What Oolong Are You Drinking

Semi-oxidized tea
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LeoFox
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Sat May 08, 2021 8:41 am

Golden concubine from mud and leaves

Recently ordered a tea scoop from them and on a whim added a small sample of this tea which I usually dont drink.
Golden Concubine High Mountain Oolong, Summer 2020 
Hsieh Jiang Lin Tea Company

Season: Summer 2020
Elevation: 1200m
Origin: Lugu
Tree Variety: 青心乌龙 QingXin Oolong
Oxidation: 30%
Roasting: 25%
This is priced at 0.32/g and for comparison:

Hojo: $0.52/g
TTC gui fei: $0.21-0.25 /g
Eco cha gui fei: $0.32/g
Mei leaf: 0.29/g
viewtopic.php?p=33776#p33776

Brewed 5g in 80 mL gaiwan: rinse /30/25/30/40/60 etc

Long story short: I'm glad I only got a small sample. The tea is pretty awful. I mostly taste a dirty, bitter roast, with some notes of ginger and a tinge of honey. The disgusting roast approaches cheap yancha level of awful. Mouthfeel is chalky and uncomfortable. The aftertaste is oddly metallic. Yuck
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Last edited by LeoFox on Sat May 08, 2021 7:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Ethan Kurland
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Sat May 08, 2021 6:21 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 8:41 am
....
Long story short: I'm glad I only got a small sample. The tea is pretty awful. I mostly taste a dirty, bitter roast, ]
Very nice photographs (which is what you usually post). With such attractive photographs & such a description of unpleasant flavors, I would think instead of saying the tea is "pretty awful", one might write that "the tea is pretty and awful". :) Cheers
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LeoFox
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Sat May 08, 2021 6:29 pm

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 6:21 pm
LeoFox wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 8:41 am
....
Long story short: I'm glad I only got a small sample. The tea is pretty awful. I mostly taste a dirty, bitter roast, ]
Very nice photographs (which is what you usually post). With such attractive photographs & such a description of unpleasant flavors, I would think instead of saying the tea is "pretty awful", one might write that "the tea is pretty and awful". :) Cheers
Haha - thanks! It is true that it can be very hard to tell if a tea is good just by the way it looks!

Btw, I have no complaints about this company's porcelain and the tea scoop I I got from them is nice. Just this tea is surprisingly bad- esp for that price.
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debunix
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Fri May 14, 2021 5:02 pm

Bao Zhong from Tillerman: I abused this tea, opening a fresh package without any time to breathe, and thermos-brewing a small sample. And: lovely mellow summer meadow, dry grass and wildflowers, bit of floral, spicy, sweet, and that baseline golden warm caramel base--not really earthy, or quite toasty, or truly buttery--but that light oolong flavor I associated with summer meadow with drying grass/standing hay.

I do not have the bag in front of me to review the details, but I am loving how this one coped with my careless brewing.
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LeoFox
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Fri May 14, 2021 6:10 pm

debunix wrote:
Fri May 14, 2021 5:02 pm
Bao Zhong from Tillerman: I abused this tea, opening a fresh package without any time to breathe, and thermos-brewing a small sample. And: lovely mellow summer meadow, dry grass and wildflowers, bit of floral, spicy, sweet, and that baseline golden warm caramel base--not really earthy, or quite toasty, or truly buttery--but that light oolong flavor I associated with summer meadow with drying grass/standing hay.

I do not have the bag in front of me to review the details, but I am loving how this one coped with my careless brewing.
This sounds so lovely! Thank you for painting these images with your words.
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LeoFox
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Sat May 15, 2021 6:50 am

For relaxing times, make it Lazy Cat time.
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Lazy cat rougui 2019, that is
Lazy cat rougui 2019, that is
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LeoFox
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Sun May 16, 2021 6:49 am

This is a continuation of tasting wuyi origin boutique samples kindly gifted by @Victoria.

