Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[ethan]

. I've brewed it anywhere from 175-190 degrees F, for multiple steeps--any recommendations on how to pull the best out of this tea?

First I mention amount of leaf. I use less than most people, about 1 gram per ounce. First & second infusions I steep no more than 20 seconds; third 30 seconds; & fourth no more than 45. I may even be quicker. Let me think, okay, 85 - 96 C; so 185 to a bit over 200. I am leaving my apartment at 6 a.m. tomorrow to go overseas & packed my notes. I think I settled on favorite temp. but know I still varied from it.

Hopeofdawn, I suggest you PM pedant, if he does not see this in which I ask him what he settled on.

I believe 185F very quick (10 seconds) avoids charcoal. It is hard to understand why sometimes dried fruit etc. is there as a subtle base & other times not. When it comes right it is special. I do know long steeping brings on too much charcoal. Sorry for rambling, been struggling to get my bags within the weight limits. Tired. Please PM me to remind me to give you a shorter, better answer.

[jayinhk]

Drinking a reroasted '2016' baozhong I purchased from a tea store in the airport in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This was labeled Paojong green tea, but I didn't realize what it was until I got home! At home the tea was almost entirely devoid of flavor, unlike the sample I'd tried in Chiang Mai.

I decided to reroast this tea at 100C and there was barely any aroma from the leaves, which was not a good sign. I let the tea rest for several months and gave it another try today and...success. Peach, lychee and orchid, but something unpleasant under the surface. Still a vast improvement over the nothingness it presented me with.

Lovely day in Hong Kong..unseasonably warm at 24 Celsius and 67% humidity. The temperature is supposed to drop a little again tomorrow, but it'll be T-shirt weather over Christmas, and then cool again, then warm again. But global warming isn't a thing apparently.

[victoria3]

Curious Jay, what you are using to re-roast with? I saw this sesame roaster and thought it might work for tea also;
http://www.naokomoore.com/2012/08/handm ... aster.html
Here in Annapolis, MD it is also unseasonably warm at 12C/53 F

Since the house here has a reverse osmosis system, I have been using Volvic water with very good results. Every time I buy a bottle I do feel badly though from an environmental standpoint. In Santa Monica the city actual uses reverse osmosis but then remineralizes the water with great results for tea, all I do there is use a brita filter. It is so much simpler than buying so many plastic bottles with water transported from across the world.

Enjoying Floating Leaves, 2016 Spring Lishan, super buttery a rich thick broth smooth with floral notes.

[jayinhk]

Victoria, I just use my electric oven! Around 100C is where you want to be for oolongs; a little higher for balled oolongs. For future reroasts you may need to go higher if 100C isn't high enough. My oven is a HK-purchased one, so we use Celsius here, like most of the world does!

I'd try this water:

http://www.mountainvalleywaters.com/wat ... 60_ct.aspx

The distributor is in town and the water is from Arkansas, so less of a footprint. I actually don't like Volvic--there are other waters available locally that I prefer, and I really enjoy tap water (unfiltered) sessions.

You could try mixing your RO water with bottled water as well. The water in my office building is rusty (!), so I have to buy bottled water and lug it there (95% of Hong Kong people don't drive). I sometimes take empty bottles home and fill them up with tap water for tea and Brita-filtered water for drinking!

[victoria3]

Interesting; In the oven do you simply place tea on metal sheet? or ceramic, or ......
I'll keep an eye out for that water, makes sense to buy from Appalachian mountain source. I haven't seen that brand in the local markets Somehow, very often, the closest is the furthest to find.

The ground water here is very hard and treated with ph chems, so after 7 years experimenting with it and tea I've given up mixing it with tea. Pretty nice drinking it though.

[jayinhk]

Interesting; In the oven do you simply place tea on metal sheet? or ceramic, or ......
I'll keep an eye out for that water, makes sense to buy from Appalachian mountain source. I haven't seen that brand in the local markets Somehow, very often, the closest is the furthest to find.

The ground water here is very hard and treated with ph chems, so after 7 years experimenting with it and tea I've given up mixing it with tea. Pretty nice drinking it though.

I use a Pyrex baking dish or simply a Corningware plate or bowl, depending on how much I'm reroasting. I've found length of roast matters less than time--a steady temperature for 90 mins to three hours seems to be all that's needed. I move the tea around every half hour or so.

I know some roasters roast their teas for days. I haven't experimented enough to see if that would really make a difference, but it would make a difference when cooking, so I'm sure it does. After a roast the tea offgasses chlorophyll for quite a while, and if you seal the tea off after the roast and reopen it down the line, you can clearly smell the grassy chlorophyll odor.

That spring water is available directly from the distributor if you drive over, and looks to be packed in glass bottles too--definitely a lot more eco-friendly, and you can take your bottles back!

I was reading about a mountain spring here in HK (on our highest mountain) that many people gather water from, as there are taps sent into rock faces here. Someone on one of the local forums commented that he'd seen people peeing upstream and defecating in the woods higher up, and near the stream. I think I'll pass on that...

