Tea from Taiwan

4th steep- still growing strong. The leaves look gorgeous. will post some pictures on my blog tonight

yum- dark,but not too dark. roasty,nutty with a lingering sweetness that makes this tea wonderful.

hrm. There’s a lot going on with this tea. It’s a very light, almost boring looking oolong once brewed up, but in the cup it tastes like it can’t make up it’s mind about what it wants to be when it grows up. It’s got dark notes, floral notes, spicy notes and honestly, it’s a bit too much for me. Complex is nice, confused isn’t.

It’s interesting, but I don’t know it would make it only my permanent shelf. I’m glad I got to try it however.

I didn’t get that much milkyness out of my sample. It seemed like a fairly light green oolong. A nice, light green oolong, but I’ve gotten more milkiness or creamy flavors out of others. I did brew it fairly cool. Maybe if I tried hotter, I’d have gotten more out of it. Hrm.

my first ever milk oolong! Really great tea. i found the milky notes so interesting and they meshed very well with the light oxidation of the tea. Awesome find! Now i see what all the fuss was about :)

Wow on this tea. It tastes like…. I can’t place it. I almost want to say the water in the Le Sueur peas, that and rhubarb. So weird.
Dropped the rating more. The more I drink it, the more I think of urine. Pouring it out.

I’m not sure how I feel about this tea and the whole GABA thing, but this was included in the Tea from Taiwan samplers I got forever ago (yay for vacuum sealing!), so I’ll drink it. Well, maybe I’ll drink it. Cause this tea smells weird. Like honey-covered soybeans. Or boiled vegetables. It’s freakin’ weird. Especially since the dry leaf smelled buttery. But this? Not buttery. Weird.

Uhm, okay. So it kind of tastes like honey-covered soybeans too. Or maybe decaying leaves. That’s just not cool. The front of the sip has the honey so at the beginning of the sip I think, “Oh, that’s not bad, maybe I’m getting used to it.” Then the soybean comes in and I think, “Eew, maybe I should pour this out.”

Yeah. This one does not get a resteep.
8g/16oz

Hrm. This is a very green oolong. Very bright, very lemon. A little too light for my tastes, actually.

I emptied my entire sample into my zarafina (I brought my zarafina to work, so there will be a lot of zarafina posts from me these days) and did my first brew as mild / oolong. It was almost overly watery. My second brew was strong / oolong, and while I got the appropriate mouthfeel for an oolong, but the flavor was lacking a little.

I tend to prefer stronger flavors, so this really isn’t for me.

I was looking for a tea to break in my new gaiwan with, and was rummaging in my stash and found half a sample of this still left from, er, a month ago. But hey, it was still in the foil pack, rolled down on itself and clipped with a small wooden peg, and inside my Lock & Lock, so it still had to be okay, right? (It was!)

A quick note on the gaiwan: I already have, uh, three, but was considering buying a “cheap” one from ebay, those $3 ones (EXCLUDING shipping) to knock around. Last night I was at the home section in Landmark and saw— I could not believe it!— gaiwans! ON SALE! For something like (converted) $0.66! Of course, one doesn’t expect master craftsmanship at this point, so I examined each carefully from all angles and picked out one that looked alright. It took, I dunno, 20 minutes. Haha. So while I was at it, a woman who was passing by, probably piqued by the intensity of my selection process, paused by the display and picked one up.

“What are these for?” says she, lifting up the lid and squinting into the cup. “Are these sugar bowls?”

“Uh. Well…” How to explain. But then I brightened up at the thought of sharing with a random person the joys of a gaiwan. “They’re for tea! You put loose leaf tea in them, you see, and…” I demonstrated pouring it out and pointed how the imaginary leaves would get stuck…

She ‘hunh’-ed. Blinked. Then went away.

So much for spreading the tea gospel.

But: back to the Long Feng Xia. I can see why this is a favorite among the Feng Fu samples. I shook out only a bit of the leaves for a session of western brewing, probably not even half a teaspoon. But the leaves expanded to fill half the gaiwan. Pleased to find one leaf that seemed particularly large, about two inches long, and an inch across at the widest point. There’s something about finding large leaves that makes me want to pound my chest in a (confused, anachronistic) cavemanly fashion, and proclaim: “Yarrrrh! Yea, I am drinking TEA! From the LEAF. Take that, bitches!” (My caveman needs to watch less television.)

