Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[debunix]

Now I need some Yancha, and the best I have is left at home, sigh.

[Frisbeehead]

I purchased a Maekawa Junzo 65 mm Shudei pot this winter and I'm finding it the ideal size and shape for brewing yancha.

I've been using it for a mix of yanchas that I wasn't happy with. It improved the mix to the point where it was drinkable, just OK. Right now I'm in the middle of a session of Tea Hong Wuyi Cassia Extraordinaire 2013 that I purchased based on a recommendation here. remonds me why good yancha is worth the money.

I almost snagged the second of those teapots that Toru added after yours sold last month. I'll have to keep my eyes open next time I have the money to spend on another teapot

The Cassia Extraordinaire is indeed wonderful. I really wish that it wasn't out of stock, or I'd be stocking up on it...

[jayinhk]

I purchased a Maekawa Junzo 65 mm Shudei pot this winter and I'm finding it the ideal size and shape for brewing yancha.

I've been using it for a mix of yanchas that I wasn't happy with. It improved the mix to the point where it was drinkable, just OK. Right now I'm in the middle of a session of Tea Hong Wuyi Cassia Extraordinaire 2013 that I purchased based on a recommendation here. remonds me why good yancha is worth the money.

I almost snagged the second of those teapots that Toru added after yours sold last month. I'll have to keep my eyes open next time I have the money to spend on another teapot

The Cassia Extraordinaire is indeed wonderful. I really wish that it wasn't out of stock, or I'd be stocking up on it...

That really is a lovely little pot! Looks quite porous from the appearance of the clay on the exterior, but I've never tried a Japanese clay for yancha.

[BioHorn]

I purchased a Maekawa Junzo 65 mm Shudei pot this winter and I'm finding it the ideal size and shape for brewing yancha.

I've been using it for a mix of yanchas that I wasn't happy with. It improved the mix to the point where it was drinkable, just OK. Right now I'm in the middle of a session of Tea Hong Wuyi Cassia Extraordinaire 2013 that I purchased based on a recommendation here. remonds me why good yancha is worth the money.

I find myself looking for the like button for all of this!

[JRS22]

The Maekawa Junzo pot is listed under tokoname so I assume it's high fired and therefore not porous. How would I test for porosity?

[debunix]

Enjoying some Huang Guan Yin this evening, prompted by recent posts extolling Yanchas. This tea is a very rock/mineral flavor-rich tea from Wuyi via Norbu, with long twisted darkly roasted leaves. It goes wonderfully with my 'Granite' yunomi from TC TA Gingko--rocky tea from a 'rocky' cup

Yunomi by D B, on Flickr

[jayinhk]

TenRen supermarket high fire TGY. Bought this on impulse when I first joined TeaChat and I've had the bag kicking around ever since. All of my early attempts to gongfu this tea were disastrous; it gives off almost everything as soon as the hot water hits the leaves. I was painfully reminded of that today. Bitter and undrinkable. Diluted to 50%, it tastes like the tea you get on China Airlines (Taiwanese). It might well be the same tea. The second brew is quite nice and even a little fruity. For $6 for 187.5g, it's worth the money, but there's definitely a lot better out there. Apparently you can get two bags for $5.50 at some stores here in Hong Kong, which would make this tea excellent value. I don't think I'm in any rush to stock up though!

[jayinhk]

Had another session of this spring's BaiYe dancong in an easy gaiwan (from Chaozhou, incidentally). I heated up eight grams or so in a non-stick pan at low heat (3 on my induction stove) and moved the tea around by shaking the pan while I preheated the gaiwan. Best session with the dancong yet.

It's been hovering around 95-100% humidity for the last few weeks, so even with dehumidifiers running, it's really very humid. As careful as I've been, I think some humidity got into the tea. Traditional Chaozhou gongfu cha involves heating up your tea to drive off moisture. Makes a lot of sense considering how humid the southeast corner of China really is. At least Chaozhou's 20-25 km inland--I'm less than a mile from the water.

Preheating the tea brought out more aroma, flavor and the charcoal roast is also more evident. I think I'll do this with all of my oolongs now, and perhaps with my green teas too.

[ethan]

Medium-roast Tie Guan Yin from Taiwan:

I opened the foil pack April 4th & tasted mostly the flavor of roasting, almost the same as the really special dark-roast TGY that I have been enjoying.

A week later the tea tasted lighter & sweeter, just as special but different than the dark-roast.

Now 2 weeks later it is much much different. It is a wonderful green oolong to me. Fresh & vegetal w/o bitterness I usually associate w/ that taste & some sweetness. There is a great mouthfeel & lingering aftertaste. Now I find high temperature & quick steeping (infusions of around 15 seconds at about 96C) gives me so many enjoyable rounds of tea at about 1 gram per 60 ml.

I moved the tea that was in a tea caddy to a tighter one. I do not want it to get much "greener" in what it makes for me to drink.

The remainder is tightly sealed.

[jayinhk]

Ethan, sounds a lot like the Muzha TGY I'm drinking, which is green (some oxidation and no roast at all, a la green gaoshan). I bought this a few months before we went over, when I helped my ex girlfriend move to Taipei. I had her buy some of this tea too, as she liked the TGY flavor, even if she didn't know it as TGY!

I thought this tea had lost much of its oomph in the eight months or so since I bought it...I just gave it a little heat (4 on induction) in a skillet while preheating my pot (70ml F5 hongpilong dragon egg from EoT). This pot still has some clay aroma after a few brews, but is getting better with each use.

