- Left*: Oriental Beauty Premium Grade “House Blend” Oolong Tea, Lot 10F140 from Taiwan Tea Crafts ($0.35/g if you buy max amount: 250g) product link (but different lot)
- Right: Dong Fang Meiren Grand Superior from Sazen ($0.84/g if you buy max amount: 100g) product link
I remember finding out I probably don't like the weird (to me) sweetness of Oriental Beauty (=Dongfang Meiren) when tasting Sazen's product, but wanted to try at least one other version of this famous tea. When tasting separately, I liked TTC's even less: to me it smells worse, looks worse, tastes even more "off", and doesn't leave that fresh, super-long-lasting aftertaste in the mouth (which is one of the things I did like about Sazen's O.B.).
Cupping side by side, look & smell of the dry leaf was similar to my previous impression (Sazen being superior). I cannot judge the aftertastes, as they're mixed together. But the liquors tasted much more alike than I expected. I looked hard for the notes that would help me identify each one in a blind test, and (I think) I found them, but it was not as trivial as I thought, and they were not all in Sazen's favor. All in all, the only really important taste difference was the aftertaste, but is it worth paying more than twice the price? I'll leave this consideration to people who actually like O.B., but it was very educational!
BTW, I should mention that TTC also sells a more expensive, higher-end O.B. (it was out of stock) while Sazen also has a cheaper "Superior" (not "Grand") O.B., so I wouldn't draw conclusions about price/performance ratios for O.B., not to mention any general conclusions about the sellers. In contast to the above results, I have yet to find a match in quality from TTC for a significantly cheaper Dong Ding from Sazen ($0.42/g), having tried some quite expensive near-$1/g stuff from TTC (high-mountain oolongs).
Overall, I'm very glad I tried this, I learned a lot. The real use for me will be tasting Taiping Houkui, which I found out I like a lot for afternoon tea, but the price of $1.77/g at Sazen (and that's incl. some discount they're having for Chinese greens) restricts it to only special occasions for me (and seems quite high, even if it's a superior version from the original village, etc.). So I will be comparing this with Hojo's and other sources (would appreciate recommendations).
Would be interested how others do cuppings and what established protocols there are.
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