What Oolong Are You Drinking

Semi-oxidized tea
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Bok
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Mon Nov 27, 2017 3:58 am

Biluxi high mountain oolong. Does not sound familiar? Had not heard it before either.

Got the tea from with two other nameless samples (#1-3) from a customer and he told me the following after I made my choice and wanted to have some details of what it was: As almost all farms on Dayuling are closed down and destroyed, the places which are almost there but not yet, use still for simplicity’s sake the name DYL. Correctly they would need to be called something else. They’re kind of inbetween Lishan and DYL. Biluxi is one of those almost Dayuling teas. Price range is accordingly.

Taste is magnificient, I would say no perceptible difference to DYL, at least not that I can tell with this tea. Pure high mountain goodness!
Buttery, rich mountain flavours when lifting the lid after the first infusions. Powerful aftertaste how I like it with Winter harvest, yet smooth and not bitter.

I found some references to this tea in Chinese, but none in English.
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CWarren
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Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:12 pm

Doi Mae Salong Bai Yai Assamica Oolong from Siam Teas via the Liquid Proust Regional Oolong Group Buy 2017. Dark, highly oxidized large leaf Assamica oolong tea from Thailand.
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debunix
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Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:25 pm

That looks very interesting. What does it taste like? Spicy, fruity, sweet, earthy, toasty.....?
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CWarren
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:09 am

debunix wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:25 pm
That looks very interesting. What does it taste like? Spicy, fruity, sweet, earthy, toasty.....?
In earlier steeps like puffed rice cereal, very genmaicha, and in later steeps mineral yancha like notes. Throughout the entire session it gave off serious hojicha vibes too.
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Victoria
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:01 am

Bok wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 3:58 am
Biluxi high mountain oolong. Does not sound familiar? Had not heard it before either.

Got the tea from with two other nameless samples (#1-3) from a customer and he told me the following after I made my choice and wanted to have some details of what it was: As almost all farms on Dayuling are closed down and destroyed, the places which are almost there but not yet, use still for simplicity’s sake the name DYL. Correctly they would need to be called something else. They’re kind of inbetween Lishan and DYL. Biluxi is one of those almost Dayuling teas. Price range is accordingly.

Taste is magnificient, I would say no perceptible difference to DYL, at least not that I can tell with this tea. Pure high mountain goodness!
Buttery, rich mountain flavours when lifting the lid after the first infusions. Powerful aftertaste how I like it with Winter harvest, yet smooth and not bitter.

I found some references to this tea in Chinese, but none in English.
Bok, this sounds really really good, just how many of us like our buttery rich oolongs. Maybe a great group buy idea? When you meantioned Biluxi, it reminded me of a time visiting artist along the Mississippi coast in Biloxi. Possibly the translation is a little quirky, or there is also a town of Biluxi in Taiwan singing the blues, or this is a new conjured up name for an in-between DYL LiShan kinda place singing the DYL blues... :D
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Bok
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:55 am

Victoria wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:01 am
Bok, this sounds really really good, just how many of us like our buttery rich oolongs. Maybe a great group buy idea? When you meantioned Biluxi, it reminded me of a time visiting artist along the Mississippi coast in Biloxi. Possibly the translation is a little quirky, or there is also a town of Biluxi in Taiwan singing the blues, or this is a new conjured up name for an in-between DYL LiShan kinda place singing the DYL blues... :D
True, I was thinking the name sounds familiar for an unknown mountain area in Taiwan ;) Chinese is 碧綠溪.
Unfortunately I do not have enough free time at hand to organise a group buy. If I would do it, I would want to do it well, which with my current schedule I could not…

But – the farmer I got it from, has a daughter which just started a proper tea brand for their families tea. She got a part of their harvest allocated to sell via her own channels, which are internationally available. I got involved with the design and packaging. The range is general, but all the teas are pretty good. Not sure which harvest they are using for their Dayuling offer. If you guys are interested I can do a full review of their whole range in another thread (?).

Price-wise – you’ll tell me! I have never(had to) bought from international sources. It looks to me as if the range is on the upper middle scale.
That is the brand: http://www.riyang-teayard.com/

Disclosure: I have done the brands design, but I am not affiliated, nor do I earn from referal!
plod
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:03 am

Bok wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:55 am
If you guys are interested I can do a full review of their whole range in another thread (?).
I wouldn't get at all mad if you did!

Packaging and presentation look real nice, which usually makes me sceptical (as you said it should, actually, in the oolong vendor thread!). Only ugly puches and canisters get into my cupboard! All the money goes into the leaves.

But, since you did these designs, I guess I'll let it pass.
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Victoria
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:09 am

plod wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:03 am
Bok wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:55 am
If you guys are interested I can do a full review of their whole range in another thread (?).
I wouldn't get at all mad if you did!

Packaging and presentation look real nice, which usually makes me sceptical (as you said it should, actually, in the oolong vendor thread!). Only ugly puches and canisters get into my cupboard! All the money goes into the leaves.

