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What Oolong Are You Drinking
Inspired by LeoFox's yancha sub-region post, I'm finishing my last little bag of DXJD's 2019 Wuyi heritage tieluohan from sanyangfeng.
Pushed much harder than last time, but an equally rewarding experience. Very nice tea. It takes me forever to open up a tea like this, but once I'm brewing it, it feels like each cup disappears instantly and I'm ready for the next one.
No photos; too busy enjoying the experience...
Andrew
Pushed much harder than last time, but an equally rewarding experience. Very nice tea. It takes me forever to open up a tea like this, but once I'm brewing it, it feels like each cup disappears instantly and I'm ready for the next one.
No photos; too busy enjoying the experience...
Andrew
Two different yanchas today, one being roughly 20 times the price of the other. It's not really a comparison, since that wouldn't be fair, but it is nevertheless striking how differently the two teas present, even apart from things like roast and flavour profiles.
The 'cheap' one is lovely, rich, with a nice aftertaste and mouthfeel. It's made in a style that I enjoy, and it's a nice example of that style.
The expensive one is lovely in all those respects as well, of course, but it has a very nice purity of flavour and texture, a kind of 'perfumed' quality to the flavour for want of a better description, and a very persistent aftertaste which consists of both flavour and texture or sensation, with a minty cooling feeling and a lovely minerality (acknowledging that that's not a very helpful description for some people).
I've mentioned this kind of thing before, but a decade or more ago I would have been disappointed by the expensive tea, whereas today, I enjoy it very much (not every day, though...). If someone were to ask me whether it is 'worth' it, I'd try to deflect their question, but if someone starting out in yancha asked me whether they should buy it, I'd probably say that they should try other teas first. The value in a tea like this might not be immediately apparent, since it is more about purity, freshness and a vibrant feeling rather than strong flavours or exotic aromas.
Then again, if I had a tea session with someone in person, I can imagine situations where I'd serve them something like this without mentioning what it is or how much it costs, if I feel that they would appreciate it. That's the kind of thing that can only really be done in person, though, and unfortunately I think that drinking tea in the West tends not to be a particularly social experience most of the time.
Andrew
The 'cheap' one is lovely, rich, with a nice aftertaste and mouthfeel. It's made in a style that I enjoy, and it's a nice example of that style.
The expensive one is lovely in all those respects as well, of course, but it has a very nice purity of flavour and texture, a kind of 'perfumed' quality to the flavour for want of a better description, and a very persistent aftertaste which consists of both flavour and texture or sensation, with a minty cooling feeling and a lovely minerality (acknowledging that that's not a very helpful description for some people).
I've mentioned this kind of thing before, but a decade or more ago I would have been disappointed by the expensive tea, whereas today, I enjoy it very much (not every day, though...). If someone were to ask me whether it is 'worth' it, I'd try to deflect their question, but if someone starting out in yancha asked me whether they should buy it, I'd probably say that they should try other teas first. The value in a tea like this might not be immediately apparent, since it is more about purity, freshness and a vibrant feeling rather than strong flavours or exotic aromas.
Then again, if I had a tea session with someone in person, I can imagine situations where I'd serve them something like this without mentioning what it is or how much it costs, if I feel that they would appreciate it. That's the kind of thing that can only really be done in person, though, and unfortunately I think that drinking tea in the West tends not to be a particularly social experience most of the time.
Andrew
Sounds fun and very enjoyable.Andrew S wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:37 pmTwo different yanchas today, one being roughly 20 times the price of the other. It's not really a comparison, since that wouldn't be fair, but it is nevertheless striking how differently the two teas present, even apart from things like roast and flavour profiles.
The 'cheap' one is lovely, rich, with a nice aftertaste and mouthfeel. It's made in a style that I enjoy, and it's a nice example of that style.
The expensive one is lovely in all those respects as well, of course, but it has a very nice purity of flavour and texture, a kind of 'perfumed' quality to the flavour for want of a better description, and a very persistent aftertaste which consists of both flavour and texture or sensation, with a minty cooling feeling and a lovely minerality (acknowledging that that's not a very helpful description for some people).
