Hi All,
It was like Christmas here yesterday...my order of lots of samples arrived. I got the black sampler, dragonwell, rooibos vanilla, silver needle and ti kuan yin.
This morning I tried the TKY. If I've had oolong before (at a restaurant maybe) I don't remember...so I count this as my first time!
I did not decide to brew this tea until I was already into my morning routine, so I didn't have time to check out brewing parameters, etc.
I brewed it in a sample cup...hot with a fast rinse, then a first steep of 3 minutes (the tin said 5 minutes, but that seemed like a LONG time). What a delightful aroma!!!! I was totally shocked...the dry leaves gave me no hint of the wonderful floral aroma I was about to enjoy!
I only came to loose leaf tea in the last year and that has been all Japanese greens...cooler water. I used boiling water. I drank the first steep from the plain porcelain cup that came with my sample cup (no lip and not much foot on this cup) my fingers were scorching...I wondered aloud, "do Chinese tea-drinkers have their fingerprints?"
I made several more steeps 35 secs, 45 secs, 55 secs (now these times look pretty Japanese-y green to me!)...poured them into my travel mug and took this delightful warm nectar with me to work.
I sampled each steep before I put it into my mug...aroma stayed awesome ...flavor stayed pretty strong...not a lot of flavor smacking into me right off, but a nice almost spice flavor on the back.
The other shocker was how much those little itty bitty leaves opened up. I put about a teaspoon in my sample cup...it covered the bottom with space showing thru. After brewing my cup was full of leaves! No tea bag could do this tea justice!!!
Even though I was "on the run" I had so much fun and enjoyed this tea so much...I can't wait to play with it some more when I have time to give it the attention it deserves!
Happy sipping,
Dreamer
Feb 12th, '09, 17:45
Posts: 495
Joined: Jan 31st, '09, 12:41
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Dreamer
Glad to see you liking TKY. I myself love TKY because of its diversity in that most any greener rolled oolong can be labeled as a TKY so its fun to sample and compare them 
I am sure you will enjoy other rolled oolongs such as Dong Ding. Many have suggested tea spring to me and their offerings look quite nice, although I am behind on recieving packages so have put off any orders myself for awhile (or until this years stuff starts comming in anyway
)
I am sure you will enjoy other rolled oolongs such as Dong Ding. Many have suggested tea spring to me and their offerings look quite nice, although I am behind on recieving packages so have put off any orders myself for awhile (or until this years stuff starts comming in anyway
)
Feb 12th, '09, 18:46
Posts: 1777
Joined: Jun 4th, '08, 19:41
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Location: Stockport, England
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Herb_Master