What Oolong Are You Drinking

[Tillerman]

Not so sure about organic or not, I heard that high mountain tea can almost not be truly organic due to the harsher growing conditions...

Katie Yen (Yen Ching-Yu) farms a fully organic high mountain garden in Chingjing elev. 1800m.

[d.manuk]

Finally finished the 25g sample of New Plantation Baozhong I bought from Tea Masters. I placed a huuuuuuuge order with him last summer to start educating myself properly on Taiwanese green oolongs. This was one of the cheapest baozhongs he had, so of course it's not that good. But I bought it for education purposes. But still, it's been hard to finish. It has the characteristic brightness you would expect but it's missing any sort of even secondary flavor note. It just tastes bright, which is a bit strange. It's also interesting that for only $2-4 more per 25g you can get an extremely better tea that is multi-dimensional. It's interesting to compare tea from very new trees to plants that are likely much older.

[Ethan Kurland]

..... This was one of the cheapest baozhongs he had, so of course it's not that good. But I bought it for education purposes. But still, it's been hard to finish. It has the characteristic brightness you would expect but it's missing any sort of even secondary flavor note. It just tastes bright, which is a bit strange. It's also interesting that for only $2-4 more per 25g you can get an extremely better tea that is multi-dimensional......

I once had a very cheap Boazhong that was multi-dimensional when I first bought it. It did not hold up even when stored in a refrigerator. It was still good for basic green flavor but without an unusual sweetness that the first two 75-gram packs had.

I keep sampling broadly looking for the exceptions to what experience teaches: the cheapest teas do not provide enough pleasure; the middle range of pricing is the best value for $ & sometimes very close to quality as the higher & highest priced teas; &, Winter tea is better than Spring tea.

[chofmann]

Drinking an unroasted winter Dong Ding from HY Chen. So delicious. This is going to sound horrible, but it reminds me of big red gum.

Such a delicious cinnamon-y sweetness to it. Chen's Oolongs really are something special.

[Victoria]

Drinking an unroasted winter Dong Ding from HY Chen. So delicious. This is going to sound horrible, but it reminds me of big red gum.

Such a delicious cinnamon-y sweetness to it. Chen's Oolongs really are something special.

Mmm, maybe I should give this one another chance. I put it aside to roast myself, wasn’t too impressed when I tried it. I’ll try it with cool water again. How did you steep?

[chofmann]

Didn't measure anything, but about 6-7g of tea in a 100ml gaiwan, water around 190-200 degrees, quick rinse, then probably... 15s+15s each for first few steeps, then closer to 3-5 minutes each for later steeps. Did around 7 steeps or so.

Can still taste it despite finishing ~2 hours ago.

HY Chen is one of our favorite farmers, so we drink his tea quite often.

[Victoria]

Didn't measure anything, but about 6-7g of tea in a 100ml gaiwan, water around 190-200 degrees, quick rinse, then probably... 15s+15s each for first few steeps, then closer to 3-5 minutes each for later steeps. Did around 7 steeps or so.

Can still taste it despite finishing ~2 hours ago.

HY Chen is one of our favorite farmers, so we drink his tea quite often.

Yes I think I brewed with 205f water, otherwise pretty similar. I’ll cool it down next time. I do prefer his roasted though, that’s his specialty

[chofmann]

Didn't measure anything, but about 6-7g of tea in a 100ml gaiwan, water around 190-200 degrees, quick rinse, then probably... 15s+15s each for first few steeps, then closer to 3-5 minutes each for later steeps. Did around 7 steeps or so.

Can still taste it despite finishing ~2 hours ago.

HY Chen is one of our favorite farmers, so we drink his tea quite often.

Yes I think I brewed with 205f water, otherwise pretty similar. I’ll cool it down next time. I do prefer his roasted though, that’s his specialty

Definitely agree about the roasted. Especially the heavy, which is out of this world. But... I was quite impressed with the unroasted. Nice to taste the 'pure leaf' and see how great it is by itself.

