Unknown

My first sip is a warm, green butter. The aftertaste is most definitely bakey. It’s odd, but I feel the tension headache that I woke up with lifting already. As I sip more, I get a touch of sweetness in the back of my throat, and a mineral taste on the tip of my tongue. Could be the water, but it’s not unpleasant.

Less of a “fresh green” taste as my other experience with tie guan yin, a little more on the buttery side. This isn’t a bad thing—I rather like it this way. It’s getting sweeter as it cools as well, almost mouth-coating.

I’ve had this before, I just haven’t gotten around to sitting down and typing something up. More will be added onto this post with subsequent steeps.

Second steep is darker, given the leaves were given time to fully reopen. This one’s also at two minutes. The colour is a very nice, spring green. It’s deeper (sharper?), more minerally and less sweet and buttery.

Third steep, four minutes: More sharply (not in a negative sense) mineral and green tasting; no apparent sweetness. Not as heavy and mouth-coating as the first steep. Hints of butter, but just barely. Sort of a steamed vegetable taste, I think. But a bit fresher. I think I am still getting a bit of sweet on the tip of my tongue. As I reach the bottom of my cup, the mineral tang has gotten quite pronounced.

More steeps when I return home from work, I think.

Fourth steep, little change.

Fifth steep (six minutes), it’s been a few days so I would be working from memory. The taste hasn’t grown weaker yet. Mineral, vegetal, and bakey. More bakey now, I think—or at least more than I remember. I can taste it on my breath as I breathe out.

What’s the best tea? I think it’s a question impossible to answer. But if to answer it in a rather abstract way, I would say, the best tea is never from the market, but from a friend. This tea is from Rich, the blogger of Sharing My Cup of Tea (http://www.myteastories.com/), a connoisseur of tea and especially aged oolong. I have to admit that I am never very enthusiastic about aged oolong, and at one point, I even felt reluctant to talk about aged oolong – somehow, there are often more too many myths and complications. But in my conversations with Rich, I enjoyed discussing with him about aged oolong and learned a lot from him. Besides him being very knowledgeable, what I like most about our discussions is, he seriously studies on the tea and gives (or searches for) reasonable explanations. As a science major, I always like to locate reasons, causes, observations, inferences, causal relations… I believe tea shouldn’t be mysterious. It’s ok not to have a final answer, but it’s not cool to mysterize it.

I feel very privileged to have experienced this tea, first because it’s very rare, and secondly because this is a great opportunity to witness what a Dong Ding was like in early 80s. The current fisted shape of Dong Ding became popular only in 1990s but it entirely replaced the traditional curled shape of Dong Ding. The dry leaves of this 80s Dong Ding are in slightly curled shape, but not ball shape. It has medium oxidation, and medium to heavy roasting. After all these years, the roast taste has become mild and smooth, but the tea has long lasting power. It has a deep aroma and dark honey taste that last about 8-9 infusions. Then I had more infusions the second day. It was hard to say good bye to such a precious tea and I wanted to take out every bit of its taste :D

At the end, what amazed me were the beautiful, spent leaves. I’ve noticed that a common feature of great oolong teas is their leaves look very much alive to the last infusion. It might be a dark roast tea, or a tea aged for many years, like this one. But once fully infused and fully expanded, the leaves look so tender and resilient. I feel very grateful to all the good people who made this tea, who kept it throughout years and who shared it with me!

I wasn’t sure how to log this tea I received from Brandy, so I put it under custom. This tea is sinful. I added cream and sugar right away, I figured it would be a delicious treat made up this way at 11am. Wow, this tastes like an amaretto liquor. I could serve this after a fancy meal and wouldn’t need to liqours.

I went to a luncheon today to honor my years of service to the University I work for (10 years!) and I was pleased that they had real, brewed, barely sweet iced tea as a drink offering (brought around by waiters in pitchers!)! It was flavorful and a great accompaniment to the delicious food served (Moroccan spiced grouper, chicken mole, bow tie pasta and asparagus, roasted veg, salad, cheesecake!). I was thrilled to have freshly prepared, non-bottled, non drink mix iced tea at the shindig – good job, University!

