by moot » Sep 8th, '09, 14:57
I'm actually drinking (and utterly, riotously pleased with) The Tea Gallery's Water Golden Turtle right now. It seems to me about as perfectly, classically *wu yi* as I've had - bone dry, toasty, minerally/astringent cut, then this soft, blooming almost unsweet maltiness, quiet dancing copper flavors... So deliciously toasty... like somebody took the toastiness off of fresh popped popcorn and sort of enshrined it in its own picture frame.
It might be that your brewing's off (try wyardley's suggestions below, which is basically how I brewed my stuff - though I tend to use a little less tea than he does). But maybe it's your expectations - sometimes I find I can get trapped in one type of tea, or music, and become frustrated with something else because I can't cut my mind off from a certain expectation or need. Like going back and forth between, say, rap and jazz, and Beethoven. After listening to a lot of rap, Beethoven will seem so rhythmically *dull*, so metronomic, compared to the live-fire rhythmic play of really good rap, or jazz drumming. Or if I've been listening to a lot of Beethoven, rap will seem terribly melodically dull. But of course, melodic and harmonic density isn't the *point* of rap, and it's something in my expectations that needs to be tweaked to get *it*.
Anyway, you talked about "not getting the point", so maybe it's an expectation thing. Taiwan oolongs and wuyis are about as opposite on the aesthetic spectrum of oolongs as I can think of. The Taiwan high mountain aesthetic, to overgeneralize, seems to prize green sweetness, life, roundness, freshness, a kind of symphonic vegetal energy. The Wuyi aesthetic seem to prize dryness, minerality, astringency. Taiwan oolongs are probably the roundest and sweetest and fattest of the oolongs I love, Wuyis are the narrowest, thinnest, and most precise. In a way, wuyis are furthest from my natural aesthetic, but I've come to love them anyway, with a bit of time.
The beauty of a Taiwan oolong is like the beauty of Kate Winslet. The beauty of this Tea Gallery Water Golden Turtle wuyi is like the beauty of an older Katherine Hepburn.
There's a time for symphonies, and a time for violin solos. There's a time for fried chicken, and a time for halibut sashimi.
Sometimes I think I select between them for the mood I want... a perfect Taiwan oolong is a warming, happy, lifting, sweetening experience. This wuyi I'm drinking is making me more... precise, clear, uncluttered. Cleaner. Paying attention to such a narrow, precise set of flavors makes me like that too, for a little while.
