What Oolong Are You Drinking

[swordofmytriumph]

. It doesn't matter when in the day I have sugar, if I have a session later that day it still affects my palate.

That's some effect! Surprising.

So the post a week or so ago about how all my tea tasted like cooked leaves? That was what happened. And I hadn’t had sugar for 3 whole hours before that session.

[Teachronicles]

Having some chen unroasted winter harvest and it is very good, I just had the spring recently and I like the winter better this year. There's cream, citrus and spice notes, really enjoying this one.

[chofmann]

Having some chen unroasted winter harvest and it is very good, I just had the spring recently and I like the winter better this year. There's cream, citrus and spice notes, really enjoying this one.

Yea, the winter harvest is fantastic this year, but with a much smaller yield than normal, sadly.

[Bok]

Winter harvest has been good across the board for Taiwan’s teas, although the reason for it is not a good one - not enough rain and higher temperature than usual.

[gatmcm]

Tried some of Tillerman's winter Lishan today, never had taiwan tea before so it was a treat, was surprised by the longevity, got quite a few steeps and put them in a bowl at the end to extract the last bits in there, beautifully floral and full.

[swordofmytriumph]

Went to Floating Leaves yesterday and got, among other things, the spring 2018 Hehuanshan. I was lucky, the bag they had open had 2.5 oz left and since I wanted 2oz they gave me the .5 for free, and threw in 20g of the winter 2018 Hehuanshan for free so I could compare!

Am drinking that now (the spring 2018), and really like it. As mentioned on their web page for it, it is a very understated subtle tea, I really had to sit down and focus to pick up some of the subtleties but it was sooo worth it.

It has the signature gaoshan flavor that tastes like the way a mountain meadow smells early in the morning before the mist has burned off—lots of mist, very clean, fresh and unpolluted, but this tea has that to an overwhelming degree. That mist is the overriding upfront flavor for the whole session. There are the typical flowers, but fainter. Tiny hints of fresh fruit in earlier infusions but blink and you’ll miss it. Fruit flavor gets a bit more noticeable in later infusions, now it tastes like dried apple and something deeper, maybe dates. The aftertaste is mist and very slight hints of fresh apple. Mouthfeel is smooth in early infusions and buttery feeling shows up later, around 8th infusion.

There was a slight hint of something familiar and comforting in the first 6 steeps or so. It reminded me of the way my lawn smells in early spring (before we’ve started cutting it) after it has rained and it’s still overcast so you can also smell the rain. Not grassy or anything just...the pure distilled freshness of growing things. It Reminds me of being a kid playing outside.

I got a stupid amount of infusions out of this, maybe twenty? I lost count. I increased by 5 seconds each steep until I got to 40 sec, then increased by around 30 sec a couple times, then kept going up till I hit 8 min.

Edit:
I just sampled the winter 2018 they gave me as well. It’s hugely different! Hardly any mist, much sweeter, very little fruit. It’s very crisp and clean. Has a slight asringency. Sugarcane flavors also. Tiny hint of flowers, tiny hint of cooked veggies.

[Bok]

Having some Lishan Dongpian, Jason of Teaful Victoria shared with me when we met for tea. I only had something similar once before, a tea which had been named pine tree snow, due to exactly those notes coming through, a walk in a sunlit snowy pineforest and its unique smells.

This one is definitely similar in uniqueness, my usual dongpian do taste a lot different.

Both seem to be processed and oxidised very little, to the point that were it a blind tasting, I would almost guess they are some kind of sencha.

After this back to my usual dongpian from Lishan which is 45% oxidised. I have to say, in the end I do like it better that way, seems I really do have issues with sencha and sencha-like teas... oh well, each their own!

@Victoria curious how will like it - provided Jason brought some home - as you do drink a fair share of Sencha. A word as for brewing, no need to be shy with high temperature water, this tea can definitely take it!

[Victoria]

Having some Lishan Dongpian, Jason of Teaful Victoria shared with me when we met for tea. I only had something similar once before, a tea which had been named pine tree snow, due to exactly those notes coming through, a walk in a sunlit snowy pineforest and its unique smells.

This one is definitely similar in uniqueness, my usual dongpian do taste a lot different.

Both seem to be processed and oxidised very little, to the point that were it a blind tasting, I would almost guess they are some kind of sencha.

After this back to my usual dongpian from Lishan which is 45% oxidised. I have to say, in the end I do like it better that way, seems I really do have issues with sencha and sencha-like teas... oh well, each their own!

Victoria curious how will like it - provided Jason brought some home - as you do drink a fair share of Sencha. A word as for brewing, no need to be shy with high temperature water, this tea can definitely take it!

Hi @Bok, Jason and I finally got together yesterday, but only for a few hours so time was limited to trying out the two DongDing you bought together, so unfortunately no time for his LiShan. The traditional unrolled wiry roasted DongDing is like an aromatic sensory orchestra of shifting notes. We steeped both in Hokujo stoneware pots. I’ll need to sit with them over the next week and compare with my winter medium and high roast DongDing from HY Chen. First impression is I like them all, each having a slightly different personality, HY Chen’s having lower deeper notes. Will need to compare side by side though.

For the past 10 days I only had sencha/gyokuro while down with the flu, it felt like I was sipping on a nourishing broth, anyway I was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to appreciate roasted oolong after so many green days, haha worries unfounded, I still love them both. I hope when you are in Tokio you get some AAA gyokuro, you may yet cross over to the green side. I recommend you start with AAA grade.

[Tillerman]

It is a very humbling situation when you conclude, after giving it several chances, that one of the teas you had selected for sale (and an expensive one at that) is just meh. Not defective in any way but just rather boring, dull, uninteresting. So it is with my Winter 2018 Tian Chi (and this winter is generally considered a very good harvest.) Happily, I have the Lishan and the Cuifeng.

[d.manuk]

I'm having 2018 Winter Qingxin Oolong Tian Chi from Tea Masters. Earlier in the year I had the 2018 spring harvest and was very surprised by how refined and elegant it was. Was the first time having it. Subtle, but still had good flavor and lots of high notes. I don't get enough of that from the winter picking, perhaps it's just too subtle for me to taste. I generally like flavor bombs with aromatics and this one falls short of the high expectations the spring picking gave me. I'll play around with increasing the brewing time (I started the first brew at 1:50) and see what kind of flavor I can extract

[d.manuk]

So it is with my Winter 2018 Tian Chi

How funny that we just wrote a review about the same tea picking!

[Bok]

So it is with my Winter 2018 Tian Chi

How funny that we just wrote a review about the same tea picking!

I would not expect much high notes and aromatics from a winter harvest! That is basically the main difference, spring aromatics and high notes, winter more body and lingering strong aftertaste.

[Bok]

@Victoria glad our pickings pleased your palate

The unrolled DD makes me want to keep drinking it, it might be due to its new-ness, but it is just so delicious to sip. I did not yet open the other bag, looking forward to it.

[Tillerman]

So it is with my Winter 2018 Tian Chi

How funny that we just wrote a review about the same tea picking!

I would not expect much high notes and aromatics from a winter harvest! That is basically the main difference, spring aromatics and high notes, winter more body and lingering strong aftertaste.

But that's just the problem - body and aftertaste aren't there for me. Generally I prefer the winter harvest precisely because of the body.

[Bok]

But that's just the problem - body and aftertaste aren't there for me. Generally I prefer the winter harvest precisely because of the body.

Maybe you had a bad day when cupping in Taiwan...