Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[debunix]

Trying a more formal tasting for the 2009 Wood-roasted winter Shui Xian from HouDe: 2.5 grams tightly curled leaf, 2.5 oz water in a gaiwan.

30 seconds 1st infusion--sweet, silky, earthy, toasty, warm, a bit too dilute, should have let it go longer, because the warm flavor is there, but nothing else yet.

1 minute 2nd infusion--now the grassy, herbaceous flavors are strong, but not bitter, and it tastes utterly different--chameleon tea! (this is why I am quite in love with it)

30 seconds 3rd infusion--what will it be this time? The hay/straw/warm toasty flavor is still noticeable now, but the grassy top notes are strongly present too. Mmm.

1 minutes 4th infusion--again, a nice mix, a little more of the grassy/herbaceous notes above the warm, toasted finish.

1 minute 5th infusion--very similar.

90 seconds 6th infusion, flavor fading a little, should have been a longer infusion….and can be a longer infusion…..returned tea to the gaiwan for another minute….and….warm toasty hay/straw still dominant, but a bit richer now.

And….checking kettle…there's no more water left. I think I will call it done for now.

I love the shifting balance between complimentary but distinct flavors that I can get with this tea--the roasted/warm and the bright/herbaceous profiles.

[David R.]

I don't know how you get 30 plus infusions from a DC

How long is each infusion at the back end?
Is the pot crammed full to start ?
Are the later brews much lighter and more delicate in taste than the earlier ones ?

Hi Herb_Master. I use around 9g in a 120 gaiwan. 5 sec steeping till the 10th and 30 sec onward to 20th; a couple of mins after to 26th or so and overnight. Around 32 steep now. It went from lycee to almond for the first 15 or so, back to orchid and almond and now tasted like figs and honey. At the moment, the color is fancy grade maple syrup. Paring with my microwave raw puerh.

A question if I may : do you make a pause between these 30 brews or do you just keep going ? I am asking cause I tend to be disappointed when I let a dan cong sit for a while before re-infusing it. But it would be nice to have a confirmation on that.

[tortoise]

Buddha Hand from the Mandarin. Light, refreshing and digestive. Perfect for an 80 degree late afternoon.

[TIM]

A question if I may : do you make a pause between these 30 brews or do you just keep going ? I am asking cause I tend to be disappointed when I let a dan cong sit for a while before re-infusing it. But it would be nice to have a confirmation on that.

Hi David- Of course there are pauses between each infusions after the 5 or 6th. It will be water-boarding if I have to keep going for 20 or so
If a DC disappoint after sitting, or die after the 5th... Then it's a average stuff.

[AdamMY]

MTR Highfire TGY right now, debating if I am going to have another tea later tonight.

[David R.]

A question if I may : do you make a pause between these 30 brews or do you just keep going ? I am asking cause I tend to be disappointed when I let a dan cong sit for a while before re-infusing it. But it would be nice to have a confirmation on that.

Hi David- Of course there are pauses between each infusions after the 5 or 6th. It will be water-boarding if I have to keep going for 20 or so
If a DC disappoint after sitting, or die after the 5th... Then it's a average stuff.

Thanks Tim. It happened to me a couple of times when I began trying out dan cong. So that until now, I was always afraid to pack my gaiwan. Didn't want to waste precious (and often expensive) leaves.

I will try that shortly.

Right now, deep fermented dong ding from Hojo. Very sweet aftertaste.

[Herb_Master]

Osmanthus Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong brought to me from China by a friend:

and a sample sent on, which I tried today



3.5 Grams in a Small Chao Zhou from Imen
I ordered 3 pots from Imen at the same time all quoted as 100ml, checking today I discovered they all hold 75ml??



First Infusion 12 seconds - No rinse



Very,very,very fragrant and floral - but lacking in body.
Interesting palate pleaser.

[Herb_Master]

2nd Infusion 15 seconds



Much less fragrance, and a lot of woodsy flavour - possibly brewed too long

3rd Infusion 12 seconds



Not as overtly woody as the previous but still a long way from the first infusion. All 3 infusions have a background sweet water taste, but the woody flavour on top of the later infusions is fairly one dimensional.

After the 3rd Infusion


4th Infusion 12 seconds

5th Infusion 12 seconds

Both almost replicas of the 3rd infusion it seems that there is a lot of life in the leaves, but little complexity.

All 5 brews showed absolutely no bitterness, and a compelling sweet water taste that lacked a complexity to top it off.

[Herb_Master]

6th Infusion, I set my Kamjove about 10 degrees lower, previously it had been just below boiling.

