What Oolong Are You Drinking

[Victoria]

Enjoying Tieguanyin ‘Iron Goddess‘ from Té Company in NYC. Aromatics are off the charts, musky, malty, and deep. Liquor parallels aromatics, and is super-rich. Elena described it well, “like an old man smoking cigars on side street hickory benches. It is the peat whiskey of teas.” The empty cup aroma is thick. Maybe the best TGY I’ve had yet.

Steeped in Yamada Sou mayake 160ml kyusu.

Victoria
Your review that this may be the best TGY you have ever had inspired me to look into this tea. I think they have a free shipping special right now.

Seems to be a Taiwan Muzha- style of heavily roasted TGY made from a blend of Ying Zhi Hong Xin & Jinxuan.

I haven't had ying zhi hong xin before: most of the TGY from taiwan ive had is jin xuan, tgy or tgy +jin xuan blend cultivars - all typically for a lower price point from taiwan vendors than offered by Te company. Would you say the ying zhi hong xin added a particular quality attribute to the brew?

Hi @LeoFox, I’m not sure about the different cultivars used in TGY that I’ve enjoyed, but the quality of leaf and skill in processing will be a big factor in outcome and price point. Most Muzha I’ve had was just so-so, and thinner than roasted DongDing, but I think that’s just because the grade wasn’t AAA. Also, not sure why there is a distinction between Tieguanyin and Muzha since they are both produced in the same area, and look similar. Maybe other members can shed some light on the distinctions if any.

[Victoria]

I just enjoyed an amazing session with Mr. Chen’s Heritage Wenshan Bao Zhong Spring Tea from taiwan tea crafts.

Early steeps: light celery and sea salt mixed with some muscatel reminiscent of bug bitten black tea and white teas without any of the astringency. This is very unusual for me: not a characteristic ive found in green bao zhong in the past. But i really liked it.

Later steeps: the tea sheds the muscatel notes, allowing the floral notes to shine. The tea is more creamy and develops some nuttiness. Celery notes remain. Aftertaste is exquisite and complex

Celery, sea salt, muscatel flavor profile sounds very good. How was the aroma? I’m sipping on Tillerman’s Wenshan Bao Zhong, has intense floral aromatics with silky smooth full mouthfeel, very subtle astringency and no bitterness. A very enjoyable lightly oxidized highly aromatic floral oolong. Interesting flavor profile that I’m having a hard time identifying, warming, savory, yet floral, with overwhelming up front aromatics that fill the senses. 10g/140ml/195f/1.20min in Yohei Konishi 180ml. 

Earlier, had a special session with HY Chen’s Lishan Primitive Wild charcoal roasted oolong. Smooth and creamy evergreen camphor notes. A wonderfully complex herbaceous and aromatic oolong, expansive with a long lingering after taste.

[LeoFox]

I just enjoyed an amazing session with Mr. Chen’s Heritage Wenshan Bao Zhong Spring Tea from taiwan tea crafts.

Early steeps: light celery and sea salt mixed with some muscatel reminiscent of bug bitten black tea and white teas without any of the astringency. This is very unusual for me: not a characteristic ive found in green bao zhong in the past. But i really liked it.

Later steeps: the tea sheds the muscatel notes, allowing the floral notes to shine. The tea is more creamy and develops some nuttiness. Celery notes remain. Aftertaste is exquisite and complex

Celery, sea salt, muscatel flavor profile sounds very good. How was the aroma? I’m sipping on Tillerman’s Wenshan Bao Zhong, has intense floral aromatics with silky smooth full mouthfeel, very subtle astringency and no bitterness. A very enjoyable lightly oxidized highly aromatic floral oolong. Interesting flavor profile that I’m having a hard time identifying, warming, savory, yet floral, with overwhelming up front aromatics that fill the senses. 10g/140ml/195f/1.20min in Yohei Konishi 180ml. 

Earlier, had a special session with HY Chen’s Lishan Primitive Wild charcoal roasted oolong. Smooth and creamy evergreen camphor notes. A wonderfully complex herbaceous and aromatic oolong, expansive with a long lingering after taste.

The ttc heritage bao zhong was also very floral, but a bit less so then the classical bao zhong. This was a very unusual tea for me. Did not expect the muscatel. Some of the leaves have white patches, reminding me of OB.

The HY chen sounds amazing! Hoping to find a pot for roast oolongs at some point that is as good a match as kobiwako is for green gao shan...

