Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[victoria3]

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Thinking a lot about aroma in my morning tea as I'm waking up, filling the lungs, awakening the senses....pondering whether to use porcelain, glass, yixing, or tokoname to accentuate more intensely aroma....

After your posts in the last few days about Baozhong I found my 3 gifts from Floating Leaves; Farmers Choice, Competition Style & Aged Baozhong.
I had already given the Farmers Choice a try a few weeks ago and steeped it poorly so didn't have great results. Today, I opened Competition Style and followed some of Jayinhk's advice about extra leaf and heat. This was very useful info, the results were much better. Thanks Jayinhk. Only issue, the 1st & 2nd steeps were the best, after that flavor tapered off pretty fast, so I think I may need to increase ratio of leaf to water and or try Ethan's stacking after 2nd steep.

1gr/1oz/crab eyes/1:45 min./2min/5min/15min/.... Rich yet elegant with clear liquor, tastes like a mellow pine forest nuanced by smooth ...long mouth feel. Sweet floral, almost buttery aroma of wet leaf and liquor. Really enjoyable 1st & 2nd steep.

Baozhong doesn't usually produce too many good infusions as other oolongs would. Up to three good ones that's it. More like a Chinese green tea.

Ok, this was what I was just thinking as a possibility! Thanks.

[victoria3]

These past few afternoons I've really been enjoying Floating Leaves Spring 2016; Lishan & ShanLinXi oolongs back to back. They are both aromatic, full bodied and rich with a sweet floral golden broth. They have a high mineral content, are very smooth and salivatory. The richness and high quality in some ways reminds me of the quality of what would be a sweet umami found in Gyokuros. I wonder if there is a parallel term for this in Taiwanese oolongs.

[yalokinh]

Sitting down first thing in the morning to drink some dong ding. Had a long period where I stopped drinking because of college, finally back and can say I really missed you guys at teachat (and tea of course).

[ethan]

I have paid a lot of attention to tea today because I can enjoy it more since I am not using a hot tub after my daily swim. 15 minutes less time in highly chlorinated water & a good rinse of my nose is keeping my nose from being dried out & allows me to taste & sniff better. W/ my senses functioning better I was able to cut down on amount of leaf of Father's Love, a traditionally roasted, highly oxidized high-mtn. Lishan, this a.m.. I still hardly tasted the age (it's from 2011) & fermentation; rather I got them as body in the liquor to sort of ground the flavor of the charcoal roasting. There was a nice hint of mint. I like this a lot but know I am not preparing this nearly as well as it could be made.

This afternoon an hour was blissful as 4 rounds of a dongfang meiren (oriental beauty) was so tasty & relaxing. This one is from a company in Taipei just a few minutes walk from the hostel I use. It was very expensive, but I guess I have learned that the best tea can be well worth its price. I did not stack part of each infusion (which I usually do) because it was too tasty to put some aside. Some tart fruit flavors in the 1st infusion gave way to cinnamon in the 2nd which blended w/ a slightly dry & malty 3rd; all to blend together in the thinner less exciting 4th round which was still worth drinking.

[ethan]

meant to say Oxidation, not Fermentation

Hello Yalo.... welcome back

[debunix]

These past few afternoons I've really been enjoying Floating Leaves Spring 2016; Lishan & ShanLinXi oolongs back to back. They are both aromatic, full bodied and rich with a sweet floral golden broth. They have a high mineral content, are very smooth and salivatory. The richness and high quality in some ways reminds me of the quality of what would be a sweet umami found in Gyokuros. I wonder if there is a parallel term for this in Taiwanese oolongs.

There is a quality I find in the nicest of the green-style oolongs that reminds me of spending time at a ranch in the summer: summer pasture turning golden, or pulling flakes of a freshly opened bale of hay, a sweet note like that fresh hay, or that golden meadow of late summer, a rich warm slightly sweet backdrop with notes of caramel, that I first identified in a tin of Baozhong, and have come to prize as the best part of the best mountain oolongs, where it can last infusion after infusion. It's a great base for the floral high notes and the spicy accents, and I think of it as 'essence of summer meadow'.

[victoria3]

These past few afternoons I've really been enjoying Floating Leaves Spring 2016; Lishan & ShanLinXi oolongs back to back. They are both aromatic, full bodied and rich with a sweet floral golden broth. They have a high mineral content, are very smooth and salivatory. The richness and high quality in some ways reminds me of the quality of what would be a sweet umami found in Gyokuros. I wonder if there is a parallel term for this in Taiwanese oolongs.

There is a quality I find in the nicest of the green-style oolongs that reminds me of spending time at a ranch in the summer: summer pasture turning golden, or pulling flakes of a freshly opened bale of hay, a sweet note like that fresh hay, or that golden meadow of late summer, a rich warm slightly sweet backdrop with notes of caramel, that I first identified in a tin of Baozhong, and have come to prize as the best part of the best mountain oolongs, where it can last infusion after infusion. It's a great base for the floral high notes and the spicy accents, and I think of it as 'essence of summer meadow'.