Now turns out the gaiwan is crap at pouring (is what I will maintain. yes.), but it brewed the tea up pretty well. The lid smell is amazing! The first whiff is floral, but let it air out for a bit, then breathe in deeper. I swear it was like… omg butterscotch brownies. Like the ones I buy from our cafeteria, that look dubious but still taste great, even after getting tossed around in my school bag. Sniffing deeply now at the lid of my gaiwan, I can imagine the crackled crunchy crust… the yummy, buttery grease oiling patterns on the wax paper… a hint of nuts sprinkled on top, perhaps… biting into that crunchy, crackley chewy goodness and just…. NOM.

Damn I want one now. But tea, yes. We were talking about tea. The tea liquor is light golden yellow, with a somewhat lemony aftertaste on the tongue, but still that lovely sweet oolong taste at the back of my tongue/in the throat. Mmm. Good stuff.

Oh and my pouring skills improved with the second brew, with minimal spillage on my trusty super-absorbent tea cloth. So here’s to an enjoyable tea session with cheap tea ware, good tea (might have to repurchase that Long Feng Xia. hmm) and drinking mid-morning oolong out of a pair of shot glasses*. Cheers!

*It’s almost been a month since I moved to the new apartment, but tea cups are still at home. ^^; Housewarming presents, anyone?

Annoying P.S.:
And while I was sitting back waiting for my third round to brew and sighing happily and thinking to myself self-satisfied thoughts like “Aaaahhh” and “Man, that’s good tea” and “I pledge allegiance to the teas of Formosa”… (what, does no one else do this?) I suddenly remembered that the boyfriend will be going on a trip to Taiwan next week! I wonder what I shall ask him to bring back for me. :D :D

One of my fav Taiwanese teas. Sweet Buttery and floral

Finally got my Milky Oolong samples from Tea from Taiwan after a long wait (they really are shipped straight from Taiwan).

Randomly picked this one out of the 3. I’ve had milky Oolongs from 2 other stores before is this has been by far the best. Sweet but not as “in your face” as others, creamy yet light enough – it was GREAT. The leaves were full and dark green -no doubt, this is good stuff.

4th steeping in, the taste remains intact albeit lighter. This isn’t a scented Oolong as it keep its true character steeping after steeping.

My only deception is that the sample was only good for a one shot try out and now.. I’m out. Fairly expensive (albeit not bad for a Milky Oolong of this caliber) … I’ll have to try the other 2 before I make up my mind on which one to order in large quantity next.

Tried my sample of this last night and I LOVED it. Nutty and sweet while not too dark. YUM!!!

The leaves smell delightful. I tossed in the whole sample (7.7g – a rounded Tbsp) into my gaiwan and did a quick rinse (5s). So away we go!
Steep 1: (1:00 @ 175°) Smells fresh, floral, green, buttery. The taste is surprisingly sharp and tangy. Creamy feeling but taste-wise makes me think of lemon butter. Probably could have backed off the time a bit since this is pretty intense.
Steep 2: (45s @ 175°) Smells fresh, clean. The taste is more of a lemon herb butter. Not quite as intense and sharp but still more citrus than floral, though I think some floral notes are creeping in.
Steep 3: (50s @185°) Starting to smell more “typical” oolong with some floral notes. The taste is more floral, softer, but it still has a citrusy tart twang at the end.
Steep 4: (55s @ 185°) The taste seems a little creamier but also a little muddier. Still overall a very ‘yellow’ taste which makes me think of lemons (though it has lost the tartness it originally had).
Steep 5: (60s @190°) The flavor has cleaned up a bit and is smoother but still lemony (though faint) with a hint of creamy.
I’m sure this tea has at least three more steeps in it, but I’m not sure if I do. I think I’ll move on.

Ultimately, I think this is a quality tea – the tastes are very clear and unmuddled – but it’s a bit too refreshing/lemony for what I’m looking for in a green oolong and so not quite to my tastes. Those that enjoy cleaner, brighter tasting oolongs (and lemony teas) would most likely enjoy this one lots.

I decided to finish the remainder of the sample of this tea this afternoon. Last time I used water at 195° but, in hopes of getting more of a higher, floral note out of it, I’m doing this batch at 175°.

And oh yes, that was a good decision. Apparently, twenty degrees lower makes this tea rich, heavy and super duper buttery. It’s insanely full-flavor but with an overall very dark flavor profile. There are no high or floral notes like what I was looking for, but the flavor is so full that I just don’t care. There’s some vegetable flavor – something green that I’m pretty sure most kiddies wouldn’t want to eat – but it isn’t a vegetables-boiled-in-water-vegetable. Instead, it’s more pickled vegetable but with no actual pickle flavor, just the fuller, spicy flavor that comes with pickles when compared to the non-pickled vegetable counterpart.

