in fuller, rounder flavor. Cheers.

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Re: Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

by daidokorocha » Jun 2nd, '16, 11:37

jayinhk wrote:I've been drinking from the same Dayuling leaves for three days now. On the last infusion, I forgot about the tea and let it go for quite a while. Strong sweet blueberry and grape flavors along with some bitterness--really lovely. Good gaoshan seems to go on forever for me!
How do you store your leaves in-between the steeps/days? I think the longest I have ever done is from morning to night. I just let the leaves sit out all day rather than fridging them or anything. Generally, when I sit down to brew I tend to do a lot of infusions at once rather than spread out, so unless my tea was getting 60 infusions, I do not think I could do it over three days. :shock:

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