Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[Muadeeb]

For the past days I have been working with a 50g bag of Alishan Jin Xuan tea, lot 207 from Taiwan Tea Crafts. This for me is the first disappointing tea from them. I have experimented with different pots (different clays, glazed and unglazed), with water temp., steep times, water adjustments, etc.

I found the same thing with this tea, having ordered 150g as my "value" option, along with several others. I've tried 5g,, 7.5g, 10g in my 150ml pot, boiling, not boiling, short, long steeps, just can't get much flavor out of it. My other teas from them are quite nice, though!

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

For the past days I have been working with a 50g bag of Alishan Jin Xuan tea, lot 207 from Taiwan Tea Crafts. This for me is the first disappointing tea from them. I have experimented with different pots (different clays, glazed and unglazed), with water temp., steep times, water adjustments, etc.

I found the same thing with this tea, having ordered 150g as my "value" option, along with several others. I've tried 5g,, 7.5g, 10g in my 150ml pot, boiling, not boiling, short, long steeps, just can't get much flavor out of it. My other teas from them are quite nice, though!

Muadeeb,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the tea. Yes, this one has been a bit baffling for me. My best results were with my medium to thick-walled 150ml stone teapot and medium-walled Petr Novak glazed cups. I brewed 10g of leaf in the stone pot with water filtered from a Shacklee water filter. My base temp. for the pour was 93-94deg. C poured from a stainless Bonavita kettle. I preheated all my teaware, let the dry leaves bake a bit in a emptied/heated pot, poured in hot water for an 6-8 sec. rinse, and allowed the moistened leaves to open for about thirty seconds before pouring in the water for the first round. 1st round I poured at 2:15, 2nd at 2 min., 3rd at 2:45, 4th at 3:45, etc.

I have tried different times and diff. temperatures and 3 or 4 different pots. As you wrote, it just so far does not want to give up its flavor. I've tried 5g, 8.15g, 10g, and 12g. The scent in the dried leaf still makes me believe that there is more I can do to draw forth its essence. So I'll work with it til the bag is gone. I'm glad I only ordered 50g. As you mentioned, all my other teas from them have been good. This is the first to disappoint. In fact I'm missing the Lishan Spirt tea from TTC today; I'll have to order more.

Today I am going to try a new pot (120ml Taiwan clay; maybe this tea needs native Taiwan clay to come alive ) and different cups (thin-walled Petr Novak glazed cups) with different water. I'll see how it goes.

[William]

Maybe it's a stupid idea, but you could try to let it sit in a little jar for some time .. Try it costs nothing.

Regards.

[ethan]

Does the tea have any pleasing character?

E.g., if it has a milky mouthfeel, you might give that tea to someone who values that feeling above all else that tea might provide.

A gift of "awful" tea would not really be a gift, but if the tea is not offensive, just weak & boring -- it might make someone happy.

[mageta]

Just got a bag of imperial pearl from Mountain tea yesterday. I thought that it would go well with this time of year and boy, was I spot on!

It's good and strong, seems pretty dry, but not in a bad way at all, gives it kind of a punch up front. Spices are dominant; cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, it almost feels like the tea equivalent of a pumpkin ale, minus the boozy characteristics. There's a little pit fruit in there as well, although in the later steepings it's difficult to find it.

Seems like this would be great to have after breakfast on a cold morning.

[Teaism]

2013 Ban Tien Yau.
Hint of light roasting with rounded astringency, slight bitter sweet and with good rhythm and huigan. This is just a sample for quality evaluation to predict its quality and aging potential. Typical it is good for Yancha to settle down for 2-3 years before they are rounded off. Early tasting is usually to gauge its potential.

[ethan]

Teaism, I don't understand what you mean by "good rhythem".

[Teaism]

Teaism, I don't understand what you mean by "good rhythem".

Hi Ethan
For Ban Thien Yau the most enjoyable about this teas is to appreciate its rock rhythm. This tea is from Wuyi like most Yancha which is a mountainous terrain full of huge rock boulders. And Ban Tien Yau has this special character of "tasting the rock" that come and go and lingering in terms of taste/feel, beside the usual Yancha tea taste character. Hard to describe but if you look out for this taste rhythm you will fall in love with this tea character.

Have a great day.

Cheers!

[wyardley]

Teaism, I don't understand what you mean by "good rhythem".

For Ban Thien Yau the most enjoyable about this teas is to appreciate its rock rhythm. This tea is from Wuyi like most Yancha which is a mountainous terrain full of huge rock boulders. And Ban Tien Yau has this special character of "tasting the rock" that come and go and lingering in terms of taste/feel, beside the usual Yancha tea taste character.

