Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[edkrueger]

Whats the trade name for ""Half Sky Goblin"?

[brandon]

Ban Tian Yao.

[tenuki]

aged and roasted tky

[edkrueger]

I think I would be more likely to buy it if they called it Half Sky Goblin.

[wyardley]

Ban Tian Yao.

While I don't claim to speak or understand spoken or written Chinese well enough (nor do I have the knowledge of Chinese literature / poetry / figurative expressions) to understand the true meaning of bantian yao, I can say one or two things.

With Chinese, keep in mind that "character" doesn't exactly equal "word" (and that each character may have multiple meanings) -- as in English, there are compound words. If you translate each character into English literally, you'll probably end up with nonsense.

Tian (天) means day as well as sky, and 'bantian' means a number of things, including "half the day", or "a while".

Assuming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_Tian_Yao_tea is correct, I think the 'yāo' is not "goblin" or "spirit" (妖), but "waist" (腰) (same sound, same tone, different character).
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E8%85%B0/1317695
vs.
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E5%A6%96/1317686

(both return a lot of search results, but 腰 returns more, and the thread below suggests that that is the correct 'yao').

http://www.sanzui.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=89622 has a little bit on the name, and it seems to suggest that 腰 is correct in current usage, and (if I'm understanding right) that it was originally a tea produced by an old HK shop, and was from halfway up a specific peak ('山腰' being halfway up the mountain; literally, the waist of the mountain). Confusingly, it mentions that the yao in the name may have originally been yào (鹞), a type of bird (sparrow hawk). [edit: The second and longer story about it in the Sanzui thread suggests that the name came from the dream of a Buddhist monk, who dreamed about a white sparrow hawk.]

Hopefully someone with a better understanding of the background can fill us in.

[alan logan]

proposal of meaning on babelcarp corroborates your understanding:
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.c ... n+tian+yao

"ban tian yao (Ban Tian Yao) = Wuyi oolong and cultivar, one of the Ming Cong, literally Midair Waist (半天腰) [4,1,1], referring to a narrowing of a cliff where the tea was first grown; or Midair Kite [bird] (半天鹞 or 半天鷂) [4,1,4], referring to a mythical bird which, pounced on by an eagle, dropped the gem it was carrying to where the tea was first grown, the gem turning into the seed that grew into the first shrub - both of these names are colorful ways of saying the bushes grow at high altitudes; or Half Day Perish (半天夭) [4,1,1]; or Midair Demon (半天妖) [4,1,1]. There are different spellings because of the conflicting myths of the tea's orgin and tea farmers' limited literacy. Historians regard as the earliest name and as an early alternate spelling."

[iannon]

Well..oddly enough I am having a 2010 Lao Cong Shui Xian tonight...

[debunix]

Wood roasted Shui Xian from HouDe tonight, a wonderful session. Sweet, spicy, complex.

[tenuki]

I like that tea too debunix!


brewing some 2010 spring imperial honey orchid phoenix Dancong in my glass gaiwan. hmnn, jury's still out, will have to do a couple more sessions with this tea.

[Victoria]

Just finished off the last of my Zealong Oolong split with TokyoB. Actually it seemed improved after sitting a few months. I liked it better than when I first reviewed it. Not that I would buy again, but it was a good cup.

[iannon]

shui jin gui tonite. Dark Chocolate aroma was crazy strong

[Ambrose]

2010 Autumn Yu-Shan hand harvested organic.

[debunix]

Finishing a big brewing of 2009 Winter Dong Ding from Norbu. It's a lovely tea, and one of these days I need to brew it head-to-head with my SeaDyke TKY, to better be able to describe exactly what it is that makes it so much more refined and smooth.

[tenuki]

imperial rou gui - nothing special.

[wyardley]

If it's one of the "gift package" products of Sea Dyke, $30 is a very good deal! They sell those products very quite high prices in China. It seems the North American importers can negotiate very good prices with them.

Turns out to be from 1998 or before (pretty reliable information on that - it's been sitting in the warehouse here since then).

Found a Qian Li Xiang that I overlooked before. Note the different shapes (and calligraphy with the name of the tea) on the tins.





The tea is tricky to brew and a little inconsistent... but I think better than I had first thought.

The quality of the jars is not amazing, but still, for the price, definitely better than something you'd get today.