I've mentioned this kind of thing before, but a decade or more ago I would have been disappointed by the expensive tea, whereas today, I enjoy it very much (not every day, though...). If someone were to ask me whether it is 'worth' it, I'd try to deflect their question, but if someone starting out in yancha asked me whether they should buy it, I'd probably say that they should try other teas first. The value in a tea like this might not be immediately apparent, since it is more about purity, freshness and a vibrant feeling rather than strong flavours or exotic aromas.
Then again, if I had a tea session with someone in person, I can imagine situations where I'd serve them something like this without mentioning what it is or how much it costs, if I feel that they would appreciate it. That's the kind of thing that can only really be done in person, though, and unfortunately I think that drinking tea in the West tends not to be a particularly social experience most of the time.
Andrew
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Ethan Kurland
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Once again, having that 2012 half-hand-made shuixian from EoT that I forgot about for a while. And it's very nice, once again.
I was wondering if anyone else around here has had much experience or success with ageing their own yancha or other wulong.
While I think that it isn't quire as risky or difficult as ageing puer, I admit that I wouldn't know what to do if I opened one of my bags and found that it had gone sour, had gone stale, or had become infested with creatures.
Andrew
I was wondering if anyone else around here has had much experience or success with ageing their own yancha or other wulong.
While I think that it isn't quire as risky or difficult as ageing puer, I admit that I wouldn't know what to do if I opened one of my bags and found that it had gone sour, had gone stale, or had become infested with creatures.
Andrew
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polezaivsani
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So you, @Andrew S, had that shui xian sitting in it's original bag for a decade? Trying to mollify my woes about couple of such bags weathering a bunch of years till I get a nicer storage for them.
As long as they remain in their sealed original bags, very little can go wrong for most oolongs (provided that the base material and processing has been of good quality).Andrew S wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 1:49 amI was wondering if anyone else around here has had much experience or success with ageing their own yancha or other wulong.
While I think that it isn't quire as risky or difficult as ageing puer, I admit that I wouldn't know what to do if I opened one of my bags and found that it had gone sour, had gone stale, or had become infested with creatures.
In my experience the best way is to buy more tea than what you can consume immediately and just forget about a few bags... at the very least 100g, any less is a waste of time and what if you love it a lot once aged, but have only aged a few grams?
Yes, about 200g in an airtight (but not vacuumed) bag. No special storage; just not opened, and kept in its bag in a big cardboard box at room temperature. But I don't live in a very hot, very cold, very dry or very humid part of the world, so I don't know if others need to do anything else to keep their teas safe.polezaivsani wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:15 amSo you, Andrew S, had that shui xian sitting in it's original bag for a decade? Trying to mollify my woes about couple of such bags weathering a bunch of years till I get a nicer storage for them.
Some Taiwanese tea that I kept in the original vacuum-sealed bag for around the same time turned out okay too; not as obviously aged or developed, but it did have some mildly aged flavours (less floral, more fruity) and some aged feeling to it, I suppose (not as 'exciting' but rather more 'calming').
Yeah... I kept 50g of a baijiguan yancha in a little jar for around a decade too. It was expensive for me back when I bought it, and I just wanted to see what would happen to it after a few years. A decade later, I finally remembered about it and opened it; and it was lovely, a fun little experiment, but then it disappeared after just a few sessions...
I'm thinking of opening up a few bags that I've got lying around that I bought a few years ago, and storing away some of the bags that I've bought more recently. The old stuff should be interesting at best, and just pleasant or mild at worst, and the new stuff might improve.
But I don't really know much about how yancha or other wulong ages. I think people say that there's a 'dumb phase', like with some wine. And like you say, it's got to be good enough to bother ageing it. I also guess that if it tastes good right now, then there's no point to ageing it, and it's better to drink it now (again, like wine).
If I've gotten it wrong, then I guess I'll try again in another decade or two, if I can...
Andrew
