Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[Jaymo]

Mountain Tea's Dong Ding in my Petr Novak pot. After a quick rinse I let the leaves have 30 seconds or so before adding water for the steeping. I did a quick flash brew with water around 85C to keep it light to start with. I'm getting great chocolate and almond aromas from the tea! Those things are there somewhat in the flavor as well although subtly, but there is a faint floral note to the taste as well that is almost jasmine-like.

I tried a hotter steeping for around 20 seconds after that and it brought out some rougher almost burnt/roast aroma that I'm not a big fan of, so it will be back to lighter steepings after this!

I like the aroma on this tea quite a bit. I had their Imperial Pearl yesterday and that was great too. Very different, though. It had a lot of orange-zest character & some ginger notes too.

[chrl42]

Zhu Lian Dong 3-stamp jiadeng SX..

High-fired..3-stamp (三印) SX was a major commercial SX coming from late-Qing and ROC days...too bad old Yancha companies are shutting down these days...succumbing to big companies like Wuyi Star

[BW85]

1990's sea dyke San Yin Shuixian. Spelled "shui hsien" though
Shows that an average tea won't magically become amazing with age, but still very enjoyable none the less. It's an affordable option when I just want the aged yan cha flavor while saving the more precious aged zhengyan for special tea moments with dear friends

[BW85]

2006 Lao Cong shuixian from EoT. I'm on a yan cha kick

[Tead Off]

1990's sea dyke San Yin Shuixian. Spelled "shui hsien" though
Shows that an average tea won't magically become amazing with age, but still very enjoyable none the less. It's an affordable option when I just want the aged yan cha flavor while saving the more precious aged zhengyan for special tea moments with dear friends

You might think about refreshing these teas by re-roasting. I bought a hojiki recently and have been experimenting on various teas. Usually, the roast on these Sea Dyke yancha are pretty poor. They need a jolt to become drinkable for me. Did a Lao Cong Shuixian yesterday. There is a noticeable difference, but still pretty poor quality.

[BW85]

1990's sea dyke San Yin Shuixian. Spelled "shui hsien" though
Shows that an average tea won't magically become amazing with age, but still very enjoyable none the less. It's an affordable option when I just want the aged yan cha flavor while saving the more precious aged zhengyan for special tea moments with dear friends

You might think about refreshing these teas by re-roasting. I bought a hojiki recently and have been experimenting on various teas. Usually, the roast on these Sea Dyke yancha are pretty poor. They need a jolt to become drinkable for me. Did a Lao Cong Shuixian yesterday. There is a noticeable difference, but still pretty poor quality.

I was actually thinking about that with this tea. I may try it out tomorrow

[Poseidon]

Mountain Tea's Dong Ding in my Petr Novak pot. After a quick rinse I let the leaves have 30 seconds or so before adding water for the steeping. I did a quick flash brew with water around 85C to keep it light to start with. I'm getting great chocolate and almond aromas from the tea! Those things are there somewhat in the flavor as well although subtly, but there is a faint floral note to the taste as well that is almost jasmine-like.

I tried a hotter steeping for around 20 seconds after that and it brought out some rougher almost burnt/roast aroma that I'm not a big fan of, so it will be back to lighter steepings after this!

I like the aroma on this tea quite a bit. I had their Imperial Pearl yesterday and that was great too. Very different, though. It had a lot of orange-zest character & some ginger notes too.

Great discriptions of those two teas. I always struggled to verbalized what the extra notes were with those.

[kyarazen]

having a milan xiang dancong 2013 (heavy roast) again, but testing the effects of tet-boiled water. i'm not too unfamiliar with this tea as i had chowed down a couple hundred grams in the past months.

interestingly, the tet-boiled water appeared to have sharpened and heightened the aromatics significantly but had pushed most of it into the first 2-3 steeps with a full body. with purion or duan-ni boiled water, the aromatics's more spaced out, the body is mellow.

hmm.. not too sure if i'm used to the "aggression" of tet-boiled water at the moment.. but perhaps more experiments and testing is needed. maybe yancha for tmr night.

[Poseidon]

Looks like a lovely session kyarazen!

[JRS22]

Gold Medal Rou Gui from Tea Urchin in my brand new Kim Eung Chul 50 ml pot.



I really need to do a photo session with my good camera - my iPad just doesn't do the pot justice.

[debunix]

Marvelous appaloosa pot. If the tea was anywhere as nice as the pot, must have been a lovely session.

[DVS]

I just had a session of TU's Old Bush SX... This tea has been over roasted. You can tell by the feel of the leaves after multiple steepings. They have a hard plastic feel and never get soft. For me this is not worth the price even at $48 for 100g. I would rather pay $40 for 50g of MTR High Fired SX.

[Tead Off]

I just had a session of TU's Old Bush SX... This tea has been over roasted. You can tell by the feel of the leaves after multiple steepings. They have a hard plastic feel and never get soft. For me this is not worth the price even at $48 for 100g. I would rather pay $40 for 50g of MTR High Fired SX.

I haven't tried TU's Old Bush SX, but have had many SX with the look and feel of what you describe. Once in awhile, I'll come across one that is very good. These are always high roasted and have had multiple roasts over the years. It all depends on whose caring for the tea. But, in general, I also prefer lower to mid roasts to get at the more complex mineral tastes. Teahong offers a premium SX that is very good. Can't remember the exact name of it.

[DVS]

I just had a session of TU's Old Bush SX... This tea has been over roasted. You can tell by the feel of the leaves after
I haven't tried TU's Old Bush SX, but have had many SX with the look and feel of what you describe. Once in awhile, I'll come across one that is very good. These are always high roasted and have had multiple roasts over the years. It all depends on whose caring for the tea. But, in general, I also prefer lower to mid roasts to get at the more complex mineral tastes. Teahong offers a premium SX that is very good. Can't remember the exact name of it.

Tim has the best High Fired SX that I've tried so far. I never tried any of Teahong teas... I will have to check them out.

[JRS22]

Marvelous appaloosa pot. If the tea was anywhere as nice as the pot, must have been a lovely session.

The pot outshone the tea, but did last for 10 infusions. Tomorrow I up the quantity of tea and lower the time and see what happens.

A better photo would show that my greenwood studio handled cup works especially well with this pot.