Everyday Oolong

[Herb_Master]

Observing the posts from different chatters over the months and years, it is obvious that different tastes, tactics and strategies apply to all.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

I usually order mid price to high price from the vendors I deal with, but out of interest when I ordered my Spring TKY from wan ling UK I threw in the top price TKY and the ridiculously low priced Se Zhong.

I remember when I first tried the Se Zhong that I burst into appreciation on these pages, and after had tried the mid priced and top priced offerings I deliberately refrained from further mention of the Se Zhong.

But I broached another pot tonight, and at the price I think it is pretty good value. £1.50 for 50 grams. First 2 shortish infusions a tiny bit weak but mellow and sugar caney / popcorny - 3rd and 4th longer infusions with greater texture and vegetal / mineral notes.

No finesse / pretences but easy comfortable drinking.

which reminds me, the Wan Ling newsletter says they have nearly finalised their Autumn tea orders from China, but if anyone has special requests for something they would like - email James and he will try to get it.

[Tead Off]

Horses for courses, but, this horse prefers to drink VERY good tea everyday not your average cuppa. Every mediocre tea I've bought is still lying on the shelf slowly collecting dust. Once a tea drinker discovers good tea, it is very unsatisfying to drink anything less, no?

[gingkoseto]

Herb_Master, is your se zhong composed of a single variety or a few kinds mixed together?

I like the idea of having se zhong as everyday tea (even though with distraction of all the teas it's really hard to stick to one tea daily )

Many se zhong's are of only a fraction of TGY's price, which sometimes makes me think a big part of TGY's price is purely due to people's fascination at it. But of course TGY does have very stable and superior quality and should be more expensive than other southern Fu Jian oolong.

In the past a couple of decades, China was in the beginning stage of development. In tea world, like elsewhere in China, money dominated people's mind. When TGY was considered superior, everybody would cultivate it and sell it, and of course over price it when they could. There was a time I suspected some se zhong will go extinct since it was so hard to buy Fo Shou, Mei Zhan, Shui Xian (southern Fu Jian kind), Qi Lan. Besides most Ben Shan and Hairy Crab in market were of lousy quality. But in recent years there seem to be more high quality se zhong products. Besides enjoying them, I secretly hope, if there are more and more of them, TGY price can be brought down a bit.

[Herb_Master]

Not sure

**NEW** Se Zhong Oolong Specially selected by Wan Ling's sister for her local market. This tea is aimed to provide a great tea at a superb price.



Se Zhong Oolong Tea **Spring 2009**

50g - £1.50

http://www.wanlingteahouse.co.uk/uk_tea ... -yin.shtml

It looks fairly uniform to my untrained eye, but no idea of the cultivar.

[Salsero]

Wow, at £1.50 that is really cheap Anxi tea! I have been extremely impressed so far with each of the 4 Wan Ling TGY that I have tried. I'd wager the Se Zhong is also an exceptional quality for its price. I've had Se Zhong from Yunnan Sourcing and from Jing, but neither was this cheap, and based on my short experience with Wan Ling I suspect the Wan Ling might be the best of the three.

Wan Ling: $5 per 100 grams
Jing (Mao Xi): $12 per 100 grams
Yunnan Sourcing: $9 per 100 grams (last year)