[OldWaysTea]

Having some of my second favorite rou gui today.

I've uploaded it to instagram, since my phone doesn't want to do anything else this morning.

[debunix]

A one-off sample tea bg of 30 year old oolong from Origin Tea, a gift with my one order from Tony before he closed the shop. Very earthy and puerh-like more than the tart less aged oolongs I've had a few times before. Quite nice.

[tealifehk]

A one-off sample tea bg of 30 year old oolong from Origin Tea, a gift with my one order from Tony before he closed the shop. Very earthy and puerh-like more than the tart less aged oolongs I've had a few times before. Quite nice.

If you get earthy/pu erh notes, it might be that humidity got into the tea in storage and it broke down and aged like sheng! I've had baozhong like that and it was pretty interesting

[Ethan Kurland]

Foushoushan: (

(Nine months back I was able to drink the highest grade of FSS which was very enjoyable & flawless. Yet, the difference in price between the FSS and excellent dayuling and also very good medium-priced gaoshan seemed too great to make buying the FSS sensible. Indeed, for an indulgence, the dayuling would suffice, and the DYL could also be left out of my inventory without me feeling deprived. However,)

able to obtain this tea at an attractive price, I did. I just enjoyed a session using about 1 gram of leaves in a 30 ml yixing pot. I thoroughly enjoyed 5 flash brews; a 6th was okay but weak in flavor; I steeped for 15 seconds for 7th infusion which was excellent; then steeped for 30 seconds for the 8th infusion which was good but weaker, showing the tea was at the end for me, especially since I was so satisfied (though others would get a couple more infusions from the leaves).

There was some transitioning (as is said with cigars) or perhaps I should say development of flavors through the rounds of the session. This is what I want from OOLONG that is lightly oxidized and not roasted. There is not thickness to a degree that I associate with green tea or other qualities from heavier oxidation or from roasting. l like this FSS so much for it is flavorful yet light, gentle yet satisfying.

[Tillerman]

Foushoushan: (

(Nine months back I was able to drink the highest grade of FSS which was very enjoyable & flawless. Yet, the difference in price between the FSS and excellent dayuling and also very good medium-priced gaoshan seemed too great to make buying the FSS sensible. Indeed, for an indulgence, the dayuling would suffice, and the DYL could also be left out of my inventory without me feeling deprived. However,)

able to obtain this tea at an attractive price, I did. I just enjoyed a session using about 1 gram of leaves in a 30 ml yixing pot. I thoroughly enjoyed 5 flash brews; a 6th was okay but weak in flavor; I steeped for 15 seconds for 7th infusion which was excellent; then steeped for 30 seconds for the 8th infusion which was good but weaker, showing the tea was at the end for me, especially since I was so satisfied (though others would get a couple more infusions from the leaves).

There was some transitioning (as is said with cigars) or perhaps I should say development of flavors through the rounds of the session. This is what I want from OOLONG that is lightly oxidized and not roasted. There is not thickness to a degree that I associate with green tea or other qualities from heavier oxidation or from roasting. l like this FSS so much for it is flavorful yet light, gentle yet satisfying.

My gracious! Where did you get the FSS? This is virtually unavailable in the market at any price.

[Ethan Kurland]

Foushoushan: (

My gracious! Where did you get the FSS? This is virtually unavailable in the market at any price.

I won't tell you who in Taiwan likes me or at least had pity on me..... I will let some of my stash go. Let me know if you want some. Cheers

[Teachronicles]

This morning I started off with hauyin chens 100 year garden bug bitten light roast grandpa style, which it did very well with. Now I'm having a small serving (3g) in a 60ml gaiwan of heirloom tea company's light roasted da yu ling. Which is really good. Buttery sweet, some cinnamon aroma off the lid of the gaiwan. Wet leaf smells similar to long jing wet leaf, dry leaf if I remember correctly kind of baked breadish, or maybe shortbread cookies.

Here's a small album from the da yu ling session

Afternoon tea