[d.manuk]

I’m drinking Da Yu Ling that has been stored in my fridge for 4 months. I did it as an experiment since I had seen this method recommended before. Sadly the tea seems to be of lower quality now, it lost its high bright notes. I had an unopened packet in my cabinet as well, and that tasted nicer to me.

Maybe it works better for teas with different processing methods like Japanese greens. I’m happy I got to try it out though.

[StoneLadle]

15 year old Oriental Beauty... Nothing to say, pure bliss, good price , good tea... Hitting it hard at USD185/KG... Better than anything new really... Old tea taste, powerful Qi, aroma and flavour that linger forever... Reminds me of what @Bok gave me....

[carogust]

@StoneLadle Did you forget one zero from the price tag? Otherwise... could you get me some

[StoneLadle]

That's the price and happy to do so if there's demand and i can get a decent shipping price to where you are... DHL or nothing

[Ethan Kurland]

I’m drinking Da Yu Ling that has been stored in my fridge for 4 months. I did it as an experiment since I had seen this method recommended before. Sadly the tea seems to be of lower quality now, it lost its high notes......

That's a sad surprise to read. I keep unopened, vacuum-packs of dayuling inside closed plastic bags on the back of my bottom shelf of my refrigerator. There the temperature is very close to freezing. Before opening one of those packs, I remove it from the fridge at least a day ahead of opening for the leaves to warm up to room temperature. This has worked fine.

Some teas, not gaoshan, are more flavorful after the leaves are emptied from packing to breath for a few days in tea caddies.

[Victoria]

An evening with Old Way’s Tea ‘17 charcoal roasted Lǎo cōng shuǐxiān. It is very good, aromatic wet leaf through +7 steeps, liquor is rich and viscous, sweet, luscious, with intoxicating empty cup aroma. Steeped in a very well crafted delicate early 80s 60ml F1, Neiwailinjiang zisha (coated with a layer of hongni inside outside) TuHong shuiping via EoT.
4.3g/55ml/212f/flash, 10,12, 45, 1.10, 2, 4, 15, 45min, overnight steep

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[StoneLadle]

@Victoria what synchronicity... I got home from work after dry laying marble slabs for a day or two and brewed up some aged SX by WuYi Star , dated 2005...

Hard to beat the well bodied fragrant broth on a grey cool (for the tropics anyways) afternoon!

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[LeoFox]

Does anyone have experience with the taiwanese tea company tea struck?
I was recently sent 150g sealed bag of their longfeng xia from 2016 from my dad. Hopefully still good to go after so long.

http://teastruck.com.tw/en/process.php

Price is 2800 NTD for 2 x 150g bags, which works out to be about $100 for 300 g

At TTC, LFX sells for $92 for 250g

Cracked this one open today and brewed it in kobiwako at 7.5 g/100 mL for
35s/30s/35s/40s/50s/1m/1m30s/2m30s/4m

Compared to LFX from ttc 2020 harvest, this LFX lacks fruitiness and is more astringent. Astringency was esp prominent after the 3rd steeping. The first 2 steepings were okay, but lacked sweetness. Tasting profile is dominated by a green pepper note and some grassiness. There is some light butteriness as well as some floweriness. At the end of the session, i ate a few leaves: they were bitter and sour. I am not sure if the tea is this way because the tea is 4 years old or just bad quality.

[Griselbrand]

Decided to try out Old Ways Tea for some yancha. I decided on these three:

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They're all quite good! The high mountain rou gui is my favorite. I found myself enjoying it even after 10+ steeps. Good balance of roast, fruit, and honey. The roast is nuanced and seems well thought out for this tea.

The aged DHP is like sweetened cacao in the earlier steeps. Very interesting! Has a lot of longevity to it as well.

The LCSX is more subtle, but has a lot of complexity if you focus on it.

Really enjoyed trying these. I'd recommend this vendor to any yancha lovers who haven't tried them yet. I'll likely order again soon, so does anyone have some other recommendations from OWT?

[jason19870313]

Fushoushan tea

Government farm

Good taste

[OCTO]

Having some 2018 MiLan DanCong medium roasted..... trying a modern ZiSha pot made out of 90s ZiSha. Brewing 1/4 pot as this is a 500ml pot, give and take 50ml. The brew is very aromatic and fragrance very refined. The aroma of DanCong fills the air around the brewing table and lingers on in the nose and mouth.

Cheers!!

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[polezaivsani]

@OCTO, everything seem to fit in nicely with a rooster theme . Also the calligraphy on the pot casts nice dynamics, as if inscribed with a brush and not a knife.