There's a nature reserve near my office that has 1,800 of our local macaques and quite a few wild boar running around. I may have to check that out as it has its own mountain, and there might be a decent water source. I'll have to hike up to the top to get the cleanest water.

This stream feeds the reservoir that supplies the water in the area my office is in...it certainly looks promising. Now I just have to avoid the monkeys and wild boar!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/snuffy/26435512693/

Local fauna:

http://www.arounddb.com/articles/regula ... untry-park

And then these idiots:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBCh1MVohmc

These monkeys have to be sterilized and even put down when their numbers get too high...it is illegal to feed them, but since the fine is $70-140, and there are only once-daily patrols, people still do it.

[victoria3]

Next time I'm in town I'll order that water - the markets I've visited so far here only seem to carry sparkling version.
I keep having an image of you being chased by wild boar as you collect spring water upstream

[jayinhk]

Next time I'm in town I'll order that water - the markets I've visited so far here only seem to carry sparkling version.
I keep having an image of you being chased by wild boar as you collect spring water upstream

Yeah that probably wouldn't be much fun! We had one run onto the runway here I can see part of the runway from my living room right now). The airport cops tackled it with a riot shield or something. Apparently it got hurt and they had to put it down.... : /

[jayinhk]

Drinking a very good Wuyi QiLan from 2013 or 2014 in the new F1 fang pot I bought from Ferg and using one of the 70s Chaozhou cups he so kindly threw in and WOW...what a session. This pot absolutely sings with the tea and I had a thoroughly enjoyable session. Glad I bought this little pot. The combination brought the aroma and flavor to the forefront and also smoothened the tea out just the right way. I don't think I'll even try this pot with pu...it just performed so darn well with the QiLan.

[debunix]

Finally broke into Chen 's Dong Dingtoday from the 2016 TC shared buy of High Mountain Tea. Only a few infusions in but it is quite lovely, plummy, spicy, earthy, with a rich mouthfeel--very satisfying as 'dessert' after a fine meal. Lovely brewed in Petr's treebark ent-pot.

[victoria3]

I somehow brought Chen's Roasted High Mountain instead of Roasted DongDing with me on my trip. Very nice as well, wonderful aroma and rich palate of flavors from chesnut to mint. So much more refined and complex than a blah LiShan I picked up at a local tea house. Here early Christmas morning with Seifu Yohei's III stellar cup.

[debunix]

Haven't yet broken into Chen's High Mountain but that Dong Ding continue to be quite impressive. I'm sure I went at least about 6 flash infusions before I started to find it thin and increased infusion time to many seconds or a minute, and an overnight infusion just now was quite good. The pot is quite full but not jammed with the fully hydrated and open leaves now. I'll do one more overnight before I retire the leaves.

[victoria3]

Haven't yet broken into Chen's High Mountain but that Dong Ding continue to be quite impressive. I'm sure I went at least about 6 flash infusions before I started to find it thin and increased infusion time to many seconds or a minute, and an overnight infusion just now was quite good. The pot is quite full but not jammed with the fully hydrated and open leaves now. I'll do one more overnight before I retire the leaves.

I also steep overnight his roasted DongDing after 5-6 steeps. So far it is my favorite of his oolongs; long lasting, rich, flavorful, complex, aromatic and beautiful to look at rich earth tone leaves. I'm ordering a pound next time(s)

[ethan]

debunix & Victoria, Thanks for the reminder to get an extra infusion cold-steeping good tea. (I usually think of cold-steeping my mediocre tea not my better tea.) I will try to make it a habit.

I was at Dr Chen to sample medium to dark roasted oolongs. The whimsical son who usually takes care of me started w/ a tea I disliked. He drank several rounds of that, which demonstrates how much he likes what he calls "strength" & what we would both call complexity.

Favorite of the session was an organic w/ a lot of oomph, caffeine & some feelings in the body. Lots of flavors including for me (not for him) tart fruit. This is bug-bitten by what he called a spider; &, he does not say it is an oriental beauty. Indeed, it does not have the sweetness of most o.b.s..

A cheaper non-organic was almost as pleasing though simpler & not good for as many infusions.

While I was at the shop, a customer & friend of the Chen's came in w/ some green oolong he had bought at Alishan. I got to watch very serious comparison. Tea was steeped for a long time in porcelain bowls which were examined a few times to see how the rolled leaves were unfurling, how the backs of porcelain spoons dipped into bowls smelled, how liquor scooped in the spoons smelled; & only as an afterthought how the teas compared in taste. I know it was an afterthought because the customer had already ordered tea, before he took a taste. (After he left, I tasted a spoon of each, thought them about identical, & learned Chen's was significantly cheaper. (No surprise; tourist spots are ripoff spots.))

[jayinhk]

Drinking some Asian market Tenren TGY from 2012. This stuff has changed quite a bit; no longer anywhere near as roasty, and it's developed an almost incense-like character to it. Quite sour when brewed gongfu style--still drinkable, but it's much more sour than I'd like it to be. For the price, though, it is good value and reliable.