TeaGschwendner

I can’t pretend to have as sophisticated take on this tea as Jim does, but I must say that it’s one of the best oolongs I’ve ever tasted, and I have been to TeaGschwendner’s oolong tea tasting. If you’ve been trying to capture that elusive ‘Chinese restaurant taste’, get this. It’s like a 10x better version of the tea you’ve been served with dim sum. Very mild, light flavor- very uniquely oolong.

Mm hmm. When you open the bag and smell there is the undeniable scent of candied pineapple. I will emphasize that there is not the slightest scent of candy, but of candied fruit. Yum.

Upon cupping the tea the sweetness that once prevailed transformes into a gorgeous blend of floral high notes and layers of tropical nuance.

I drank it hot but this tea yearns to be iced.

A masterful blend.

Ah! Aha!
Alright folks, this is it. They did it. . . this tea gets me, I mean it really understands me deep down. (Drink this.)

Its spicy, like chili spicy. And friggin cocoa! It’s obvious to me now that TeaGschwendner knows how to blend. As has been said, maybe not for the purist. However if you are in any way adventurous you must try this tea.

Second flush, the description provided by TeaGschwendner is perfectly accurate.

Brisk yet kind and matronly, we are treated to that aire of elegance and depth fine Darjeeling is prized for.

Drinking up the last of this, today.

Cloudy, drizzly, but still nearly 80 degrees and muggy. Amazing.

How to make the uber pot of oolong:

Set up one of your bigger tea pots.

Choose an oolong where the second or third steep is often better than the first.

Steep a couple cups of water in a generous amount of leaf in a separate vessel in the usual fashion.

Strain into larger teapot.

Repeat for at least three steepings (with a bigger teapot you could do more).

Sip the resulting blend of the three steepings and wonder why you don’t do this every morning.

This works especially well with this oolong from TG because the balance of green notes to roasted notes changes with each steep and this way you get the best of each all in the same cup.

I used the pyrex technique again.

The leaves open up completely. It looks like you could reconstruct a tea bush from all the pieces.

This comes out much softer this way. The resulting cup is not weak or boring, but the tea tastes less like an oolong and more like a white tea; albeit a very forceful white, if it were one.

I really like it this way.

Oolong is a tricky category for anyone who is trying to figure tea out on their own without expert help. Everything from floral varieties treated with osmanthus fragrance to nearly green to nearly black teas get labeled “oolong”. A person could try a half dozen “oolong” teas and conclude they simply do not care for the entire category without even beginning to scratch the surface of what is available in this huge spectrum.

My favorites, personally, are those such as TG’s “superior choice”, “superior taifu” and “Ming Xiang” which are roasted to produce woody, nutty, heady notes both in the dry leaf, and the cup. If I want a tea with green notes, I’ll drink green tea. If I want a cup with astringent, dry flavors, I’ll drink black tea. I drink oolong for those flavors you cannot get from any other leaf.

This particular tea, the “superior choice” grade, is simply brilliant. Deep, rich, woody, nutty, highly fragrant, but not brooding, muddy or acidic. Steep it twice, three times, even four if you’re truly frugal. But beware! Even though you can repeatedly steep this leaf, if you over steep at any point, you will get bitter, bitter, acidic, tannins and nastiness. Which isn’t a complaint, most all teas suffer from over steeping. This oolong just happens to be particularly unforgiving. So use a timer, and be prompt. With truly boiling water, 3 minutes is enough, adding 45 seconds or so with each subsequent steeping. If you’re stuck with 180 degree water from a bubbler or the hot tap on a coffee maker, you should def. steep longer and may need to experiment to find the right balance. But if you enjoy teas like this and cannot boil a proper kettle, consider picking up a small electric kettle and hiding it at your desk. Teas like this one really need water as hot as you can get it.

sips

This green tea from China/India is mixed with guava, lemon and some flavour. I didn’t like it very much. The lemon note is too strong. It tastes similar to lemon grass tea.

This is a green tea from India with vanilla. The water temperature needs to be at 70°C, otherwise the vanilla note will not get through. It’s okay to drink this once in a while but it’s nothing special. I personally prefer black teas with a vanilla note.

I tasted almost all Earl Gray variants from TeaGschwendner and this is the one that I liked the most. It’s a very light tea because of the First Flush Darjeeling but has a strong citrus note.

This green tea looks nice and smells very fruity. The rose blossoms were the dominating note when drinking. Nothing special (I’m not really into rose blossom tea’s) but okay to drink once in a while.

It’s interesting how this tea is made but, honestly, I couldn’t drink this. It tastes way too earthy for me.

This is a strong Earl Grey tea that has a light citrus note. It’s okay but I prefer lighter tea variants such as the Earl Grey Imperior which has First Flush Darjeeling in it.

I’m no expert at Oolong teas and this was the first Oolong tea that I drank. It tasted a little woody and had a hint of peaches. I liked it.

Life is better with Sencha.

Best Sencha I ever tasted.

I never had coconut flavor in my tea, so i didn’t think that I’d like it much. Surprisingly, it tasted really nice when hot. The aroma is very nice and the coconut flavor is a bit strong.