What Oolong Are You Drinking

Semi-oxidized tea
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Tillerman
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Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:49 am

Old Ways Tea is a wonderful vendor and the teas are marvelous. Their Gold Medal rou gui is the best I ever have tasted from that cultivar.
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Victoria
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Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:31 pm

Tillerman wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:49 am
Old Ways Tea is a wonderful vendor and the teas are marvelous. Their Gold Medal rou gui is the best I ever have tasted from that cultivar.
I agree their Gold Medal is good, but LazyCat’s Zhengyan might be a notch above :) . I have several other samples of Old Ways Tea’s yancha and look forward to trying them out.

@carogust nice to see you posting your tasting notes and set up too. With yancha filling a small 80-90ml pot with plenty of leaf +-8gr has better richer results in my opinion. Last Friday we only used 6gr/90ml and I could tell more leaf would have been better.
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debunix
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Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:34 pm

I'm enjoying an infusion of Dosim Dawan So-Ip-Cha from Morning Crane Tea's Korea tea buy. I adore these lovely artisan Balhyocha's that Arthur sources for us: fruity, plummy, floral, a bit earthy & spicy, long-lasting through multiple infusions. I've been enjoying this one both hot and cool brewed, where it is so refreshing. Mmm.
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Tillerman
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Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:26 am

Victoria wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:31 pm
Tillerman wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:49 am
Old Ways Tea is a wonderful vendor and the teas are marvelous. Their Gold Medal rou gui is the best I ever have tasted from that cultivar.
I agree their Gold Medal is good, but LazyCat’s Zhengyan might be a notch above :) . I have several other samples of Old Ways Tea’s yancha and look forward to trying them out.
@Victoria, I don't know that one. I look forward to giving it a try.
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Fri Aug 09, 2019 8:05 am

debunix wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:34 pm
I'm enjoying an infusion of Dosim Dawan So-Ip-Cha from Morning Crane Tea's Korea tea buy. I adore these lovely artisan Balhyocha's that Arthur sources for us: fruity, plummy, floral, a bit earthy & spicy, long-lasting through multiple infusions. I've been enjoying this one both hot and cool brewed, where it is so refreshing. Mmm.
Good to hear, have ordered a few teas from him too including that one, excited to try
carogust
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Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:00 am

Victoria wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:31 pm
carogust nice to see you posting your tasting notes and set up too. With yancha filling a small 80-90ml pot with plenty of leaf +-8gr has better richer results in my opinion. Last Friday we only used 6gr/90ml and I could tell more leaf would have been better.
I've been mainly drinking lower grade yancha, which I found was better with less leaf to water. Here it really felt like the tea could handle more leaf, and not become muddied in its taste.
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Bok
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:03 am

Afternoon tea, Dongpian from last winter. Stored in the fridge, lost nothing of its freshness even after such a long time.

Ideal for hot days as these...

Followed by Gaba Oolong, a gift from a friend and the first time I have this tea. I was never tempted to try as the marketing talk that usually surrounds this tea is a bit off putting for me.

Turns out it is just very similar to oriental beauty, high oxidation and summer harvested with bug bitten flavours and a tad of Darjeeling. Not bad, but not as amazing that I would search for it.
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Victoria
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:19 am

@Bok who’s the cutie pie holding your Dongpian leaves :) very nice form, size and clay. I’ve also not tried Gaba tea yet, is it any more calming than other Taiwan oolong?
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Bok
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:29 am

Victoria wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:19 am
Bok who’s the cutie pie holding your Dongpian leaves :) very nice form, size and clay. I’ve also not tried Gaba tea yet, is it any more calming than other Taiwan oolong?
Haha, good eye ;) it is the same pot you liked already a while back, a late Qing hongni. I only use it if there are more people around, holds roughly 5 cups, or 150ml. The clay is very nice with greenish Oolong, even the cleaned and dried pot smells very fragrant afterwards!

