Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[daidokorocha]

Right there with you, Tead Off and debunix. Even brewing "Western Style", I get 4 infusions at around 170 ml with 2 grams of tea max with 2 minute brewing times. I'm still seriously baffled by having read that it is no good for future infusions!

To clarify just in case the way I introduced the topic made it a bit murky, I meant that people advocate throwing away first infusions in general, and not specifically for the Hankook Hwang Cha. Re-reading my post I thought it seemed a bit unclear. I can understand "awakening the leaves", but it really isn't something I do that often. Although, certain oolong I feel do not unfurl to their glory unless I'm having a lengthier session and could use this sort of treatment when I'm only brewing once in larger amounts of water. Otherwise it feels sort of like a waste. I suppose this is what cheaper oolong is for. Still, I don't always even raise my puerh! I can't see myself making it a habit.

As for Korean teas, I wish I could try more! I've very much enjoyed every one I've had the chance of tasting. Next year when I make the move to Japan I'll be visiting Korea and stocking up.

[debunix]

The only time I routinely toss a first infusion is with aggressive young shengs--when the first infusions are too bitter. I virtually never do that with oolongs.

[Poseidon]

Due to not having a great way to brew at work, ive had to settle on getting a big cup of water from Starbucks and tossing in a few pinches of tea to do a grandpa style brew. Today's tea is Ginseng Oolong to help with some of this allergy migraine that has been creeping in the past week. This tea is so sweet and delicious! I didnt think I would be a fan but I really do enjoy it. It has a nice little licorice tingle that hits your tongue after you swallow.

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

Mt. View Tea Village's Lishan, Jin Xuan Wulong:

These past days I pour a newly opened wulong in my Shaun shib and matching cup. This tea is a Taiwan, Lishan wulong tea made from the Jin Xuan cultivar. Typically speaking, the Lishan area is dominated by the Qing Xin cultivar due to altitude and the type of teas generally produced there. However, this tea is a high-mountain Jin Xuan from the Lishan area and is unlike any other Jin Xuan tea I have experienced. It has been truly amazing! It has incredible durability across rounds and seems richly potent with flavor. In fact, it's hard to describe. Personally, this is the best Jin Xuan wulong I have ever tasted!

The owner of Mt. View Tea Village sold it to me on one of my visits to see him from his back cabinet (If anyone ever visits ask to see the teas in the back cabinet, not the stuff out front). He mentioned its uniqueness as a tea. I had forgotten how much I paid for it and looked at the canister to see that it cost me $55.00 for roughly 75 grams (two Taiwanese liang). However the tea is well worth the price in flavor/mouthfeel, aroma, and in the number of infusions it imparts.

It's an exceptional tea that has given some really beautiful moments where I become lost in the complex, integral balance of the tea's flavor, mouthfeel, huigan, and lingering aroma.

Blessings!

[drinking_teas]

Mt. View Tea Village's Lishan, Jin Xuan Wulong:

These past days I pour a newly opened wulong in my Shaun shib and matching cup. This tea is a Taiwan, Lishan wulong tea made from the Jin Xuan cultivar. Typically speaking, the Lishan area is dominated by the Qing Xin cultivar due to altitude and the type of teas generally produced there. However, this tea is a high-mountain Jin Xuan from the Lishan area and is unlike any other Jin Xuan tea I have experienced. It has been truly amazing! It has incredible durability across rounds and seems richly potent with flavor. In fact, it's hard to describe. Personally, this is the best Jin Xuan wulong I have ever tasted!

The owner of Mt. View Tea Village sold it to me on one of my visits to see him from his back cabinet (If anyone ever visits ask to see the teas in the back cabinet, not the stuff out front). He mentioned its uniqueness as a tea. I had forgotten how much I paid for it and looked at the canister to see that it cost me $55.00 for roughly 75 grams (two Taiwanese liang). However the tea is well worth the price in flavor/mouthfeel, aroma, and in the number of infusions it imparts.

It's an exceptional tea that has given some really beautiful moments where I become lost in the complex, integral balance of the tea's flavor, mouthfeel, huigan, and lingering aroma.

Blessings!

you can buy LiShan Jin Xuan on here as well: http://beautifultaiwantea.com/collectio ... rom-lishan

I've been impressed with their price/quality ratio. However, they're not a one-stop shop as they don't really have any darker oolongs except for Oriental Beauty.