I dug it out from a big pile of samples, and haven’t figured out who gave it to me :-p

But, wow, this is Nan Mei Village! The tea is from 2009, but to my surprise, it barely has any bitterness and has only very slight astringency which disappears instantly. There is a smooth, sugary taste that brings me some warm feeling. Normally I am very reluctant to have a sheng younger than 3 years because I constantly feel it would make me feel cold (probably from the harsh taste, the stimulation to stomach and something hard to explain). But I am totally comfortable with this one. I may get a bunch and still wait for another few years before drinking it up, just for the sake of metal comfort :-p

I got a generous sample of probably 10g. I put all of it in a 150 teapot, used boiling water and about 10-15 second for the first several infusions. I didn’t pay much attention to the dry leaves. But then, surprised by the nice taste, I peeped in the teapot and took a look at the leaves. They are very beautiful!

I have heard of Nan Mei Village for a few times and this is the first time I’ve tasted some tea from there. I have a special love to Bing Dao tea. It usually has very clear and refreshing aroma as well as a nice sugary taste. Nan Mei Village is very close to Bing Dao, and many people say some Bing Dao tea is actually from Nan Mei Village because their tastes are somewhat similar. But a tea labeled as Nan Mei tea is much less expensive than a tea labeled as Bing Dao tea.

From now on, both Bing Dao and Nan Mei are sweet names on my list of Sheng! This 2009 Nan Mei tea is probably the tastiest new Sheng I’ve ever had. I am actually not sure at all if such a smooth Sheng has any potential for aging of longer than 10 years. I doubt you can have both ends. But I think it’s already great if it tastes great NOW!

I am always in pursuit of new tea, out of curiosity. My curiosity is big, and sometimes it can be weird :-p When my friend told me about this cheap Phoenix Oolong, without hesitation, I said I would try it. At 22 yuan per 500g ($3.3 per 500g, or 19 cent per oz.), it’s probably the cheapest oolong I’ve ever had. So I took all the trouble to obtain 2 samples and include them in my international shipping parcel, all the way from Chaozhou to Massachusetts. I thought, I’ve got to experience the 19 cent per oz. oolong!

To my surprise, the dry leaves are not bad at all. Besides some extra twigs, there aren’t many hint of cheapness (but of course my eyes are not as sharp as those of oolong farmers). The dry tea smells pleasant, a light aroma remotely resemble low-grade but presentable jasmine green tea.

I first infused it with typical gong fu style, with about 7g tea leaves in a 120ml teapot and with infusions as short as possible. The tea tastes bitter and astringent to certain degree, but not unbearable (I do have strong tolerance of bitterness, though). Both the bitterness and the astringency hit the tongue and fade away. There is no lingering fragrance at all. The smell of the tea is all the way weak but pleasant. I feel I can’t really take this tea in gulps because it’s indeed harsh in some way. But on the other hand, if there is only this tea in the world for me to drink every day, I wouldn’t feel as desperate as if there were only some brand name teabags left in the world for me to drink every day. With the seduction of my other more tasty teas, I didn’t go for more than 2 infusions in my gong fu style brewing of this tea. But still I think this tea is drinkable, more so than some teas I’ve seen from Asian groceries and mainstream supermarkets.

I also tried brewing smaller amount of this tea in a mug. It’s less bitter or astringent than in gong fu brewing. Again it reminds me of some low-grade jasmine green tea, not great but drinkable, even with some aroma. Then I cold brewed some of this tea. In cold brewing, as I’ve found in some other teas too, the bitterness and astringency are largely reduced, probably because such tastes do not dissolve into water in lower temperature.

Overall it’s an interesting experience, and I am glad this cheapest oolong I’ve ever had didn’t make me suffer too much. A bonus of this tea journey – the producer obviously doesn’t want me to think this tea is a typical representative of their teas (in fact it’s their cheapest tea), so they gave me samples of their most expensive Huang Zhi Xiang (the same tea tree variety but a “pure breed”) and their intermediate-range Huang Zhi Xiang. I love freebies and they justified my expedited international shipping :D

This is not a tea that is well-known outside of China and can’t be found in any mainstream tea manuals (as far as I am aware). But what a great find.

I had some of this tea tonight. Amazing. Of the Wu Yi cliff teas it is certainly my favourite. I am fortunate to have a small stock of “mother tree” Bai Ji Guan leftover from my supplier in Taiwan. I haven’t procured more for my company because it wasn’t popular enough and is too expensive. But it is definitely one of the best teas we have carried for aroma (apricot and honey), flavour (apricot, almost sweet, and clean) and chi (a powerful wallop). All around, an excellent tea. If our company grows, perhaps I will consider stocking it once again…

Actually I am drinking a Panyang and a Keemun side by side. Sometimes drinking two teas at the same time confuses me and l lose track which flavor is from which tea, especially when the aftertastes are complicated. But this time, I’ve found it quite interesting to have these two teas together.

