TeaChat

skywarrior wrote:To be honest with you, there are a lot of very good oolongs, that are, IMO, better than formosa oolong.

Hey, please reccomend me some, because I'd love to try some that surpass Formosa

I don't think anything surpasses Formosa oolong. Merely, you will find an oolong with a different flavor profile. Apples and oranges.

Formosa is an area, so you must be asking for another area that produces good oolong.

Try Wuyi. They make a good, dark Chinese oolong.

Wuyi is what I'm thinking. Also Ti kuan yin seems to be very nice.

ABx wrote:That sounds an awful lot like a bai hao. Bai hao is often made for westerners that are used to black tea. Those of us that like lighter and finer teas often find bai hao unexciting, to say the least. There's a very wide range of oxidation levels and flavors. You might try some of the jade (as in green) high-mountain oolongs.

ABx, I think you are right.

SkyWarrior, I bought some Ti Kuan Yin Oolong the other day. I'm yet to try it but it looks and smells divine

tenuki wrote:

ABx wrote:That sounds an awful lot like a bai hao. Bai hao is often made for westerners that are used to black tea. Those of us that like lighter and finer teas often find bai hao unexciting, to say the least. There's a very wide range of oxidation levels and flavors. You might try some of the jade (as in green) high-mountain oolongs.

ABx, I think you are right.

To the others: I wouldn't let bai hao turn you off from Taiwanese wulong. I don't know many that like bai hao, but there's a lot of great stuff that comes out of Taiwan that isn't matched anywhere else. Bai hao was, from what I've been told, simply the first from Taiwan to be known in the west (back in the days when it would take too long for anything else to get here without going stale), and so it often gets labeled as "Formosa Oolong" - which is a bit like saying "China Green" (fear anything that doesn't tell you what it really is).

If you want some really good ones, try some samples from Hou De (www.houdeasianart.com) or Shan Shui (www.shanshuiteas.com). SpecialTeas' 618 and 621 or Upton's jades are decent as well.

and then there are good Bai Hao's too...

http://www.houdeasianart.com/index.php? ... cts_id=791

oops, sold out.. wonder why. I have this tea and was very pleased even though I don't generally like Bai Hao (one brewing left, no, you can't have it). I also had an aged Bai Hao from Hou De I ordered accidently and it was heavenly, way mellow and complex compared to what you usually get with a Bai Hao.

evilive wrote:SkyWarrior, I bought some Ti Kuan Yin Oolong the other day. I'm yet to try it but it looks and smells divine

Let me know what you think@

It sounds definitely like Baihao (aka Oritental Beauty), but it could also be a roasted baozhong or some such (baozhong can be easily crushed). Twigs are quite ok -- in fact, twigs can give an extra dimension to the tea.