What Oolong Are You Drinking

Semi-oxidized tea
Janice
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Sat Oct 06, 2018 5:36 pm

Still warm here on the east coast (USA) but enough signs of fall to enjoy some oolong. In my pot today are Hong Kong style roasted oolong stems from TeaLifeHK. On a whim I decided to use this tokoname Kyushu by Maekawa Junzo. Somehow the tea is maintaining its intensity over more steps as compared to a glazed pot. More tea to enjoy and hopefully not too much more caffeine.

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Victoria
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Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:02 pm

Janice wrote:
Sat Oct 06, 2018 5:36 pm
Still warm here on the east coast (USA) but enough signs of fall to enjoy some oolong. In my pot today are Hong Kong style roasted oolong stems from TeaLifeHK. On a whim I decided to use this tokoname Kyushu by Maekawa Junzo. Somehow the tea is maintaining its intensity over more steps as compared to a glazed pot. More tea to enjoy and hopefully not too much more caffeine.
Hong Kong style roasted oolong stems sounds really interesting. What is flavor profile? Every once in a while I enjoy Japanese Kukicha green tea stems, stalks, and twigs (sweet chestnut white sesame notes), and roasted Kukicha -Kuki Hojicha/ Houji-Kukicha (roasted woody sweet chestnuts profile).
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Victoria
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Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:21 pm

Back home, after a few weeks away, and the filtered water that I kept in refridgerator smelled off, so I used bottled Arrowhead spring water from various Southern California sources. Pleasantly surprised that it works really well with HY Chen’s medium roasted DongDing. I think his medium roast is my favorite everyday roasted oolong, although the variety of light, and heavy roast is nice too.
Janice
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Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:51 pm

Victoria wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:02 pm
Hong Kong style roasted oolong stems sounds really interesting. What is flavor profile? Every once in a while I enjoy Japanese Kukicha green tea stems, stalks, and twigs (sweet chestnut white sesame notes), and roasted Kukicha -Kuki Hojicha/ Houji-Kukicha (roasted woody sweet chestnuts profile).
I’m not good at writing my own descriptions so I’m quoting from the TeaLifeHK description:

“These stems brew up sweet and smooth, and taste pleasantly toasty. The air (and your palate) fills with notes of caramel, malt and honey. I didn't think brewing up stems could be this enjoyable, but the Japanese do the same in the form of kukicha.”

I drink karigane almost every day and my sense is that the oolong stems are more like oolong than the karigane is like Sencha. My two favorites are both from O-Cha, the Otsuusan (Sencha) and the Asa-giri (gyokuro).
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Bok
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Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:06 pm

Janice wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:51 pm
Victoria wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:02 pm
Hong Kong style roasted oolong stems sounds really interesting. What is flavor profile? Every once in a while I enjoy Japanese Kukicha green tea stems, stalks, and twigs (sweet chestnut white sesame notes), and roasted Kukicha -Kuki Hojicha/ Houji-Kukicha (roasted woody sweet chestnuts profile).
I’m not good at writing my own descriptions so I’m quoting from the TeaLifeHK description:

“These stems brew up sweet and smooth, and taste pleasantly toasty. The air (and your palate) fills with notes of caramel, malt and honey. I didn't think brewing up stems could be this enjoyable, but the Japanese do the same in the form of kukicha.”

I drink karigane almost every day and my sense is that the oolong stems are more like oolong than the karigane is like Sencha. My two favorites are both from O-Cha, the Otsuusan (Sencha) and the Asa-giri (gyokuro).
Sounds a lot like the Dongding stems I wrote about a while back. Essentially it tastes like a lighter, nuttier version of medium to strongly roasted Oolong. But for a fraction of the price. Stems are usually just thrown away or sold for cheap to tea drink shops or restaurants
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Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:16 pm

Victoria wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:21 pm
Back home, after a few weeks away, and the filtered water that I kept in refridgerator smelled off,
Do you think things in your refrigerator effected the water?

Anyway, today I got caught walking by sudden rainfall & came home a bit chilled. I quickly prepared & drank 3 rounds of what I call COMPETITION (description listed on current vendor post offer to teaforum....). Flavor is perfect for me, I don't want to pick apart the overall taste, not too much roast & nothing wrong at all is saying enough, I hope,; what was unusual is suddenly I felt like I felt a few times from a sweet puerh several years ago, completely relaxed, warm inside, & peaceful. I went to bed & had an excellent nap with the 15 ounces of tea gurgling inside.

Cheers
Last edited by Victoria on Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Victoria
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Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:45 am

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:16 pm
Victoria wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:21 pm
Back home, after a few weeks away, and the filtered water that I kept in refridgerator smelled off,
Do you think things in your refrigerator effected the water?

Anyway, today I got caught walking by sudden rainfall & came home a bit chilled. I quickly prepared & drank 3 rounds of what I call COMPETITION (description listed on current vendor post offer to teaforum....). Flavor is perfect for me, I don't want to pick apart the overall taste, not too much roast & nothing wrong at all is saying enough, I hope,; what was unusual is suddenly I felt like I felt a few times from a sweet puerh several years ago, completely relaxed, warm inside, & peaceful. I went to bed & had an excellent nap with the 15 ounces of tea gurgling inside.

