Finally back to it. I decided to Gong Fu it with five grams in 6 oz keeping the heat low at 180, and typically waiting two minutes after the pour for cool down.
I started off with a 15 second rinse, and the following brews were not timed. I used smell and color as indicators. I know, annoying for those wanting to experiment with this one, but I can at least say that my parameters roughly followed the 30 second segment rule with consecutively added 15 seconds times two exponentially. I am half tempted to see if I can write a formula for it to show that you can use Algebra outside of school for silly purposes… never mind timing my pours would have taken less time. Oh well.
I was able to pay attention more to the individual profiles of this one than I have before. Starting off, the rinse smelled like cut grass and flowers after doing yard work. Not pleasant. Number two was generally floral and slightly sweet in the hyacinth and lilac kind of way, with the creamy texture subduing more sweet notes than you might expect. Steep three enhanced the florals edging on vanilla, and the nutty profile that Alistair described finally popped up as almond, a very light and unaltered dry almond. So I grabbed my very altered salted almonds as the foodie pairing and it worked. The nut tones were enhanced, and I could taste more of the floral vanilla aspects in the next two steeps.
Sugarcane slowly rose up into these two steeps and the final brew bordering on marzipanny, but it’s still dry as ever and greenly floral, as in slightly grassy but not grassy. Like floral stems as I used to dramatically describe it.
I still would not personally make this a daily drinker because I prefer the Jade Oolong What-Cha offers, but I recommend it as one and cannot deny that this is a clean tasting oolong. More experienced drinkers might like it again more for daily drinking, and as for tea delvers and noobs, this is more of an introduction to standard but quality soft oolongs. It might be too light for some, especially new comers. As for me, it was just a hair too light for me-hence my preference for the custard sweetness of the Jade Oolong and the, well, more expensive stuff.
