What Oolong Are You Drinking

Semi-oxidized tea
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Victoria
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Sat Jan 25, 2020 1:14 pm

Yes, @nasalfrog Kohokujo‘s stoneware is very good with high mountain and roasted oolong also, in my experience. Also, I find using same pot for high mountain oolong and Japanese greens works well, as long as when finished the pot is rinsed with off boiling water to remove some residual oils.
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nasalfrog
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 11:07 am

Session 2 of the sample in the Kohokujo pot... :shock: Thank you @Victoria!

I browsed through the forum with my sencha glasses off and noticed I may already have some preferable teaware for green high mountain tea. I will have to try the Kobiwako next... similar shape & size to this pot.
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Victoria
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 2:47 pm

Had a very good session last night with a Laocong ShuiXian from Old Ways Tea, ’Old Tree Shui Xian’, it’s a 2017 charcoal roast oolong. It was rich and viscous with sweet, luscious, intoxicatingly aromatic empty cup. Long lasting too, it went for at least 9 steeps+ still rich each time. I’ll continue today with a few longer steeps. 4.3g/55ml/211f/flash,10,12,14, 25, 45, 1:30, 2:30, 4, 8,... in 60ml F1, early 80s Neiwailinjiang zisha shuiping.
Sourced in banyan area of Wuyishan. I’ll want to get this one again, as well as RouGui Gold.

Next up later today, an ‘87 Taiwan Tie Guanyin (TGY). Opened the pack Tuesday, hopefully has breathed enough after being sealed for the past 33 years. Probably could use another week+ to adjust though.
Vanenbw
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:02 pm

I'm sampling a light roast tieguanyin anxi oolong tea from Red Blossom. I'm about on the 5th or 6th infusion. I had a few cups earlier today, then dried the leaves and put them in the refrigerator. They seemed to preserve okay for the next several hours. The tea has a thickness to it, almost like a soup, and a pleasant, nutty flavor. I'm rather enjoying this tea. I'm sure I must have tried oolong at some point over the years; perhaps at a Chinese restaurant, but I'm sure you know how a lot of that restaurant tea is over-steeped and too astringent. This is a flavor that will reverberate with me. I'm going to want to return to it again. This is my first foray into Chinese tea. I purchased a gaiwan recently and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try some Chinese teas. Aside from the gaiwan, I only own a couple of kyusu pots, and a newly purchased kobiwako houhin, and all of them are dedicated to Japanese green tea.

@Victoria, Laocong ShuiXian sounds nice. I might have to try some of it.
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Victoria
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:38 pm

Vanenbw wrote:
Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:02 pm
I'm sampling a light roast tieguanyin anxi oolong tea from Red Blossom. I'm about on the 5th or 6th infusion. I had a few cups earlier today, then dried the leaves and put them in the refrigerator. They seemed to preserve okay for the next several hours.
Here is Southern California, I have not found the need to place oolong in the refrigerator in the middle of a day long series of steeps. I’ll just either place +-155f water for an extended steep until I’m ready for the next round, or just let the leaves sit in the pot without water. Typically with the last steep I’ll do an extended steep overnight, letting it sit overnight on my table, and enjoy it the next morning cooled down, richer that way. If I lived in a very hot and humid location, I might do things differently, being more concerned about mold.

P.S. how are you ‘drying’ the leaves 🍃.
Vanenbw
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:32 pm

Thank you for the tip, @Victoria. I placed the leaves on a paper towel and patted it. It didn't completely dry. I hadn't considered doing an extended steep. I thought it would end up bitter. If you tried that with sencha, I would think the long steep would render it undrinkable. I'll have to try that next tine.
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Victoria
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:48 pm

Vanenbw wrote:
Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:32 pm
Thank you for the tip, Victoria. I placed the leaves on a paper towel and patted it. It didn't completely dry. I hadn't considered doing an extended steep. I thought it would end up bitter. If you tried that with sencha, I would think the long steep would render it undrinkable. I'll have to try that next tine.
With most oolong if you’re into your 7th infusion it shouldn’t get bitter, but if you think it will just use slightly cooler water to steep with. With Japanese greens on the last steep, I do an overnight steep most nights, using same steeping temp as I began with. In the morning, it’s a hydrating sweet diluted version of the next to last steep. If I forget to drink by the afternoon, I gift that extended steep to my plants. I think we each find an individual groove that works for a while as we go on our exploration, some more quirky an idiosyncratic than others 🍃.
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 11:01 pm

Doing a big clean of my tea shelf. I came across a bag of yan cha. The bag was unmarks but based on the packaging I know it was of quality because I had been the one to put it in the small bag. The bad news is that the bag was open for what is easily months maybe even a year in a very dusty room. I decided to brew the tea.

