What Oolong Are You Drinking

Semi-oxidized tea
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Tillerman
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Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:19 am

wuyiyancha wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:13 am

So do you think that the Qing Xin cultivar is just better suited to a greener/lighter processing method than the TGY and are favored over the Anxi teas because of that or do you see other differences?

Today i'm having a taiwanese Rougui from 2012 made by Tillerman's Laoshi which i enjoy very much. Such smooth taste and really nice mouthfeel.
Although it may simply be personal preference, yes, I do believe that Qing Xin Wulong is better suited to greener teas than Tie Guan Yin. The latter has a natural astringency and bitterness that works well with roasting but really stands out when left unroasted. As I said, I find green TGY to be thin, weedy and vegital.

You are lucky with Laoshi's Rou Gui. I think this tea was made by some of his students and finished by him. Did you try the 2012 Wuyi he has? This also is made by students and finished by him. It is very tasty.
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CWarren
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Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:34 pm

It’s very rare that I drink anything besides puerh but tonight I pulled out this full sized orange filled with roasted tie guan yin. It’s been sitting in storage for about three years. I loved the combination of high charcoal roast and orange notes combined with the tea. Seriously mellow feels with this one too. A great tea session with the lovely wife.
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Ethan Kurland
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Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:55 pm

Tillerman wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:19 am
I do believe that Qing Xin Wulong is better suited to greener teas than Tie Guan Yin. The latter has a natural astringency and bitterness that works well with roasting but really stands out when left unroasted. As I said, I find green TGY to be thin, weedy and vegital.
Teaforum provides pleasures, one of them being when someone with more energy and knowledge writes what others know is true though not so exactly why. Today it is Tillerman explaining what for me is: green TGY is awful; some roasted TGY is excellent.
Nonetheless, many vendors in touristy places in Taiwan join potential customers in drinking bitter green TGY, then suck in their cheeks, and say something like "Sweet, yes?" When the customer does not like it at all, he is given a sample of another bitter green TGY.
Last edited by Victoria on Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Tweaked quotation
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Victoria
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Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:04 pm

CWarren wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:34 pm
It’s very rare that I drink anything besides puerh but tonight I pulled out this full sized orange filled with roasted tie guan yin. It’s been sitting in storage for about three years. I loved the combination of high charcoal roast and orange notes combined with the tea. Seriously mellow feels with this one too. A great tea session with the lovely wife.
Hi there, nice to see you posting CWarren. Wondering are you steeping roasted tie guan yin with the orange peel? Curious if this brings bitterness from the peel. Looks like a lot of leaf in the orange shell, like 30gr.
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CWarren
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Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:20 pm

Victoria wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:04 pm
CWarren wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:34 pm
It’s very rare that I drink anything besides puerh but tonight I pulled out this full sized orange filled with roasted tie guan yin. It’s been sitting in storage for about three years. I loved the combination of high charcoal roast and orange notes combined with the tea. Seriously mellow feels with this one too. A great tea session with the lovely wife.
Hi there, nice to see you posting CWarren. Wondering are you steeping roasted tie guan yin with the orange peel? Curious if this brings bitterness from the peel. Looks like a lot of leaf in the orange shell, like 30gr.
Hello Victoria and thank you. Nice to be back posting. Yes, just like I do with all my citrus and melon stuffed teas I use some of the peel and melon bits with the leaf. It adds no bitterness whatsoever. Though I haven’t weighed the orange I would say it’s far more than 30g of leaf in this particular orange. It’s close to the size of a baseball. A seriously good tea experience with about six decent infusions before waning. Hope this finds you well!
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wuyiyancha
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Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:46 am

Bok wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:26 am
wuyiyancha China is a very large country and one needs to separate mass market and the premium sector for tea people with lots of money. From what I have learned, tea is very regional in taste in China. You drink what you and your family always drank, unless you are a tea geek.

Yancha is but one region in a rather small area compared to the whole country. Production is so little that the premium harvest is hard fought for by the richest in China, with some crumbs falling off to the rest of the worlds tea enthusiasts...