Cheers
Yes, gone for three weeks and some fruit was left in refridgerator along with filtered water in Brita pitcher that isn’t complexly sealed off. Next time maybe I’ll put the actual filter in a sealed mason jar or sim. with water so it doesn’t dry out. Or maybe just let it dry out. What do you do with your Berkey filter when you are away for weeks at a time?

Your Competition ooolong sounds very good. To order from you do we PM or go to your web site?
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Victoria
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Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:55 pm

Finishing some medium grade LiShan that I received from an LA Club member. I no longer enjoy medium grade greener oolongs, not sweet or buttery enough, with tannic astringency peeking through, even though I’m steeping at 203f. Tastes a little better after cooling off, but doesn’t reach great heights.
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d.manuk
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Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:46 am

I'm drinking High Mountain Qingxin Oolong from Fushou Shan, Spring 2018 from Tea Masters.
This is a very delicate and light tasting tea. The dry leaf is very beautiful, a very vibrant lime green. The tea doesn't have a strong floral flavor or strong energy.
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Victoria
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Tue Oct 09, 2018 1:03 pm

Shine Magical wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:46 am
I'm drinking High Mountain Qingxin Oolong from Fushou Shan, Spring 2018 from Tea Masters.
This is a very delicate and light tasting tea. The dry leaf is very beautiful, a very vibrant lime green. The tea doesn't have a strong floral flavor or strong energy.
All the FuShouShan I’ve had has high minerality, somewhat expansive in the mouth. But also like you said is delicate and light, so much so that in the beginning I kept adding leaves hoping for more depth of flavor, only to find that one has to wait into later steeps for that depth. The leaves are very thick and large and need space to fully expand and time to provide rich flavor, sometimes into the 6th steep or into the next day having steeped all night.

For me a new tea, a new day with HY Chen’s LiShan Primitive Wild Forest. Splurging, after yesterday’s less than stellar LiShan, with 11gr/220ml in Hokujo kyusu. This is a great oolong, such depth of flavor with notes of the forest, ferns, sweet apricots, smooth and rounded in the mouth. Perfect.
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Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:00 pm

Victoria wrote:
Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:45 am
What do you do with your Berkey filter when you are away for weeks at a time?

Your Competition ooolong sounds very good. To order from you do we PM or go to your web site?
After most of the water put into the upper section of the Big Berkey to it to be filtered has gone through the 2 ceramic cylinders to the bottom container, I empty it of the rest. (All of the water never makes it through; &, I usually dump some water that would go through because the last 10% takes so long.) So, the actual filters are often drying in the air for 24 hours or so. When I leave for weeks, the filters just dry out more. I may empty the bottom of filtered water or leave it in. Leaving water sit in the bottom for weeks, allows me to see whether any algae or bacteria was in it. So far, nothing has shown itself to be growing.....

PM me to order please. I do not operate Ethanntea. It may be useful to read some descriptions or blogs, but not for ordering. I wanted it off. My website was not removed since my credit card got automatically charged by GoDaddy. I do not like GoDaddy. My niece did things originally so I cannot be absolutely sure what was agreed to; however, I do know that when I was trying to close it all down, what was said would be done, was not done by GoDaddy. Talking with them was like trying to get Kavanaugh to answer a question directly at his hearing for the Supreme Court.
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d.manuk
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Wed Oct 10, 2018 9:55 am

I wasn't aware that HY Chen sold unroasted taiwanese oolongs since you've always talked about their roasted teas. :o
I'll give them a try next year...
I just placed an order with TeaMasters to buy a large quantity of the semi wild Baozhong that I rated 9/10 earlier. It was better than the DYL and other gaoshan I had from him this year.

I'm currently drinking the Fushou Shan grandpa style in a coffee mug at work, and will let the 2nd steep marinate for a few hours before drinking.
mael
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Wed Oct 10, 2018 1:18 pm

Are all the tea sold on HY Chen store from 2018 harvest ?
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Bok
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Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:49 pm

mael wrote:
Wed Oct 10, 2018 1:18 pm
Are all the tea sold on HY Chen store from 2018 harvest ?
Not necessarily, some of the roasted might be older. But anything sells out quickly, so I do not suspect there is lot of leftover stock of anything.
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d.manuk
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Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:23 am

Victoria wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 1:03 pm
Shine Magical wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:46 am
I'm drinking High Mountain Qingxin Oolong from Fushou Shan, Spring 2018 from Tea Masters.
This is a very delicate and light tasting tea. The dry leaf is very beautiful, a very vibrant lime green. The tea doesn't have a strong floral flavor or strong energy.
All the FuShouShan I’ve had has high minerality, somewhat expansive in the mouth.
I taste the minerality today. That's a good way to describe it.
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