What Oolong Are You Drinking

[Teachronicles]

2021 early April bao zhong from ping lin
The cultivar is shui xian transplanted from wuyi some time ago. The tea bush is not so wild and sees some limited amounts of fertilizer.

faj Another offering from the connoisseur (this one I paid for)

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The leaves have a restrained scent of grape juice



Brewed 6.5g in 125 mL porcelain pot
Rinse /30s /40s /1min /1min20s /2min /3min /5min etc






I think I brewed it wrong: these leaves need to be pushed harder and I will try 7 g and start with 1 min brews.

Reason I say this is that the first two infusions were a bit thin, but the later infusions were very nice.

Early infusions are dominated by tropical fruit aromas. I would say mainly coconut and dried pineapple. The fragrance level is quite low, which is nice.

As steeps progress, the aftertaste becomes richer and there is a very strong earthy minerality that merges with a savory note. Together, it reminds me of dried mushrooms and light chicken broth. This aftertaste is very persistent and seems to play well with the more fruity aromas. Over time, the aftertaste becomes very refreshing and a bit minty.

Of particular interest is the smooth, milky mouthfeel along with a hint of Chinese spices that I've experienced before in yancha. This makes it a very comforting tea.

I will add more after additional sessions.

Sorry for going back so far in the thread, and i know this is the oolong thread, but i love that porcelain teapot! Have not seen one in that shape before!

[LeoFox]

- and was blown away even by the first infusion, that is usually underwhelming compared to the second infusion. He was especially surprised by the powerful aroma and the unexpected huigan.
Here is a link to the teas
viewtopic.php?p=36903#p36903

Thanks for sharing, especially the photographs, Leo. I don't take photographs but like seeing them. I often read that second infusions are more flavorful but sort of think first infusions are as flavorful but in a subtle way . I expect huigan from top quality gaoshan & mkight take it for granted; yet, every time hot water hits leaves to create aroma instantly, I am awed & thankful.

Another pic from today. My dad said this FSS has a consistent, strong flavor for 12 brews before beginning to fade away. My mom said flavor started going down after the 6th brew (probably more realistic). She also said she experienced a very strong salivation reaction that she hasn't had with tea in a long time.

5g in 85 mL gaiwan

Again, all hearsay since I'm not the one brewing or tasting. But something tells me this FSS supply from Ethan probably won't last long.
viewtopic.php?p=36903#p36903

[LeoFox]

Sorry for going back so far in the thread, and i know this is the oolong thread, but i love that porcelain teapot! Have not seen one in that shape before!

This shape is great for baozhong. Everything else about this pot is awful: dribbly pour, leaky lid and awkward to hold. Only way to use it is to slide it horizontally into the gong dao bei immediately before doing a careful 90 degree rotation.

[Victoria]

Brought quite a few of Tillerman’s teas with me on this trip, some neglected for a while, others going gone fast. A lightly roasted 15% oxidized spring 2020 Wenshan Bao Zhong has preserved it buttery floral forest green notes well. But, the spring 2020 Hehuanshan high mountain by Chen Huan Tang has lost some of its fresh spring aroma and sweet herbaceous evergreen notes, it is still very good as long as relatively low mineral count water is used. I used Crystal Geyser, Alpine Spring (by CG Roxane Adirondack Johnstown, NY) with a TDS of 210 which is high, so next time I’ll switch to Iceland Spring, since I’m not using underground water here because it is RO and flat. I wish I’d stored this oolong in vacu-sealed packs.

Also, enjoying Tillerman’s winter 2018 Laoshi 30-35% oxidation (minimally roasted) Alishan today. While yesterday, I had HY Chen’s lightly roasted Alishan Jin Xuan (minimal oxidation). Both are highly aromatic and rich but with slightly different flavor profiles. HY Chen’s is macadamia nutty, with silky smooth sweet liquor. Laoshi’s is rich, aromatic and has slightly more tannic notes, but maybe it needed a little less steeping time than Chen’s. Kind of nice that by chance I brought both on this trip back east. Always interesting to compare slightly different oxidation and roasting levels

P.S. We re lucky here in USA to have Tillerman curating such quality teas .

[Ethan Kurland]

Victoria,
Do you keep a written record of which waters work the best for specific teas? I'm amazed....

[Victoria]

Victoria,
Do you keep a written record of which waters work the best for specific teas? I'm amazed....

I do keep a log in Evernote of new teas. If a tea seems off from previous sessions, I’ll add a note to try either modified tea/water/temp/time (mostly greener teas), teaware, and or water. Here in Annapolis the water is RO so I need to use bottled sources. With this NY Crystal Geyser I notice minerals get separated when I boil it, as if they were added to the ‘natural alpine spring’ water.

[Bok]

2018 Laoshi 30-35% oxidation (minimally roasted) Alishan today. While yesterday, I had HY Chen’s lightly roasted Alishan Jin Xuan (minimal oxidation)

Here you can see a good comparison between two philosophies of making tea, one conservative, almost to the point of being reactionary, the other young, experimental and still looking to find his way...

Said Laoshi keeps lamenting to everyone who will listen that nowadays tea makers don't do tea properly anymore: too little oxidation and not done properly, afterwards either doing nothing or covering it up with roasting.

