Your day in tea

polezaivsani
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Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:26 pm

@Andrew S, was it a hit then? :) I had exact same thing couple days back and the first time I tried that strong roasted yancha. Heavy roasted but not burnt, a thrilling experience. It tastes just as strong in a sense, a pleasant thud rather than an intricate constellation of some others samples. I'd love to try more of the heavier roasted teas, but it feels like so much of a gamble with high odds of going through all the poor charred to death leaves that make this kin a rare specimen on my table.
Andrew S
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Location: Sydney, Australia

Thu Nov 03, 2022 11:34 pm

@polezaivsani: this one has been a pleasant hit for me for simple quasi-daily 'routine' brewing for a while, but I did find it to be fairly simple overall (though I also found that it can be abused with very strong brews without it complaining too much).

I've found the more expensive Zhang Hui Chun teas from EoT to be far superior in terms of their tea character and overall feeling, plus complexity, but also more demanding of the brewer. This particular strong roast one gives me little but demands little in return as well. Within this overall Zhang Hui Chun range from EoT, they're all more or less 'strong roast', but I find this one to be on the 'chocolate' side, whereas others keep more of their tea character.

Perhaps bear in mind that I enjoy the overall 'feeling' of yancha and other teas more than I enjoy specific aromas or flavours, so others may disagree strongly with me...

Andrew
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Bok
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Fri Nov 04, 2022 12:08 am

Andrew S wrote:
Thu Nov 03, 2022 11:34 pm
I've found the more expensive Zhang Hui Chun teas from EoT to be far superior in terms of their tea character and overall feeling, plus complexity, but also more demanding of the brewer.
Odd. In my experience the better grades have always been much easier to brew as they are more forgiving. With lower grades, sub-optimum brewing can result in unpleasant or weak brews.

Might slight apprehension when dealing with more expensive teas (and possibly smaller quantities available), have something to do with that?
Andrew S
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Fri Nov 04, 2022 12:24 am

@Bok: ordinarily, I'd agree. It's my fault, I should have been clearer; I meant that the 'full roast' is easy to brew and hard to screw up relative to the other ranks in the range. Within those other ranks, your rule applies.

The 'full roast' is like a 'chocolate' roast for me; I wonder if you might call it a 'death roast'... The tea character has been replaced by roast character, but it is not 'roasty' or unpleasant for me. Importantly for me, within its style, it is not 'harsh'. Just chocolatey.

So, that chocolate roast one is easy to brew, hard to screw up compared to anything else in the range. Just some simple fun for me.

The mid-range ones are harder than chocolate, but then everything is. They display / betray more tea character.

The 'gushu' and 'cong xian' gave me a nice pure feeling, and were hard to screw up. They had a full roast, but lovely pure character.

For example, compared to the Daxue Jiadao full roast teas, the ZHC teas gave me a stronger pure feeling, whereas the DXJD ones gave me a stronger delineation of flavour and aroma.

It seems like ZHC puts some emphasis into the quality of the roast, and the quality of the leaves come out in the higher ranks in the range, but even so, the quality and style of roast seems to be very important.

Andrew
polezaivsani
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Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:29 am

Stealing Andrew's chocolatey relation I'd recast my personal impression of that tea as a robust chocolate bar while exploring uncharted waters. (or yanchas to be more precise)
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Bok
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Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:33 am

Andrew S wrote:
Fri Nov 04, 2022 12:24 am
The 'full roast' is like a 'chocolate' roast for me; I wonder if you might call it a 'death roast'... The tea character has been replaced by roast character, but it is not 'roasty' or unpleasant for me. Importantly for me, within its style, it is not 'harsh'. Just chocolatey.
Yeah usually, chocolate means that any character the tea would have had, has been sacrificed on the grill.
Andrew S
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Fri Nov 04, 2022 2:57 am

Bok wrote:
Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:33 am
Yeah usually, chocolate means that any character the tea would have had, has been sacrificed on the grill.
I think the flavour goes away, but there's still something left there when the roast is done well. There was a 'full roast' / chocolate rou gui that I tried from them as well; it was rather different from the shui xian in terms of character, albeit not in terms of overall taste profile. The shui xian seemed to have more backbone and pleasant 'bite' for me, the rou gui seemed softer and fruitier overall. But of course, they're nothing like a less-than-chocolate version of the same thing.
polezaivsani wrote:
Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:29 am
Stealing Andrew's chocolatey relation I'd recast my personal impression of that tea as a robust chocolate bar while exploring uncharted waters. (or yanchas to be more precise)
I tried a chunk of Lazy Cat's aged yancha brick a week or so ago; that feels like an even stronger 'chocolate bar' analogy for me... But I need more experience with it before I can be more useful. Unfortunately, it seems to be sold out I think.