They have a sale going on as well: http://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/2c ... an_tea_co/

-------------------------

As for me, I drank a lightly roasted LiShan oolong from Origin this morning, and had an excellent Shui Xian in the evening.

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

you can buy LiShan Jin Xuan on here as well: http://beautifultaiwantea.com/collectio ... rom-lishan

I've been impressed with their price/quality ratio. However, they're not a one-stop shop as they don't really have any darker oolongs except for Oriental Beauty.

They have a sale going on as well: http://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/2c ... an_tea_co/

Thank you for the links. I've yet to purchase from them but have looked at them before. Our tea storage is full at the moment. Though drinking this tea what I really keep coming back to is contemplation on who the tea master that made this tea is. The tea has a very crafted complexity. It would be interesting to put this tea head to head with another Lishan Jin Xuan tea. My sense is that whomever made this tea did so with a lot of skill. The older gentleman that owns Mt. View Tea Village is Taiwanese and has his own farms in Taiwan. He's a stodgy, heavily accented old guy who knows tea well but is not incredibly friendly to those whom are not Taiwanese or whom don't speak Mandarin. But he's warm beneath the surface. After visiting and sitting with him multiple times my sense is that he has some well-crafted tea guanxi/關係 in Taiwan. Next time I visit I'd like to ask him who the tea maker of this particular Lishan Jin Xuan tea is and follow up on other teas from the same maker.

Blessings!

[daidokorocha]

I'm very much jealous of you all. What I would give for that Lishan that was linked at the moment. 2 oz for 16 is not a bad price whatsoever. I've run out of oolong besides some milk oolong I have, but I did just receive several in (like a lovely Wenshan pouchong for instance), but I am resisting opening them until my fiancee gets back next week. I am dying for some oolong but NOT the milk oolong at the moment, and all I can find in my cupboards are these oolong bags from Kari-Out Co. that cheap Americanized Chinese restaurants try to pawn off on you. These have been sitting around here for quite a long time... I hope my fiancee realises just how much I love her.

[drinking_teas]

I'm very much jealous of you all. What I would give for that Lishan that was linked at the moment. 2 oz for 16 is not a bad price whatsoever. I've run out of oolong besides some milk oolong I have, but I did just receive several in (like a lovely Wenshan pouchong for instance), but I am resisting opening them until my fiancee gets back next week. I am dying for some oolong but NOT the milk oolong at the moment, and all I can find in my cupboards are these oolong bags from Kari-Out Co. that cheap Americanized Chinese restaurants try to pawn off on you. These have been sitting around here for quite a long time... I hope my fiancee realises just how much I love her.

Note that you get 20% off with the code "REDDIT", so $12.80 for 2oz.

Kari-Out Co! That stuff is horrible. Tastes like water with some liquid smoke. Disgusting! My local Chinese restaurant used to use those, but now they use Jasmine Green. The local sushi joint actually has a very nice green tea though, assuming it's Sencha, very rich color, nice umami taste. Good tuna as well.

[daidokorocha]

I'm very much jealous of you all. What I would give for that Lishan that was linked at the moment. 2 oz for 16 is not a bad price whatsoever. I've run out of oolong besides some milk oolong I have, but I did just receive several in (like a lovely Wenshan pouchong for instance), but I am resisting opening them until my fiancee gets back next week. I am dying for some oolong but NOT the milk oolong at the moment, and all I can find in my cupboards are these oolong bags from Kari-Out Co. that cheap Americanized Chinese restaurants try to pawn off on you. These have been sitting around here for quite a long time... I hope my fiancee realises just how much I love her.

Note that you get 20% off with the code "REDDIT", so $12.80 for 2oz.

Kari-Out Co! That stuff is horrible. Tastes like water with some liquid smoke. Disgusting! My local Chinese restaurant used to use those, but now they use Jasmine Green. The local sushi joint actually has a very nice green tea though, assuming it's Sencha, very rich color, nice umami taste. Good tuna as well.

Free shipping on $15 dollar orders as well... and a free sample. What should I do? I am torn between budgeting like I'm supposed to be doing at the moment and splurging on tea. When I grow old I'm sure my biggest regret will not be having not put away more money for the rainy days, but NOT BUYING ENOUGH TEAS! Can't take either with you when you die, but you can enjoy tea every day until you do. Tough choice I'm having at the moment because I'm still trying to figure out what my finances are going to look like for the next few months with school coming up and all. This month is dedicated to books and tuition, sadly. Still... I think I'll sleep on it. Wiser decisions might be made when I'm not completely hankering.