But, since you did these designs, I guess I'll let it pass.
Yes, Nice designs Bok. A review is good idea. I can’t tell prices at least on iPad in Chrome quantities in grams or ounce not listed yet. -Scratch that I see it now on new Chrome app. No Biluxi blues listed though ... guess she’s calling it DYL.
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Bok
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:43 pm

Victoria wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:09 am
No Biluxi blues listed though ... guess she’s calling it DYL.
Yes, I think so too. It would probably also be more confusing for a lot of people to use unknown names instead of the household teas. That is quite common in Taiwan, you won’t find a lot of specific tea names and their origin, cultivar etc. the way Western shops market their teas. Not necessarily a bad thing, Westerners often tend to get hung up with old bush-single origin-Old man-whatever-tea-name. As you always taste the tea before you buy it in Asia, it does not matter as much what a tea is called and where it might come fro – the truth and proof are in the cup!

Also their offering is just a part of what the whole farm has on offer, as well as teas from befriended farmers to cover all of Taiwan's famous tea regions. I think they are going to expand the offer at a later stage, when the whole thing is running well.

I’ll get on to that review, once I find some time!
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Bok
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Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:47 pm

plod wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:03 am
Packaging and presentation look real nice, which usually makes me sceptical (as you said it should, actually, in the oolong vendor thread!). Only ugly puches and canisters get into my cupboard! All the money goes into the leaves.

But, since you did these designs, I guess I'll let it pass.
Cheers, but no need to give me a pass, stay critical!
In this case though I can already say, that the tea does match the design. Of course you’ll pay more for the packaging, which in this case I have to say, is extensive, almost Japanese in the way the products are taken care of.

But it is not a cheat package like other brands, where only the packaging looks nice and the contents are soso or even bad.
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debunix
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Sat Dec 02, 2017 10:02 pm

Tonight, it's more of the Da Hong Pao from Wing Hop Fung. It's nice even brewed in the thermos--and sometimes, when I hit a sweet spot between quantity and time infused before drinking, it's brilliant. Tonight, however, it's getting treated to a Petr Novak unglazed treebark pot, and the spiciness and rock taste are to the fore, plus this is the pot that turns a drip of tea spilled during pouring into a plum-raspberry scent to die for. So nice.
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tealifehk
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Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:19 am

Trying out a HK high roast tieguanyin from a vendor who supplies me; the family never told me about this higher grade stuff! Seems good, but I messed up the brewing by weighing the tea I intended to use first. I was curious to see how much tea I used in a 100ml pot; it turns out I intended to use 16g of TGY for 100ml! :o I backed down to 10g and my results were dismal. No wonder I can't drink more than one tea a day :lol: I'll have to try this tea again with my usual parameters!
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Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:46 am

tealifehk wrote:
Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:19 am
I intended to use 16g of TGY for 100ml! :o I backed down to 10g and my results were dismal. No wonder I can't drink more than one tea a day :lol: I'll have to try this tea again with my usual parameters!
Perhaps there is a way to adjust your tastebuds to weaker tea. It seems you use too many tea leaves and too little of your excellent palate to have tea only once a day. (Of course, one might think that palate is gainfully employed when it enjoys whisky etc.) Cheers
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tealifehk
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Sun Dec 03, 2017 9:02 am

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:46 am
tealifehk wrote:
Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:19 am
I intended to use 16g of TGY for 100ml! :o I backed down to 10g and my results were dismal. No wonder I can't drink more than one tea a day :lol: I'll have to try this tea again with my usual parameters!
Perhaps there is a way to adjust your tastebuds to weaker tea. It seems you use too many tea leaves and too little of your excellent palate to have tea only once a day. (Of course, one might think that palate is gainfully employed when it enjoys whisky etc.) Cheers
With this kind of old school, high fired tea, that is really the best way to drink it IMO! Lots of leaf and fast infusions. I learned to drink it this way from Fujianese guys who have been in the tea business for generations, and have done so ever since!

This is the way most TGY and Wuyicha is consumed when drinking gongfu-style in HK and China. In Chaozhou they really use lots of dancong leaf (traditional way to gongfu it) and fill their gaiwans and pots all the way up. Drinking tea once a day (for multiple infusions) is fine by me. :) I usually use smaller pots nowadays so conversely, less leaf. 100ml is bigger than I usually use for high fired TGY nowadays. A 100ml pot with this much leaf is good for 3-4 people!
Last edited by tealifehk on Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
plod
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Sun Dec 03, 2017 10:16 am

^That is heavy brewing. In light of that, the following will make me seem even more of a wuss. Two days ago, I tried VC-parameters for the last of my sample of HY Chen Heavy roast, so brewed 10 grams using 180ml and steep times of 60s+. She did warn that she liked it pretty strong, and did suggest trying shorter steeps, but I didn't listen, and was therefore surprised by the extremely robust brew. Very rich. Third and fourth steeps brought out some sparkling violent plum and warm woody notes. Very nice.

I do think the roast on this should have had more time to calm down though, as I experienced some discomfort (burnt-feeling tongue and palate) after both this and the previous session. I notice that I've become particularly sensitive to such things the last year, much to my annoyance. I also stopped using two of my clay brewing vessels, as something in them seems to cause similar reactions. Could be poor quality clay in those cases, as I do not have any problems with the beautiful red shudei kyusu I bought from Ferg recently. Weird.
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