Or so it seems to me.
Doesn't seem that way only to you. But luckily there's still good variation in between the crumbs to find the tastier crumbs. :D I often forget China is so big because with my Oolong glasses i mostly don't see much further than Fujian Province.
Tillerman wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:19 am
You are lucky with Laoshi's Rou Gui. I think this tea was made by some of his students and finished by him. Did you try the 2012 Wuyi he has? This also is made by students and finished by him. It is very tasty.
Funny that you ask the wuyi and the rougui from 2012 are the teas i bought most of because i liked their flavour profile so much. Very tasty indeed.
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debunix
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Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:55 am

Tillerman wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:19 am
I find green TGY to be thin, weedy and vegital.
While I have never found a green TGY to make liquor as thick as a high mountain Taiwanese light-roast oolong, my first experiences with Norbu's 'Diamond Grade' Tie Guan Yin in 2009 & 2010, early in my tea journey, blew my mind with it's powerful floral notes, spiciness, and vegetal sweetness. There was nothing weedy about it.

I don't think it was just that I hadn't had many other greener oolongs for comparison at that point; I've had enough other teas that were similar enough, but not quite as amazing since to realize that it wasn't a mirage. It was a fantastic tea, at a good price, that had a short window of availability; Norbu stopped offering tea with that 'Diamond grade' label when he couldn't get the best stuff anymore.

So yes, a lot of what I've had since has been thin and sad, but I believe the best of the cultivar is absolutely capable of fabulousness whether processed 'nuclear green' or traditional roast.

And today I'm finishing off a large thermos of SeaDyke traditional roast TKY (to use their spelling on the label), that I didn't drink while on the road yesteday.
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Tillerman
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Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:24 am

debunix wrote:
Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:55 am
Tillerman wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:19 am
I find green TGY to be thin, weedy and vegital.
While I have never found a green TGY to make liquor as thick as a high mountain Taiwanese light-roast oolong, my first experiences with Norbu's 'Diamond Grade' Tie Guan Yin in 2009 & 2010, early in my tea journey, blew my mind with it's powerful floral notes, spiciness, and vegetal sweetness. There was nothing weedy about it.

I don't think it was just that I hadn't had many other greener oolongs for comparison at that point; I've had enough other teas that were similar enough, but not quite as amazing since to realize that it wasn't a mirage. It was a fantastic tea, at a good price, that had a short window of availability; Norbu stopped offering tea with that 'Diamond grade' label when he couldn't get the best stuff anymore.

So yes, a lot of what I've had since has been thin and sad, but I believe the best of the cultivar is absolutely capable of fabulousness whether processed 'nuclear green' or traditional roast.

And today I'm finishing off a large thermos of SeaDyke traditional roast TKY (to use their spelling on the label), that I didn't drink while on the road yesteday.
@debunix , I was referring specifically to green Anxi TGY, not to Taiwanese versions (though I don't particularly like those either.) Sorry I wasn't clear on this in my post.
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debunix
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Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:53 am

Norbu's 'Diamond grade' TGY was from Anxi.
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Tillerman
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Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:03 pm

Never tasted it so I'll just take your word that it was great. The exception that proves the rule perhaps.
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debunix
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Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:10 pm

I think it takes a combination of extra fine leaf and excellent processing--and those are now very very difficult to access for those of us in the west. I think this one one of those things that is now inaccessible again after a brief window of opportunity. I just wanted to point out that the leaf is capable of greatness when conditions are just right.
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Bok
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Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:19 am

90s Rougui from a kind soul. Brewed in my new/old baby, ROC Zini Julunzhu – just lovely! Old book smell flavour, no astringency or bitterness.

Good for a cold, rainy Taipei evening...
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d.manuk
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Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:19 pm

very nice pot Bok

as usual
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Rickpatbrown
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Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:30 pm

Shin Chen Fang's Muzha TGY

Stepped into the office for a quick tea session and decided to break out this TGY for a first try, since I'm finally over being sick and can taste again.

I have never had TGY, so I dont know what to compare it to.

Woah! This stuff totally stopped me in my tracks! The aroma of dry leaves in a hot gaiwan was thick and heavy with fermented berries and a wine aroma. The roasting blended seamlessly with the tea.

The soup slid right down my throat, coating my mouth, delicately. The flavor was sweet and bright and metallic with a decent aftertaste. It seemed really well balanced, but with big flavor. All the flavors play off each other nicely.

It went strong for 3 infusions and then mellowed out. Still enjoyable, but not the wow factor of the first couple steeps. I'm feeling it though, kind of feel as if I'm floating :)

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debunix
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Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:42 pm

Lab hot plate for your kettle, cool!
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