岩韵 (yán yùn) is a term used to describe the aftertaste of Wuyi teas; yun could be translated roughly as 'rhyme', among other things. I've never found a consensus on the best way to describe this in English -- I think it's kind of like rhyme in the sense of an "echo". If you drink enough good yancha, I think you'll sometimes get at least a fleeting sense of what yan yun is. At some point, there's kind of an "I know it when I sense it" kind of thing going on.

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=10032

[Teaism]

Teaism, I don't understand what you mean by "good rhythem".

For Ban Thien Yau the most enjoyable about this teas is to appreciate its rock rhythm. This tea is from Wuyi like most Yancha which is a mountainous terrain full of huge rock boulders. And Ban Tien Yau has this special character of "tasting the rock" that come and go and lingering in terms of taste/feel, beside the usual Yancha tea taste character.

岩韵 (yán yùn) is a term used to describe the aftertaste of Wuyi teas; yun could be translated roughly as 'rhyme', among other things. I've never found a consensus on the best way to describe this in English -- I think it's kind of like rhyme in the sense of an "echo". If you drink enough good yancha, I think you'll sometimes get at least a fleeting sense of what yan yun is. At some point, there's kind of an "I know it when I sense it" kind of thing going on.

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=10032

Thanks for the additional information wyardley. Certainly it helps to narrow down the way it could be described correctly.

yán 岩 is rock or boulder. I find this character of rock rhythm or echo or whatever particularly elusive and alluring in Ban Tien Yau. It was one of my fav Yancha to tease and tempt with this rocky character. It is really hard to decribe it accurately but now that we mentioned it, at least everyone can look out and catch this elusive temptation character when they drink Ban Tien Yau.

Cheers!

[debunix]

Da Hong Pao from Norbu, deeply roasted and so nice in my treebark pot from Petr Novak. I love this what this pot does with this tea. So nice.

[Risdt]

102K DYL from origintea. It's quite an atypical DYL because it has a slightly higher oxidation and roast. I can honestly say this was probably the best tea I've ever had. There is no fault to be detected, it's perfect.

DYL always scared me abit because of its high prices but now I came to the conclusion it's worth every penny!

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

Maybe it's a stupid idea, but you could try to let it sit in a little jar for some time .. Try it costs nothing.

Regards.

Haha.. It could be that it would improve with a little sit time in a jar. I kept working with it; compared to other quality teas I have in a similar style/range, this tea is a bit shy. It needs to be coaxed forth with a little longer time. I brewed it yesterday, 6g in a new Andrzej Bero 90ml glazed kyusu with Fiji water at 92-94deg. C. I looked at my notes from prior brews and decided to let it go long. I brewed the first round for 3 min. and got a much more pleasant experience. It was not extraordinary but pleasing. Like I mentioned, the tea seems a bit shy and is not as robust or as eager to reveal itself as other Alishan Jin Xuan teas I've drank. I enjoyed the pour but would still not order it again.

Does the tea have any pleasing character?

E.g., if it has a milky mouthfeel, you might give that tea to someone who values that feeling above all else that tea might provide.

A gift of "awful" tea would not really be a gift, but if the tea is not offensive, just weak & boring -- it might make someone happy.

It's funny you post this; I did consider gifting it as a tea to someone but realized the same as you that it may not be such a gift after all since the tea was, to me, a bit shy. Sometimes I keep a mediocre tea or a troublesome of unique tea on hand to pour as a base comparison with teas that are more representative and quality for a certain style. This way if I give a formal tasting people really appreciate the better quality tea.

My experience with mouthfeel is that it is much more dependent on the water used, the type of kettle used, teapot and cup clay/glaze, etc. But there wasn't anything overly distinct about the mouthfeel.

I enjoy the surprise of how the tea presented itself and the challenge of opening its essence. It's just that I have been drinking a lot of qing xin cultivar tea from, primarily, the Lishan region and was looking forward to an enjoyable return to Alishan and jin xuan.

Blessings!

[ethan]

From Verdant Tea's sampler promotion for new customers: Traditional TGY

Simple vegetal flavor.

[jayinhk]

Anxi Super Oolong from Fook Ming Tong, a HK tea chain. I've held off on buying tea from them as I felt their prices were excessive; this is their cheapest oolong offering at around $10 for 75g. It's actually pretty good for the money; better than I expected! I know I'm paying a hefty premium buying from them, but I want to try one of their higher grades now!

For the same price, though, I prefer Ying Kee's TGY. It's sweeter and more delicate and floral IMO.

FMT's highest grade oolong is around $290 for 150g--I'm not quite ready to drop that kind of money on TGY! lol