In the previous post, I sampled the 2019 boutique rougui 3rd roast from wuyi origins at ~$1.28/g:
viewtopic.php?p=35764#p35764

Here I sample the 4th roast at the same price point based on the website. Note that Victoria was able to get a cheaper price, just below 1$/g by doing a group buy from the China facing store. As before, this tea is supposed to be Zheng yan material (possibly Wuyuan jian) and fully hand made.

Briefly, the three roast version has a nice roast and clear peachy base leaf taste that was marred by an aggressive astringency. There was no minerality. The overall experience was interesting but not comfortable, and fell below those given by teas at much lower price points. Can a fourth roast save the tea?

As before, the dry leaf has a nice restrained fragrance. The fragrance is mostly of dried fruit and a touch of cooking spice.
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I brewed the tea as closely as I could to the way I did before using the same vessel:
Brewed 6g/80mL
Flashrinse (which I drank at the end) /6s/15s/20s/35s/45s/1min/1min30/2min/3min30/5min /10 min / steep out in mug
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The difference between this and the triple roasted tea is immediately obvious.

In the early infusions, the flavors of the roast show up first: a caramel candy sweetness that becomes bitter in a slightly burnt way starting at the second infusion. This bitterness is at the edge of being unacceptable to me: it reminds me of the black burnt flakes in the oven pan. But just before it becomes very bad, it turns candy sweet. This bitterness was not present in the triple roasted tea. The mouthfeel is also less smooth and less thick than the triple roasted tea. The spice flavors are also less than the triple roasted tea.

And then, a bit like certain romantic operatic preludes (wagnerian), the beginning tonally incomplete strokes of roast give way to the honey and peachy flavors of the oxidized leaf that linger in the aftertaste. This sweet fruity flavor is well integrated with the roast, which is in contrast to the other tea. Its haunting sweetness almost feels melancholy and nostalgic, and stops me from taking the next sip until it dies away slowly into a peppery astringency. Now this astringency is more gentle than the triple roast, but it remains a bit painful in the back of the mouth.

As infusions progress, the tea becomes more mellow and integrated in terms of roast and oxidized flavors. The mouthfeel becomes smoother and more creamy. The astringency becomes more prominent in the aftertaste, which remains fruity and dan cong like. The aftertaste is long and lingering overall. I was tasting it long after the session was complete.

Verdict
The fourth roast seemed to have balanced the tea a bit more, reducing the astringency but increasing the bitterness. Ultimately, this is a better and even more interesting experience than the third roast. However, this tea still lacks minerality; furthermore, while the astringency is less problematic, the astringency is still uncomfortable and now there is also an unpalatable bitterness.

Note that I deliberately brewed the lazy cat entry level rougui yesterday to reset my baseline expectations. The lazycat rougui also lacks minerality, but is not uncomfortably astringent or bitter.

It is interesting to experience what an additional roast can do: flavors and aromas are shifted. But since the base material is the same, the overall quality profile does not change significantly.

Personally, this session was very reminiscent of listening to certain pieces of romantic music with strong atonal features. Would I buy this tea? With other cheaper options that deliver more comfortable but similarly interesting experiences, I may have to pass for now. Some who can stomach the astringency and bitterness may find this tea masterful. Also, this tea would likely benefit from brewing in a slightly muting vessel.

[*][*]
Incidentally, my wife, who only drinks bagged teas and chai (so take this with a bucket of salt) took a sip of the cooled down rinse and thought it was disgusting and reminded her of cigarette butts. :lol: Like me, she has never smoked. I think this is a bit unfair to the tea, but it's interesting to hear the reaction of someone who isn't a fan of whole leaf tea. She also blanched when I showed her the cost and wasn't convinced when I told her it's still cheaper than drinking a pint of mid level stout at the bar

To me, the rinse is dominated by the roast and a flavor that reminds me of Lipton tea, which incidentally, I think has a tobacco character.