I can see someone of the original qualities, and I can guess from which maker I bought it from, but most of it has dulled out.
I am now giving it a long steep to see if that will bring out some flavor.

old tea.jpg
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Vanenbw
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:47 pm

Victoria wrote:
Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:48 pm
With Japanese greens on the last steep, I do an overnight steep most nights, using same steeping temp as I began with. In the morning, it’s a hydrating sweet diluted version of the next to last steep. If I forget to drink by the afternoon, I gift that extended steep to my plants. I think we each find an individual groove that works for a while as we go on our exploration, some more quirky an idiosyncratic than others 🍃.
I have not tried an overnight steep yet. I would have thought it would become way too bitter to drink, but I suppose for one of the last infusions, it shouldn't be too astringent. I will definitely have to try this.
Last edited by Vanenbw on Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tillerman
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:19 pm

One of the "sweetest" most wonderful brews I have had the pleasure to drink was a gyokuro prepared for me in Uji by a tea producer there. He started the brew and then set it aside while we continued to chat. Five minutes went by, then 10 then...it must have been brewing at least 20 mins. All the while I was worrying and fretting and wondering how I would possibly drink the tea without gagging much less being able to compliment it.

You can imagine my surprise when the tea was served. The temperature wasn't much above body temperature and the leaf dosage was low. The tea... my God it was delicious, sweet, full of umami - one of the finest I have been privileged to have tasted.

I know this is "off the thread" for the oolong section but it does speak to @Victoria's earlier comments.
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debunix
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:29 pm

It’s rare that the overnight or through the workday infusion comes out too strong, when the tea was mostly spent and taking a long time to infuse.

I do not do this with aggressive young shengs that are still giving adequate results from flash infusions! And I don’t bother doing it with an oolong, sencha, or puerh that is no longer yielding pleasing infusions.

There is little to lose in trying this, except tying up that pot for the overnight or rest of the day. It’s a good excuse for those of us with teaware acquisition disorder to buy one or two more things...
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Victoria
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:55 pm

Tillerman wrote:
Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:19 pm
One of the "sweetest" most wonderful brews I have had the pleasure to drink was a gyokuro prepared for me in Uji by a tea producer there. He started the brew and then set it aside while we continued to chat. Five minutes went by, then 10 then...it must have been brewing at least 20 mins. All the while I was worrying and fretting and wondering how I would possibly drink the tea without gagging much less being able to compliment it.

You can imagine my surprise when the tea was served. The temperature wasn't much above body temperature and the leaf dosage was low. The tea... my God it was delicious, sweet, full of umami - one of the finest I have been privileged to have tasted.

I know this is "off the thread" for the oolong section but it does speak to Victoria's earlier comments.
@Tillerman good to hear this. So many possible variables to arrive at a great steep, with each calibration bringing forward different nuanced characteristics of the tea.
Vanenbw
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:58 pm

Tillerman wrote:
Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:19 pm
One of the "sweetest" most wonderful brews I have had the pleasure to drink was a gyokuro prepared for me in Uji by a tea producer there. He started the brew and then set it aside while we continued to chat. Five minutes went by, then 10 then...it must have been brewing at least 20 mins. All the while I was worrying and fretting and wondering how I would possibly drink the tea without gagging much less being able to compliment it.

You can imagine my surprise when the tea was served. The temperature wasn't much above body temperature and the leaf dosage was low. The tea... my God it was delicious, sweet, full of umami - one of the finest I have been privileged to have tasted.
Now that is very surprising, even if a cooler water temperature was used. Were fewer leaves used compared to what you are normally accustomed to?
Vanenbw
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:04 pm

debunix wrote:
Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:29 pm
It’s a good excuse for those of us with teaware acquisition disorder to buy one or two more things...
I'm sure there are some good support groups out there for this rare--and oft times--misunderstood, disorder.

Now I'm going to have to try an overnight steep with one of my teas. I'm curious.
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Victoria
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Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:06 pm

debunix wrote:
Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:29 pm
There is little to lose in trying this, except tying up that pot for the overnight or rest of the day. It’s a good excuse for those of us with teaware acquisition disorder to buy one or two more things...
Yes, so true I have several pots in rotation daily as a result of these quirky overnight steeps that I enjoy. This morning I had an especially tasty steep from last nights Laocong ShuiXian. It was pretty close to that first yancha steep saved for last, so I’m steeping again for another round.
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