This tea is much more interesting now and so I’m finally feeling confident enough to rate it. Shoot, I might have to go and buy some, too.
4g/8oz

It smells delicious – rich and thick and very nuanced – but the taste doesn’t have the same depth. It’s heavy but not quite rich and falls more on the flat end of things than the nuanced side.

I’ll give the rest of my sample a try at 175° to see if that gives me a fuller taste that matches up more to the smell. If it does, it will be awesome. If it doesn’t, it will be only decent.
3.8g/7oz

The dry leaf smells awesome. Creamy, sweet and rich. It smelled so great I hunted down the husband to make him smell it. The powerful smell, however, doesn’t last through the brewing. It still smells nice but it is pretty faint – I might have accidentally dunked my nose in the tea trying to get close enough to get a good smell so yeah, that faint. But fear not! All that yummy smell did not simply go poof. Oh no – it was turned into taste. Sweet in a green, fresh way with zero astringency and an oh so pretty (though kinda brief) aftertaste. It just tastes so fresh and sweet, almost fruity. There’s a fibrous taste as it cools, like eating a thicker green veggie. Uh oh. My cup is empty. Can’t have that.

The second steep (2:30) is a bit heavier and richer but not quite as fruity sweet, or maybe just a different, heavier fruit.

Third steep (3:30) and the flavor has changed a bit again. This time I am oddly reminded of a mild Yunnan. It’s weird, I don’t get it, but that’s what is coming to mind with the rich but light feel and sweetness of this tea.
4g/8oz

I really am enjoying this tea. When I first tried it, I thought it was a nice, smooth Alishan, but nothing really that special. However, a couple months later, it has developed a more fruity scent and flavor that I really love. So I would say that this tea has improved with a bit of aging.

The higher temperature seems to make this tea a little more astringent and less sweet although it still smells buttery and rich. The taste is very clean and clear with the typical milk oolong taste showing up mostly in the aftertaste (and in the smell). There’s also a raw vegetable feeling to the cup which I think has something to do with a combination of the sweetness, astringency and crisp taste. It makes me think of lettuce. If lettuce were sweeter and had, you know, taste. I probably like this one done at the lower temperature just because I really like sweet and floral tastes in my green oolongs to the point where maybe I overdose on them, but this is still really nice and more matching with the almost summery day outside.

ETA: Second steep @ 2:00. The flavor has really exploded with this steep. There’s a strong vegetal taste that brings to mind artichokes followed by a little poof of floral and then an almost bitter astringency. It’s savory with a little sweet floral dropped right in the middle.
4.9g/6oz

Mmm, smells nice – sweet and like a light floral. There’s also a buttery smell to it. So flower butter maybe. Brewed up, the scent is more solid green floral oolong base but there is still some creamy butter laid over top.

The company’s note says that this tea has slight astringency and I can kind of see that. It’s not what I would normally peg as astringent since it isn’t that strong but it definitely has a sharper edge than I’m used to in green oolongs. But it’s very pleasant. On the first part of the sip I’m getting sweetness and soft floral, then I get the rougher taste of green bushes (or something) – fresh and solid but not heavy. As it cools it becomes creamier like butter heavily flavored with bushes. Why bushes? The taste isn’t sweet enough to be grass or not heavy enough to be tree but it is something green and fresh. And that’s the only thing I could think of to compare.

Anyway, it makes it nice. Simultaneously light and solid, this is a softer tea that isn’t delicate but nor is it heavy. So I’m grooving on the bush butter tea so far.

Second steep, also @ 2:30, the bush taste is a little softer, the butter taste more milky aftertaste. Quite nice. As it cools, the milky tastes almost gets a little toasty hint and I’m reminded of Samovar’s Ryokucha which is never a bad thing.

All in all, a milder milk oolong (I’m guessing because there is no artificial flavors) that I find very nice.

ETA:
Third steep @ 3:30. Not overly special or distinctive but has a sweet, floral, milky note that fills my mouth and makes it attractive. Almost tastes a little sugared.

Fourth steep @ 4:30. The taste is milder now, softer. The milky is fading into a general smoothness along with a more generic green oolong taste.
3g/6oz

Okay, I just spent 2 hours tracking 5 different steeps of this tea and then Firefox crashed and it all went poof. Yeah, I need to write tasting notes in a different program and just paste into Steepster because. Not. Cool. Sigh. Okay, this might be for the best since having to remember what happened will mean that this is shorter than the original. Not short, mind you. Just shorter.