I think I am not really sensitive to calming properties, as I am mostly calm anyways, I only tend to notice exciting teas. What I can say it did not turn bitter or otherwise unpleasant, although I used a fully crammed pot(when extended), so it does not seem to be an aggressive or fickle tea...
carogust
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:38 am

I've tried the shuixian that I kinda raved about for the last two days. For clarity sake, its the 2018 shuixian from wuyiorigin. As everyone suggests, and especially with yancha, I crammed the pot.
However, as previous times have shown, this is not the way I like to brew. It can't be the small chaozhou pot I used, as when I used my normal 50% fill ratio, it was as good as ever.
With a stuffed pot I find that the taste, aftertaste and even qi doesn't come out properly. You kinda tend to get a one note experience, and often slightly unpleasantly intense. I occasionally try the stuffed pot method because others are so intent on it being the best for them. I don't know, I should just believe myself that I prefer this method. Not to say that others are wrong to brew with a stuffed pot.

Well, it is also a good thing as I can enjoy a pricey yancha more often (talking about the high end) without it being too damaging on the bank account :)
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:57 am

carogust wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:38 am

...With a stuffed pot I find that the taste, aftertaste and even qi doesn't come out properly...

...Well, it is also a good thing as I can enjoy a pricey yancha more often (talking about the high end) without it being too damaging on the bank account :)
Even if stuffing a pot full of leaves is a better way, I would not appreciate the improvement. I just cannot feel right about using so much tea for so little water. Besides the issue with the cost ($), I cannot believe that hot water is able to do its work well when it cannot move inside ….If one could get 20 or so infusions from such stuffing, it might be worth trying. If not, maybe one should enjoy one's style of preparation (in "ignorance" perhaps).

The last couple of months, I have been careful to leave some space between the lid & the leaves & water. I believe the air has a positive effect on the steeping. I would not be surprised to hear that others feel that the space makes no difference.
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debunix
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 10:09 am

carogust wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:38 am
it is also a good thing as I can enjoy a pricey yancha more often (talking about the high end) without it being too damaging on the bank account :)
Exactly! If it makes you happy, and you get more sessions and happiness from less tea, it's a win-win all around. I like my tea a little more dilute than many, and some of that is my bitterphobia, but some of it is just enjoying a little more space to enjoy the tea.
carogust
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:16 am

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:57 am
The last couple of months, I have been careful to leave some space between the lid & the leaves & water. I believe the air has a positive effect on the steeping. I would not be surprised to hear that others feel that the space makes no difference.
I've kinda done this and I do think there is a difference. In my opinion it is fairly neutral though.
debunix wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 10:09 am
... I like my tea a little more dilute than many, and some of that is my bitterphobia, but some of it is just enjoying a little more space to enjoy the tea.
I don't really dislike bitter as a taste, there are some bad ones, some good ones. I find that some dancongs especially have pleasant bitterness (some have just bad kind of bitterness though).
I find that tea doesn't become bitter if you brew it with lots of leaf but gains this "toxicity" to it. It feels way too potent, and becomes uncomfortable to drink.
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debunix
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Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:35 pm

carogust wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:16 am
....if you brew it with lots of leaf but gains this "toxicity" to it. It feels way too potent, and becomes uncomfortable to drink.
This is where it's useful to have some nice chawans for backup to dilute overly strong infusions, it so often 'rescues' an overdone infusion. Just last night I was trying another session with the BaoZhong tasting samples from Floating Leaves and I got distracted and what started as a small cup infusion of each that was just too much became a fine chawan-full of lovely tea.
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Bok
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Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:49 am

So, had that Gaba-Tea(sorry @Tillerman for calling it oolong before!) a second time in the evening, different pot (hongni instead of zhuni). This time I detected what I would call sickly-grass flavour, yuk! Previously I associated this kind of taste with badly processed white or black tea. Kind of makes one a bit nauseous. Maybe other makers version of this kind is better, but I definitely do not like it, my other half agrees.

Theoretically, it is a calming tea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GABA_tea
A more comprehensive and better article here by our very own Tillerman:
https://tillermantea.net/2018/04/gaba-tea/

I think I am calmer if I take a pass on this tea…
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