Andrew
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debunix
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Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:22 am

Yesterday was a lovely tea day. It started with an Obubu sencha, moved on with grandpa style Da Yu Ling from floating leaves, and then it was time for Tea Tasting with a group of Los Angeles tea friends at Victoria’s in Santa Monica. We moved from a nice gyokuro to a brilliant sencha to a delicate white tea, a Dan Cong, to yancha, and then a series of three puerhs, youngest to oldest. Good company, yummy snacks to accompany cheese, lovely tea, and a little tea education along the way, and it was wonderful. But before I try to do a more detailed recap, I should get myself to a proper computer, so that I can actually type the names accurately. Thumbs and voice dictation don’t do so well with that!
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Tue Nov 15, 2022 7:49 pm

Time to check on a tea I put away to age and forget about it… filled one smaller jar out of the large one for consumption. Forgot how low it is by now - 20y+ I think…

Original mass was 1200g of Lishan roasted Oolong.
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DailyTX
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Sat Nov 19, 2022 5:12 pm

Brewing this mystery oriental beauty with a lovely pot I adopted from @Bok. I filled the pot half way with leaves. One person, one pot, and one cup. Cheers!
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debunix
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Thu Nov 24, 2022 9:12 am

I am having a one pot, one cup, one person sencha morning right now, but I'd like to share yesterday's mistake: I knew there was going to be a smaller number of people in clinic than usual because of the holiday, and so I brought down my 1 L thermos with some very nice oolong to share. But there were more people then I expected, and a couple who would not normally be there dropped by as I was preparing tea, and I ended up with one thermos, 7 cups, and not enough tea left for me. Fortunately the fruit and spice bars that I brought were not quite as popular and I could console myself with one of them. I like a mix of private and shared tea sessions....being able to quietly and privately enjoy the tea, and then the joy of seeing people who may think they don't like tea become open to it, and the fun of sharing with our LA tea group, when we teach each other about our favorite teas and tea preferences.

I'm currently working on gently introducing one of my younger colleagues to tea. He is a long-standing coffee drinker who at first was not interested when I asked my usual question, "do you like tea?" But then one afternoon when I made a particularly fine batch of tea that was getting a lot of buzz in the work room, he decided to try some. After six months or so, he states that he's not interested in the earthy teas that are a bit too much like coffee without being coffee, so no puerh or yancha for him--but he's enjoying light roast oolong, red oolong, the occasional black or white tea. I make sure to only give him samples of the infusions that have turned out well (despite years of doing it this way to share, sometimes it comes out a bit off because the pace of the workday doesn't always allow for the most calm preparation).

One of the things I'm thankful for today is tea and new and old tea friends.
Andrew S
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Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:55 am

I've been going through small samples and small packets of tea for a few weeks, but yesterday I just felt like returning to one of my comfort teas; an 80s liu bao, still being brewed today. There's only so much exploration that I can do before feeling the need to return to a safe harbour.
debunix wrote:
Thu Nov 24, 2022 9:12 am
he states that he's not interested in the earthy teas that are a bit too much like coffee without being coffee, so no puerh or yancha for him--but he's enjoying light roast oolong, red oolong, the occasional black or white tea
That's one of the reasons why I hesitate to recommend a tea based on its overall flavour profile; a heavily-roasted yancha may well have coffee notes, but it will never actually taste and feel like a coffee, and, moreover, someone who enjoys shots of espresso may well also enjoy a delicate green tea or an unroasted high mountain tea. Overall, I feel that the quality of the leaves and the brew can speak more strongly to someone than the specific flavour profile of the tea.

Andrew
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debunix
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Fri Nov 25, 2022 9:13 am

I am slowly expanding the flavor profile of the teas that I suggest he try… I think he will enjoy the right yancha or plummy shou Puer before we’re done.
Andrew S
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Sat Nov 26, 2022 12:13 am

DailyTX wrote:
Sat Nov 19, 2022 5:12 pm
Brewing this mystery oriental beauty with a lovely pot I adopted from Bok. I filled the pot half way with leaves. One person, one pot, and one cup. Cheers!
I've been playing with some oriental beauties for a little while now, and I had another interesting one today, made from a rare cultivar (also in a zhuni pot, but not as nice as yours).

I used to think that all OBs were more or less the same, and I didn't take much interest in them because the very honeyed and sweet styles weren't my thing, but I've now been learning that I was wrong to think that. It seems like there's a big difference between 'competition' styles of OB and other styles. Like everything in the world of tea, there's a lot to learn about...

Andrew
DailyTX
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Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:23 pm

It feels like every type of tea and teaware, there is so much to learn, and knowledge comes with $$ lol. I am not sure if we have any dedicated Oriental Beauty drinkers on this forum, what’s your thought on Oriental Beauty tea storage @Andrew S? Most information I found online is to store like oolong, sealed and store it in a refrigerator.
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