There is something to be said about proper oxidation for Oolong, this maker let me once try a tea that was 20y old, had a yellow tea soup, which would otherwise indicate younger age, but was nonetheless full of flavour and nice aged profiles. So it is very well possible to let tea age without prepping it with a roast. I for one was really surprised by that tea.

[Ethan Kurland]

There is something to be said about proper oxidation for Oolong,... try a tea that was 20y old, had a yellow tea soup, which would otherwise indicate younger age, but was nonetheless full of flavour and nice aged profiles. So it is very well possible to let tea age without prepping it with a roast. I for one was really surprised by that tea.

Bok, Thanks, very informative.

I had bought a few oolongs that sound similar to what you described. Some had been aged on purpose; some had the suspicious story of being misplaced for a decade & aged accidentally. I was new to exploring tea then & did not realize how lucky I was & that such opportunities might not arise again.

Aged or fresh, unroasted oolong that is more than lightly oxidized is not offered so much.

[LeoFox]

The last bit of hy chen medium roast 2020 winter.

This is primarily a roast dominated tea. The oxidized flavors are present but relatively simple compared to Laoshi. When pushed, it can get a bit bitter. I had to brew with shorter and shorter infusion times as the bag went down and the tea opened up to control the bitterness.

The infusions to the end have caramel sweetness and flavors of baked nuts and brown rice.

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The dry leaf looks very different compared to laoshi shown below with greener, thicker, less roasted stems.

[Victoria]

Interesting @LeoFox, in all these years I’ve never tasted bitterness from any of HY Chen’s roasted oolong, wondering if it’s your water? I really enjoy the characteristics he brings out with his skillful balance between low oxidation and higher roast. Brings out a rich malty yamy stone fruity complexity. But, I realize others might prefer higher oxidation lower roast, boils down to skill of maker and personal preference of drinker.

Today, I’m enjoying Eco-Cha’s charcoal roasted high mountain. Rich complex highly aromatic into fourth steep. Surprisingly, Trader Joe’s New Zeland Artesian water paired well with this oolong. Interestingly, the owner successfully roasted this oolong himself three times, and then had a pro roast a fourth time using Longanwood charcoal. Wish I’d purchased more of this oolong and forgone a few of his others

[LeoFox]

Interesting LeoFox, in all these years I’ve never tasted bitterness from any of HY Chen’s roasted oolong, wondering if it’s your water?

Probably not my water as it is pretty consistent these days. More likely that I'm just a wimp towards bitterness or my palate has been destroyed by years of heavy drinking as some vendor has suggested, hahahaha..and yet I keep ordering from her..hahahahaha....

[Victoria]

Interesting LeoFox, in all these years I’ve never tasted bitterness from any of HY Chen’s roasted oolong, wondering if it’s your water?

Probably not my water as it is pretty consistent these days. More likely that I'm just a wimp towards bitterness or my palate has been destroyed by years of heavy drinking as some vendor has suggested, hahahaha..and yet I keep ordering from her..hahahahaha....

Since the vacu-packs are just 25 grams, it’s possible smaller bits at the bottom of bag just over steeped, since they don’t need to unfurl. Even so, overstepping usually is maybe slightly tannic (?) but not bitter, and resolved by diluting with a little more hot water. I hardly get broken bits though at bottom of these small packs. Between sessions I use grip-sticks and or clips to seal the packs, and place those packs inside canisters. Surprisingly, along the coast in LA humidity can often be at 75% from the fog settling refered to as; May gray, June gloom, summer bummer...

[Bok]

Well bitterness is part of the tea leaves. A tea maker once said to me, if there is no bitterness it’s not tea.

Of course it then comes down to the skill of the maker to get the balance right, so it’s not a dominating factor.

One thing that the cupping tea sampling method is for is to detect faults in a tea: a few grams in a bowl steeped for five minutes or longer will show all that’s right or wrong with a tea.

If a tea is bitter although brewed with “normal” parameters within its class of tea then it’s lower quality, if the same tea is brewed with other parameters it might just be fine. That’s the skill of the brewer to adjust to the tea - or decide that it’s not worth to brew.

[pedant]

We’ll, different people, different strokes. While it’s a drinkable tea, I do think they lack depth and complexity. Apart from the roast there is not much else. But that’s me.

Of course Fukien tea is not a fair comparison, these are beyond rescue, death by firing squad…

interesting. i have generally enjoyed C HY's offerings and continue to buy it. you were really only getting mostly roast out of what you tried? i wonder if it could have been a bad sample issue?

laoshi DD (some via Tillerman and some from a friend of a friend who was in TW) has also been good stuff.

[Bok]

@pedant to be unfilteredly honest… I’ve had a couple of his teas over the years, while they are above the averagely available comparable teas, that speaks more to what is the standard of Dongding in the West. But it’s certainly far from what anyone would call premium quality here. Laoshi is not called Laoshi for nothing, that’s more of a bench mark for this kind of tea, without regard if one agrees with him that it’s the only way to do it.

As recently as this year I had CHY’s maocha, so before processing - there was nothing there! Which leads me to the conclusion that whatever flavour is there afterwards is only in the roast. And over done at that. But that’s me. Others seem to enjoy it, good for them and good for him