Results...lovely. Back to where it was, and brewed up nicely in the dragon egg. I strongly recommend giving oolongs a few minutes of heat before brewing if you haven't already tried that. Then again, not everyone has to contend with tropical humidity!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEXfAhfSCoV/

[ethan]

Jay, I used to heat a pot sometimes & then put leaves in it for a couple of minutes before adding water. I remember liking the aroma of the hot leaves before the water was added but don't remember much else.
I just did it w/ the med. roast TGY. The aroma of the hot dry leaves was like they were steamed spinach; however, when I prepared the tea my drink had a touch more roasted flavor than w/o the heat w/ no loss of good green oolong flavor.
I will give some leaves of this or other tea some oven roasting or pan roasting to continue the experiment.
Thanks for advice.

[jayinhk]

Jay, I used to heat a pot sometimes & then put leaves in it for a couple of minutes before adding water. I remember liking the aroma of the hot leaves before the water was added but don't remember much else.
I just did it w/ the med. roast TGY. The aroma of the hot dry leaves was like they were steamed spinach; however, when I prepared the tea my drink had a touch more roasted flavor than w/o the heat w/ no loss of good green oolong flavor.
I will give some leaves of this or other tea some oven roasting or pan roasting to continue the experiment.
Thanks for advice.

Ethan,

You should get all the water out of the pot after preheating. Some people load up the preheated pot with dry leaf, then 'bake' the tea by pouring water all over the closed pot without getting any water in the pot. You can do this in a bowl and let the pot sit in boiling water. Something else you might want to try.

I wouldn't roast the tea; just enough heat to wake up the dry leaf and drive off any excess moisture. It makes all of the flavors more pronounced, including roast.

Jay

[Tead Off]

Drinking some green TGY that is about 5-6 years old which I have hand roasted some months ago. The tea itself is good quality and came in 8-10g packets that were vacuum packed. I seem to have lost my taste for green oolongs, in general. Only the Taiwanese gaoshan seems to still sit nicely with me. 5g in a 90ml zisha. Nice.

[jayinhk]

What temperature and how long was your roast? Color looks good!

Drinking 2014 Shan Lin Xi from a mom-and-pop store in Taipei. This tea was lovely when brewed at the store, even though it had been on the shelf for two years. I've had variable results when brewing the gaoshan I picked up in Taipei; it appears a big part of the issue is that humidity got to the tea. After a little heat to drive off moisture, this tea is lovely and I get all of the flavor I was missing out at times.

Stacking infusions was something we saw a lot of in Taipei; after pouring out two or three cups, whatever was left in the cha hai was added to. This really does help improve each round and provides for a fuller taste in the cup, so the infusions stay enjoyable and satisfying for longer. I have been experimenting with that, too, and I like the results a lot. When gaoshan is tapering off, I get vegetal flavors and the like, but with stacked infusions, each successive infusion adds more to the flavor profile and every cup is better than the last until the tea is pretty much exhausted. This was also done with roasted TGY with good results.

I still think I prefer the stuffed pot approach with gaoshan, where I can get 20+ infusions from one full pot, all very different. I only need to fill the pot halfway up and let it expand with this approach. The intensity of the flavor that way is much higher, and with each infusion, I taste something completely different. I've actually brewed SLX that way over three days in the past (that was one stuffed gaiwan)! Now, with much less leaf in the pot, the tea is lovely and interesting, but I can't quite identify the flavors with each successive infusion. Obviously I've had enough caffeine, though, because I'm typing up a storm here.

[Tead Off]

What temperature and how long was your roast? Color looks good!

Drinking 2014 Shan Lin Xi from a mom-and-pop store in Taipei. This tea was lovely when brewed at the store, even though it had been on the shelf for two years. I've had variable results when brewing the gaoshan I picked up in Taipei; it appears a big part of the issue is that humidity got to the tea. After a little heat to drive off moisture, this tea is lovely and I get all of the flavor I was missing out at times.

Stacking infusions was something we saw a lot of in Taipei; after pouring out two or three cups, whatever was left in the cha hai was added to. This really does help improve each round and provides for a fuller taste in the cup, so the infusions stay enjoyable and satisfying for longer. I have been experimenting with that, too, and I like the results a lot. When gaoshan is tapering off, I get vegetal flavors and the like, but with stacked infusions, each successive infusion adds more to the flavor profile and every cup is better than the last until the tea is pretty much exhausted. This was also done with roasted TGY with good results.

I still think I prefer the stuffed pot approach with gaoshan, where I can get 20+ infusions from one full pot, all very different. I only need to fill the pot halfway up and let it expand with this approach. The intensity of the flavor that way is much higher, and with each infusion, I taste something completely different. I've actually brewed SLX that way over three days in the past (that was one stuffed gaiwan)! Now, with much less leaf in the pot, the tea is lovely and interesting, but I can't quite identify the flavors with each successive infusion. Obviously I've had enough caffeine, though, because I'm typing up a storm here.

I don't know how long and at what temp I do it. I just do it by feel. I also don't usually count the infusions but pay attention to the body and huigan. I enjoy tea very much but I am not looking for the best this or most that. I'm happy brewing it and drinking it the way I do. More than 25 years of experimenting with all kinds of pots, teas, thoughts, feelings. The only thing that hasn't changed is the awareness of the moment. But that is a different conversation.