These are two tea samples I got. Keemun is my favorite red (black) tea and the “Keemun aroma” has become my benchmark for red teas. When reading Steepster tealogs about Panyang, I’ve seen many good comments and a few comments like “uninteresting”. I guess, if I had had this Panyang by itself, I would have felt it a bit uninteresting. But interestingly, in the contrast with Keemun, which I actually like more, I appreciate Panyang more. This Panyang doesn’t have as prominent aroma as Keemun, but it has some mild character, as mild as rice soup. Besides, there is a hint of fruit aroma (just a hint though).

I used two small gaiwan (of about 100ml) to brew this two teas. Each gaiwan had its bottom just covered by dry tea leaves. I used boiling water, and refill the cup when there is about 1/3 liquor left. I’ve notice that the mild feature of this Panyang makes it more forgiving. When I drink toward near the bottom of the gaiwan, the Keemun gets more condensed, with even some sourness. But Panyang is still mild and pleasant. I guess, this means, when you brew this two teas, the Panyang is tolerant of various brewing parameters, while Keemun is pickier and can’t be made too concentrated.

In the third infusion, Keemun still smells and tastes aromatic, but Panyang is almost exhausted in both fragrance and flavor (but still, the rice soup taste isn’t bad). However, this comparison cannot be generalized to the two tea varieties, because I am sure there are greater Panyang out there.

Besides, I have to say, Hokkienese is mysterious! The same word is pronounced as Gongfu in Mandarin, and pronounced as Congou in Hokkienese, yet they are both Chinese dialects!

Sadly, i don’t know what brand this is, but I got it in Philly"s Chinatown from a merchant who was very annoyed that I asked for it. it tastes just like the stuff at my favorite Thai restaurant in Norristown, PA. Is it really tea? Who knows. Who cares. It is fun to drink but I would never put it in any serious contention for good tea. Let the good times roll!

I wrote it on my blog first and there are a few more photos there.

http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/02/another-granny-tea-or-huang-pian-yellow.html

This is the second granny tea (huang pian) I’ve ever had. The first one was a “granny” of a king grade Shui Xian. Behind every Yan Cha product, there is “granny tea”, the older leaves that are selected out. Since there are not many Yan Cha teabag products, I guess most granny tea is consumed by tea farmers, if it’s still good.

Compared to the last one, this one is more interesting to me, because I happen to have the fine product of this tea, a gold medal Rou Gui. As someone who is not particularly enthusiastic about Rou Gui, I instantly fell in love with this gold medal Rou Gui. I was gifted only one 7g pack, and am still drooping for more.

The granny tea of this Rou Gui has larger, greener and yellower leaves. The leaves have not been highly roasted. After all, who will pay the effort to roast a huang pian. It looks and smells like a greener style Yan Cha. At the beginning, the look and smell of the tea leaves worried me a bit. I’ve seen some poorly made greener style Yan Cha that smells very good but tastes bitter, which, I guess, is due to inadequate oxidation. But it turned out pretty good.

I used a 120ml gaiwan, and moderately filled the gaiwan with tea leaves. After rinsing, time for each of the first infusions was about 10 seconds.

Tea color of the first infusion is darker than modern greener style Yan Cha, but much lighter than normal Yan Cha, and it’s a big contrast to the final product of the gold medal Rou Gui. The flavor is light fruity, with slight peppery taste. The overall aroma is not as strong as a typical fully roasted Yan Cha, and not typical Rou Gui flavor, but is quite nice and prominent. The liquor is mellow, without any bitterness or astringency. But I didn’t attempt to give it long infusions, so I don’t know how tolerant it can be. The following a few infusions yield mild but consistent flavors.

Later I ran out of time and stopped after 5 infusions, although I believe it could go a little longer, not as long as a typical Yan Cha, but maybe 7-8 infusions. As a granny tea, I think its leaf conditions are admirable. The spent leaves after 5 infusions look almost like some normal product tea, very in shape and vibrant. This is indeed a generous granny tea!

At Chicago’s Drake Hotel … I expected a high-dollar hotel like this to wow me. This was fine. Nothing to make a scene about. Lovely sunny lobby, though, and a nice break in the work day.

Mine was actually Teavana’s discontinued Organic Pu-erh. It tea and dirt had a baby, that’s what this tastes like. I do enjoy it quite a bit, but I have to be in the mood for it. Usually it goes like this: I’m looking through my tea collection trying to decide what I’m going to drink, because I’m feeling indecisive, usually I know exactly what it is, and I see it and I say, “Hell, why not?”

Was nice to have on my walk ^ ^