I have no idea what I’m doing with this tea but I’ll do my best to muddle through. Since I have the time and inclination, I’m going to use the whole almost 8g sample and brew it up in my gaiwan. It fills about 1/4th of the gaiwan so this is either the correct amount or not quite enough. Whatever. Muddling.

The leaves look like dark, slightly large Gunpowder. Or very tiny raisins. The dry leaves smell dusty and a little dirty. Like my back porch right before spring cleaning. Gave it a 10s rinse and OMG, not cool. The wet leaves smell like burnt coffee. Badly burnt. Yuck.

First Steep: 35s at 185°. The leaves smell horrible. Thankfully, the tea smells like a blend of non-burnt coffee and pu-erh hay smell. The taste? Wow. Weird. Very weird. It tastes like how I drink restaurant coffee – very sweet and creamy. Specifically, I’d say about 3 sugars and 2 creamers. Crazy. I’m getting a little hint of caramel syrup in the aftertaste.
Second Steep: 40s at 195°. The burnt coffee smell of the leaves is so strong that it is almost a physical blow when I raise the lid to the gaiwan. There is a little more coffee flavor than pu-erh flavor. Now it tastes like coffee with perhaps two sugars and only one creamer but it’s a flavored creamer.
Third Steep: 45s at 190°. The leaves are opening up some and now they look like small angry beetles that will attack me. Now the taste is pretty much two sugars and half of a flavored creamer.
Fourth Steep: 50s at 185°. Really wish the leaves didn’t smell like burnt coffee. This steep tastes almost exactly like the one before but now the creamer is unflavored.
Fifth Steep: 60s at 195°. The leaves are not even half way open and this steep tastes almost exactly like the second steep. This is the tea that will never die.

Whew. All caught up. Now new stuff but honestly? I have no idea how long this tea will last so we’re going keep the same level of detail as the recap above because I have no desire to find out if Steepster has a character limit on logs.

Sixth Steep: 70s at 195°. Starting to transition into something more pu-erh hay-like with a coffee under note.
Seventh and Eight Steeps: 80s and 90s respectively, at 195°. The leaves are opened enough to look like mangled cricket legs… from decently large crickets. (How do I know this? My cats like to pull the back legs off of crickets and then eat the crickets (or so I assume as we ever only find the legs)). Currently the flavor is somewhere between coffee-flavored pu-erh and steeps one and two. This. Tea. Will. Never. Die.
Ninth Steep: 1:40 at 195°. Nope, not dead. The aftertaste if full on sweet pu-erh aftertaste now though.
Tenth Steep: 2min at 195°. Okay, this might be hinting that in 3 or 5 or so steeps, the flavor will start to fade but right now? This tastes like pretty much like all the other steeps I’ve had of this. I’ve had around 40 ounces of this tea. I’m going to be smelling like coffee for days, sweating it out my pores. This tea wins, I wave the white flag.

So now the big question: how does this tea rate?

I have no idea.

Is it high quality? Yes, so a 4/5 stars there which puts it at anywhere over 70. I mean come on. Ten steeps? Seriously? And it’s smooth and sweet and flavorful. Very good quality (in my less-than-pu-erh-knowledgeable opinion).

Would I repurchase this tea (which would give it a rank over 80)? I have no idea. First or second steep I would have said sure, probably. It’s weird but I like it. Not really my norm but enjoyable and something I could dip into every now and again. But after ten steeps (and more left in the leaves), I kind of feel that there is no way I can fully appreciate a tea like this, a tea that lasts this long. So maybe it should be filed under “Good Tea but Too Serious For Me”. (I’d totally make a file folder for that). But at the same time, it is tasty. And I wouldn’t have to do ten steeps each time I had it (and I doubt it would last that long done Western style). So I’ll have to make that answer a strong maybe and I’ll rate it accordingly.

I think I might go soak a leaf or two for a few hours just to see if they are truly capable of fully expanding.

And if you care, a few pictures on my blog here: http://bit.ly/a0iwHM

Mmm. Smells floral and almost lemony. Tastes rich and chewy and buttery. Today this is reminding me of some pouchongs I’ve had. Solid and thick and rich but not heavy. There’s a good, interesting flavor to this tea but it is also very drinkable. For me it seems to straddle the line between a good everyday tea and a more special occasion tea, ultimate tipping over to the everyday tea side.
4g/6oz