Getting lots of bubbles forming on first few infusions of possibly fake Shui Xian?

Semi-oxidized tea
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m2193
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Tue Feb 09, 2021 8:28 pm

I received this tea that was labeled as Lao Cong Shui Xian as a gift from an aunt. It tastes very burnt with not much else to offer (doing short gongfu steepings with filtered water off the boil), so based on the seller descriptions I've seen online, I'm guessing it's likely a fake. But what's concerning to me is that this is the first tea I've tried where I've seen so many bubbles form as soon as water is poured onto the leaves in the gaiwan. I've heard that sometimes happens with green teas, but I don't drink those too often, and I've never seen any bubbles in the oolongs I've had in the past. Is this a common occurrence?
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Victoria
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Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:26 pm

I had a similar issue with a roasted high mountain oolong and posted about it. In the thread there are a few causes mentioned, both having to do with mineral components;
octopus wrote:
Sat Apr 06, 2019 2:34 am
Victoria wrote:
Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:02 pm
Yesterday, I had a mystery roasted oolong that foamed a little on the first two steeps, and also had what looked like an oil slick on the surface of the liquor. .....Any idea what causes foam and an oil slick?
could it be mineral residue from brewing with hard water?
Tillerman wrote:
Sun Apr 07, 2019 10:53 pm
Here is an brief account of tea scum: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... k.features
The linked Guardian article mentions....“The scum, or at least 15% of it, is calcium carbonate - the rest being a lot of complex organic chemicals.”
m2193
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Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:56 pm

Huh, interesting. I've always used Brita filtered water (though at home, the water is pretty hard locally) and haven't had issues with any of my teas in the past, so I thought it was an issue just with the tea. Thanks for the link and info! @Victoria
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Victoria
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Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:03 pm

m2193 wrote:
Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:56 pm
Huh, interesting. I've always used Brita filtered water (though at home, the water is pretty hard locally) and haven't had issues with any of my teas in the past, so I thought it was an issue just with the tea. Thanks for the link and info! Victoria
I also use Brita filter tap and had this happen only once so far. Strange and foamy 🍃.
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LeoFox
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Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:02 am

Brita seems to decrease tds by 20 to 30. So if your starting tds is 300+, even triple brita filtering will have little effect.
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esontea
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Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:29 am

It is normal for a layer of oil to float on the surface of roasted tea. This is the vellus hair on the tea. You can look carefully at the top of the tea, there will be fine impurities floating on it.

As for the foam floating on the tea leaves, it may be caused by the high content of tea saponin or the more vellus hair.
m2193
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Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:57 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:02 am
Brita seems to decrease tds by 20 to 30. So if your starting tds is 300+, even triple brita filtering will have little effect.
That's a fair point. I've just never had it happen before with other teas I've brewed (whether oolong or not), so I wasn't sure.
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tjkdubya
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Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:45 am

Some people anecdotally talk about excess scum formation with over-fertilized yancha but this is not something I can confirm. I do see the tendency of excess scum formation more often in cheaper stuff.

If the OP is seeing a deviation from their usual experience, assuming they use the same water all the time, not unreasonable to assume what's up with the tea...
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