Edit: after mug steeping the leaves for a long time, I am finally getting something that resembles vitamin tablet minerality. It coats the mouth and is quite pleasant.
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Last edited by LeoFox on Sun May 16, 2021 1:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Ethan Kurland
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Sun May 16, 2021 10:06 am

LeoFox wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 6:49 am
..., a bit like certain romantic operatic preludes (wagnerian), the beginning tonally incomplete strokes of roast give way to the honey and peachy flavors of the oxidized leaf that linger in the aftertaste. This sweet fruity flavor is well integrated with the roast, which is in contrast to the other tea. Its haunting sweetness almost feels melancholy and nostalgic, and stops me from taking the next sip until it dies away slowly....

It is interesting to experience what an additional roast can do: flavors and aromas are shifted. But since the base material is the same, the overall quality profile does not change significantly.

Personally, this session was very reminiscent of certain pieces of romantic music with strong atonal features. Would I buy this tea? With other cheaper options that deliver more comfortable but similarly interesting experiences,...
Thank you for such an interesting, thought-provoking review of rou gui. I suppose the "tonally incomplete strokes of roast" give way to flavors that one might compare to more easily appreciated melodic music that follow those atonal preludes. I also suppose you are more than a casual lover of music, perhaps involved in it deeply.

Some years back John B. gave me samples of 3 rou gui from Cindy. To show how you & I think & taste differently, I note: What I thought about was that I liked the rou gui a lot at first; but, it did not seem so special to me after a few sessions. (Priced higher than teas that I prefer.) I did not know whether those teas varied in how many times they were roasted. They were sorted by "quality" which was determined before tasting by price. My favorite was the least expensive rou gui. We do agree that we will buy other tea though the rou gui is interesting & flavorful including some flavors & effects that we don't like.

Would you be drinking a pint of beer at a bar if you did not drink tea? (If not, your wife wins that argument.)
On the other hand, if a family man can enjoy tea so much, he is unlikely to have a mid-life crisis; or, if tea is his mid-life crisis. it is a much better manifestation of that crisis than almost all others.
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LeoFox
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Sun May 16, 2021 10:26 am

@Ethan Kurland thank you for sharing your impressions! Yes, what you say about my comparison with music rings true; the sweet dancong like aromas were easier to grasp..and more programmatic, to use another music appreciation term, leading me away from the tea to hazy memories and feelings...and encouraging confabulated narratives

I'll say my wife won the argument. Easier that way. :lol:
 if tea is his mid-life crisis. it is a much better manifestation of that crisis than almost all others.
Hear! Hear!
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Bok
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Mon May 17, 2021 8:05 am

simple pleasures in not so simple times: Dongding in this battered old fella in red…
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mbanu
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Mon May 17, 2021 12:16 pm

Finishing up the last of a 50 gram pack of Foojoy's Shui Hsien Wuyi Oolong from a third-party vendor. Glad that I ordered a small amount, as the tea was very tired when it arrived. However, the remaining fragrance is good. Normally once teas get to a certain level of tiredness I give up on them, but not this one. If I find someone who sells this fresh, it would be nice to compare whether this fragrance is in the original or if it is more like the winey aroma of a tired Keemun.
Andrew S
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Mon May 17, 2021 4:06 pm

Starting the day with some morning yancha.

The rest of the day is already looking good...

Andrew
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Bok
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Mon May 17, 2021 7:46 pm

Andrew S wrote:
Mon May 17, 2021 4:06 pm
Starting the day with some morning yancha.

The rest of the day is already looking good...

Andrew
Image
Starting like this, what can go wrong? :)
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LeoFox
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Mon May 17, 2021 8:50 pm

Bok wrote:
Mon May 17, 2021 8:05 am
simple pleasures in not so simple times: Dongding in this battered old fella in red…
Image
That pot looks alive
Andrew S
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Tue May 18, 2021 2:32 am

@LeoFox: the staples do tend to suggest that something akin to Frankenstein's monster has been created. Perhaps another way of thinking about bringing dead pots back to life through kintsugi repairs...

@Bok: just making room for some potential future tea from Daxue Jiadao by playing with my gui dong tie luo han from EoT.

Andrew
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