12 Seconds



Aaah now more similar to the first infusion (lower temperature needed ???)

The fragrance is back, not as strong as the 1st Infusion but very noticeable. The slightly boring woodsy flavours have receded and the fragrance is now topping the sweet water.

7th Infusion 15 seconds


Possibly my favourite to date, but I would prefer more body or complexity. The fragrance lingers in the throat for 4 or 5 seconds

8th Infusion 20 seconds, very similar to the 7th



I think the leaves will go on for some time, but I have to stop.

As the DC is lacking (for me) in body and texture, I think I shall try the 2nd half of the sample in a Gaiwan.

[debunix]

A bunch of new teas, gray rainy weather, and another Dan Cong tasting....

2008 Song Zhong #5
Phoenix Dan Cong Oolong from TeaHabitat,



A first brewing of a spectacular tea. I was intending to reach for my 60mL Chao Zhou pot, having planned on a small series of infusions, but without really paying attention grabbed a larger pot instead. So there were fewer than anticipated infusions because the tea was really quite dilute. Despite that, it really shone.

Sweet, scent of dried apricots from the long, thin, twisted, quite dark brown leaves



Used 1.5g leaf in 100 mL clay pot--which as you can see is not much for the size of the pot



205 degrees, first infusion 20 seconds--still that apricot scent, floral in the first infusion, and the flavor matches--stone fruit with flowers. Oh my oh my.

2nd infusion, 45 seconds, sweet, floral, fruity, more intense with the longer infusion. A touch of spice--cinnamon, mace--on the back of the tongue, along with the floral.



3rd infusion, 45 second, more of the same--floral, fruity.

5th infusion, 1 minute--spicier coming to the fore, with the fruity/floral notes still rounding out the flavor, felt more at the sides of my mouth and in the sweet aftertaste. I open my mouth, inhale though it, and the sweet floral taste remains. I set a part of this apart in the aroma cup, and when I remembered it a couple of minutes later, it had cooled, but still, wow!, it was brilliant.

6th infusion, probably 2-3 minutes, more floral and fruity, didn't drink it slow enough to really process the flavors in great detail.

Setting it aside for a while now, before I float away on this pool of tea inside me.

A 7th infusion again needed more patience. Will go away from the next one for a while, but pour water over the pot to try to keep it hot and brewing….

And 8th at about 6 minutes was clearly demonstrating that the leaves were spent. Sigh. They're still an elegant mix of red edges and green middle.



Can't wait to do this one again with the Chao Zhou pot and double the leaf.

[Herb_Master]

I brewed this tea again tonight. It has a nice balance of floral and bite. Pretty complex. Have been able to adjust times and water temp to pull many different flavors. Nice to have a tea you can tweak according to your mood. Super short steepings still bring out a complex tea. After about 6-7 steepings a sort of raw flavor comes out that I really do not like. I have found this in a number of Phoenix DC's. Any ideas?

I tried again later this evening

Infusions of 30 seconds, 1 minute and 5 minutes. I think the leaf was spent by then it did not give me as much as earlier this evening.

Did not detect any pungency at all, was that only in the dry leaf? Having my nose broken a few times playing Rugby, I can only detect fragrance through the roof of my throat, so rarely get anything from dry leaf.

Nor could I find any complexity, [possibly we are using different water, or any of the other countless variables that come in to play]

And in 11 Infusions did not detect any raw flavour

2nd Session I may switch to my usual DC water (bottled High Mineral content) what is your water like ?

[Herb_Master]

I was intending to reach for my 60mL

How often does this happen to other Teachatters? It happens to me from time to time

I have an idea of which tea which pot which teacup etc etc that I want to use . . . . . . . . . .

I approach the tea and teaware parts of the house
. . . .

I am in just the mood for the idea I have in mind . . . .

The ambience is perfect
My mood is sublime
The expectation is gnawing at me

I arrive at the tea and teaware, and for one reason or another
One of the elements of my plan is not readily at hand

AND - I make a substitution

The session is undermined

On another day the session would have been good, but on this occasion it fails to completely deliver because it is NOT the planned session

[debunix]

Doesn't happen to me that often, but when you see my teaware cabinet....



....it's easy to grab this clay pot....



....instead of this one....



because their shapes are so similar and I used to do some Dan Congs in the larger pot before I got the Chao Zhou.

[NOESIS]

At the moment, I'm on my fourth infusion of Tea Gallery's dark roast TGY.

[tortoise]

2005 muzha TGY from Taiwan. Interesting.