Your description is so fantastic I found myself steeping two more rounds of LiShan & ShanLiX this afternoon. Aroma coming off the glass pitcher is intoxicating. I'm still experimenting with different cups to see which one puts out the most aroma while sipping.

By the way, since you are in Los Angeles; Teadoff mentioned in another post TeaHabitat and I then noticed she's doing tea tastings quite often. Have you gone to any and or visited her place in Alhambra? I'm going this Sunday to see for myself.

[debunix]

I have only been to the now-closed shop in Rolling Hills Estates. But the web site shows a green tea tasting that sounds like it features something similar to the fabulous collection of competition tea samples I bought last year.

Tempting, but I don't have time to attend the tasting. I would be happy to order another set if they were offered without having to get to the shop.

If you can get to that tasting it's likely to be worth it.

[Noonie]

These past few afternoons I've really been enjoying Floating Leaves Spring 2016; Lishan & ShanLinXi oolongs back to back. They are both aromatic, full bodied and rich with a sweet floral golden broth. They have a high mineral content, are very smooth and salivatory. The richness and high quality in some ways reminds me of the quality of what would be a sweet umami found in Gyokuros. I wonder if there is a parallel term for this in Taiwanese oolongs.

There is a quality I find in the nicest of the green-style oolongs that reminds me of spending time at a ranch in the summer: summer pasture turning golden, or pulling flakes of a freshly opened bale of hay, a sweet note like that fresh hay, or that golden meadow of late summer, a rich warm slightly sweet backdrop with notes of caramel, that I first identified in a tin of Baozhong, and have come to prize as the best part of the best mountain oolongs, where it can last infusion after infusion. It's a great base for the floral high notes and the spicy accents, and I think of it as 'essence of summer meadow'.

Your description is so fantastic I found myself steeping two more rounds of LiShan & ShanLiX this afternoon. Aroma coming off the glass pitcher is intoxicating. I'm still experimenting with different cups to see which one puts out the most aroma while sipping.

I drink a variety of tea throughout the week, saving Taiwanese oolong for weekends, or for when I have the time for long sessions. Of all the teas, I find it has the nicest aroma. Fall season here in Ontario is almost over, and ive found the aroma and flavour of the samplings ive had from Tea from Taiwan makes me think of a hiking trail littered with crisp auburn maple leaves, crunching under foot. The green of the tea makes me think of summer, but the lack of a sencha grassiness--instead that slight toasty, malted flavour has me wanting to throw in a vest and enjoy the fresh air. It probably helps that my house backs into a forest and when I have a tea session I watch the leaves fall if the trees.

[Rui]

Today I am away from Pu-er tea to sip an excellent Competition Grade Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea of Gande Village bought from Yunnan Sourcing.

[jayinhk]

Four or five year old premium high fire shuixian from a Hong Kong retailer. This stuff has softened significantly and was good to begin with. It's a real pleasure to drink. Brewing a longer infusion with less leaf for the first time. I almost always brew shuixian with a pot that is halfway full! Medicinal and sweet tonight. Cherry and dried mandarin peel notes, too.

[debunix]

2007 Ba Xian Dan Cong from Tea Habitat. Floral and sweet, delicious nectar. So fine, enjoying from a Chao Zhou pot (also from TH) in a lovely oilspot cup from Inge Nielsen.

161112 Daily Tea _DEB9317 by D B, on Flickr

A lot of fine tea is helping with a sense of despair this week.

[victoria3]

2007 Ba Xian Dan Cong from Tea Habitat. Floral and sweet, delicious nectar. So fine, enjoying from a Chao Zhou pot (also from TH) in a lovely oilspot cup from Inge Nielsen.

A lot of fine tea is helping with a sense of despair this week.

Yes so true, fine tea is a great escape from incredulous despondency. Tomorrow I get to try Tea Habitat's treats, really looking forward to this, since I've been wanting to slowly explore mainland teas.

[victoria3]

Living Tea's Mi Xiang Green Oolong; I've had this tea for three years now, every once in a while admiring its packaging in my cabinet and then for some reason putting it back for another day. I picked it up at a Cha Tao event in Los Angeles. Finally, I opened it up and tried it and to my surprise it is exceptionally nuanced and complex, both sweet and spicy, with many layers. The bug bitten leaves are twisted sideways into strips, and the aroma is sweet like its name.

Colin Hudon, who owns Living Tea, let me know that this green oolong is from bug bitten, high altitude trees in Central Taiwan, Nantou County, trees that originated from Fujian, Wuyi National Park, home of Yencha "rock" tea, brought over in the mid 1800's. He specializes in old growth single source teas.

Steeped in Shimizu Ken Nosaka Kyusu without Namamigaki 200ml.

[ethan]

Sounds delicious, Victoria. When searching for teas like that (to me that's the Oriental Beauty category) I think I made a mistake in asking specifically for Dongfang Meiren. If I were requesting bug-bitten, I might have been directed to another bug-bitten variety that was at hand but not offered to me. As it happened, I never tasted a green oolong that was bug-bitten, they were always well-oxidized.