I'm not sure drinking the Kari Out Co. was the best idea... it did give me a little fruitiness actually, but a lot of grimey black fanning taste as well. Overall, the taste was completely one dimensional and didn't really taste of much but muddied water. It told me to steep it for 5 minutes and I certainly came nowhere close to even trying that. I think I have 2 or 3 more bags of it left too. Free shipping to anybody who wants a bag. I do appreciate many Chinese restaurants around here who do actually put out decent pu-erh, jasmine greens, and cheap but decent oolong. Any restaurant that serves decent tea is good by me. I'll tell you, it is hard enough to find half decent sushi here in Philadelphia, let alone half decent green tea alongside it. Consider yourself lucky.

[drinking_teas]

I'm very much jealous of you all. What I would give for that Lishan that was linked at the moment. 2 oz for 16 is not a bad price whatsoever. I've run out of oolong besides some milk oolong I have, but I did just receive several in (like a lovely Wenshan pouchong for instance), but I am resisting opening them until my fiancee gets back next week. I am dying for some oolong but NOT the milk oolong at the moment, and all I can find in my cupboards are these oolong bags from Kari-Out Co. that cheap Americanized Chinese restaurants try to pawn off on you. These have been sitting around here for quite a long time... I hope my fiancee realises just how much I love her.

Note that you get 20% off with the code "REDDIT", so $12.80 for 2oz.

Kari-Out Co! That stuff is horrible. Tastes like water with some liquid smoke. Disgusting! My local Chinese restaurant used to use those, but now they use Jasmine Green. The local sushi joint actually has a very nice green tea though, assuming it's Sencha, very rich color, nice umami taste. Good tuna as well.

Free shipping on $15 dollar orders as well... and a free sample. What should I do? I am torn between budgeting like I'm supposed to be doing at the moment and splurging on tea. When I grow old I'm sure my biggest regret will not be having not put away more money for the rainy days, but NOT BUYING ENOUGH TEAS! Can't take either with you when you die, but you can enjoy tea every day until you do. Tough choice I'm having at the moment because I'm still trying to figure out what my finances are going to look like for the next few months with school coming up and all. This month is dedicated to books and tuition, sadly. Still... I think I'll sleep on it. Wiser decisions might be made when I'm not completely hankering.

I'm not sure drinking the Kari Out Co. was the best idea... it did give me a little fruitiness actually, but a lot of grimey black fanning taste as well. Overall, the taste was completely one dimensional and didn't really taste of much but muddied water. It told me to steep it for 5 minutes and I certainly came nowhere close to even trying that. I think I have 2 or 3 more bags of it left too. Free shipping to anybody who wants a bag. I do appreciate many Chinese restaurants around here who do actually put out decent pu-erh, jasmine greens, and cheap but decent oolong. Any restaurant that serves decent tea is good by me. I'll tell you, it is hard enough to find half decent sushi here in Philadelphia, let alone half decent green tea alongside it. Consider yourself lucky.

i'll let you decide whether you want to order or not. I've never tried their Lishan teas, so I can't comment on them, but their Alishan and especially ShanLinXi teas are great, as are their PingLin teas.

[daidokorocha]

Most places I've seen it have it going for a good penny that I wouldn't care to spend anytime soon. So this is all too tempting.

[tortoise]

High Fired Tea Luo Han from Mandarin's Tea Room. Very balanced and dynamic. Both heavy mineral and dried fruit flavors - a great combination in fully expressed in yancha.

[wert]

Continuing my journey of hongshui oolong....this time, the tea base is from alishan.

IMG_20140731_212053.jpg (25.1 KiB) Viewed 2434 times

[Noonie]

Yesterday I dipped into some dancong that I hadn't had for a while. I remember when I did I really liked it (commercial grade phoenix dancong from a local vendor in Toronto). I think I used too little leaf as the taste wasn't pleasant. I then re-read some threads on brewing dancong and remembered to fill the gaiway about 1/2 way with dry leaves and use short steeps. I'll be doing this in about an hour...and can't wait

Edit: that was much better. Filled the 100ml gaiwan about 1/3-1/2 fill, and had multiple steeps ranging between 10-15 seconds. It was vibrant yet smooth. Subtle changes with each brew but all really good.

[debunix]

Splendid session with Gui Feng oolong from Norbu--love that fruity sweetness, and that is so forgiving of 'grandpa style' brewing in my thermos (toss in leaves, add hot water, forget for an hour, then enjoy all afternoon).