Sea Dyke Brand

I was really hoping this one would be good. I got this one and another one in a yellow box from the same brand while I was in Hong Kong. The leaves smell like raisins for some reason. When you steep it, it smells like wood. Or something. The taste is okay, but that smell is so overpowering that I just can’t drink it. My quest for good oolong continues…

earthy, delicate, rich, smooth.
I found this at a local Asian grocery store, and was surprised to find that it was a lovely loose leaf, and not nearly as expensive as most Oolongs.

Drinking this gongfu cha this evening, with a small gaiwan, and water near boiling. The first few infusions need careful timing to avoid bitterness, but later infusions are toasty sweet without any hint of bitter. Mellow, pleasing, tea-as-comfort-food.

This is the tea I ‘grew up’ drinking, starting with Chinese restaurant teas and moving on to this one, which I was taught to revere as special and rare, one my father had learned on from Chinese friends but found hard to get before the 80s. By the time I started to drink it, it was easier to find, but still not something that every chinese market would carry. If I couldn’t find the familiar red tin, I’d go home empty handed rather than buy an unknown tea. A long period when I could not get t from my usual suppliers finally led me to my new local Chinatown, tea shops, and the internet, and this is no longer my favrite tea.

Use teaspoon per mug or 6oz pot, water 185-195, steep 1-2 minutes, and you’ll get another 1-2 steepings from the leaves.

It keeps very well, so it’s a great one To keep around just in case, to introduce newbies gently to the darker side of higher roast teas, and for effortless drinking when you’re to frazzled to break off a piece of puerh or babysit a tempermental green.

I’d rate it about a 65, but can’t Figure out the sliders on the phone.

baked Ti Kuan Yin. Very delicious.