Hello everyone in this tasting, I hope you are all enjoying sampling Tillerman’s oolong from Alishan, LiShan, and Nantou. I could drink any one of them daily, all very good. What a crazy time we are in worldwide. Even so, I have been slowly sampling and comparing the oolong in the tasting set.
I managed to save spent leaves from my sessions during the week, so I could photograph them together to compare leaf size, levels of oxidation, and roast. What I didn’t take into account was, by waiting a few days to get all the spent leaves together, some of the leaves further oxidized and degraded. Lesson learned. Even so, looking at the leaves side by side is interesting.
- Tillerman Explorer pack_DSC0804_1.jpg (390.08 KiB) Viewed 9401 times
High Mountain, Qing Xin Wulong cultivar
#1 Alishan, 1300m, 22% oxidation, unroasted
#2 Cuifeng, 1800m, 21% oxidation, unroasted
#3 Lishan, 2200m, 20% oxidation, unroasted
Dong Ding, Qing Xin Wulong cultivar
#4 Chen Kuan-Lin, 700m, 25% oxidation, medium roast
#5 Chen Huan-Tang (Laoshi), 700m, 33% oxidation, medium charcoal roast
#6 Chen Kuan-Lin, 700m, 25% oxidation, high roast
The flavor profile differences between higher elevation unroasted Gaoshan, and lower elevation roasted DongDing are significant, although, they all have in common viscosity and thickness in the mouth. Unroasted Gaoshan being more buttery, leaning towards floral, fruity, baked goods aroma. Roasted DongDing is wonderfully aromatic, rich and complex, full of malty sweet, spicy layering. The oxidation looks to be fairly consistent between the sample set at 20-33%, and the Qing Xin Wulong cultivar the same for all. So more important differences seem to be elevation, roast, and how the cultivar has adapted to each locations growing conditions and farming. Comparing the leaves size and shape indicates there is quite a variation between locations. Since I let my leaves sit for too long during the week, those differences look to be muted in the photo due to oxidation, although the different levels of roast are clear. Thank you
@Tillerman for coordinating this tasting.