Skip to main content

Alishan high mountain oolong 2020

 From vendor:

Harvest: Hand-picked, small batch, from Ruili, Taiwan. Spring 2020.

Elevation: 1200m


Brewed 8 grams in 125 mL porcelain pot using boiling water

Brews: 1 min / 1 min / 1 min 20 sec / 1 min 45 sec / 2 min 15 sec / 2 min 45 sec / 5 min 45 sec / 90 min

The first 7 steeps were very satisfying.

Dry leaf had a floral and light tropical fruit scent. Not too stemmy. Leaves are a bit heterogeneous in size and very intact. No evidence of bug bites, suggesting some possible use of pesticides. However pesticides may not have been necessary due to relatively high elevation and springtime picking.

Brews had flowery and tropical fruit aromas and tasted of lightly steamed green vegetables, dried pineapples, and some indian spices. Astringency is relatively low. Liquid had medium to heavy body. Overall impression of purity, and high mountain meadows along with eating pineapple cakes.

Overall very nice experience, though price point a bit high.









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Glenburn king single estate first flush 2019 from vahdam

Leaves are small and bud like. There are many broken leaves as well and leaves with holes indicating insect bite. This could explain some of the Muscatel. 1.8 teaspoon 350 mL water 90 C water Steep 1: 4 min Steep 2: 8 min Steep 3: indefinite time Light, flowery, herbal Some muscatel in nose Muscatel, herb, flowery hops, light wood notes in taste Lingering herbal, fresh hop and cooling mint I am told mint is often a sign of Assamica tea but these are supposed to be chinary.

2020 Competition Grade Jin Jun Mei Black Tea from Yunnan Sourcing

From vendor: Late March Harvest Tong Mu Guan Village (Fujian) Review: Strong yeast and honey suckle aroma from dry leaf. Lots of orange yellow powder from the small, tight buds. A small holed filter is necessary. Brew parameter: 4 g / 100 mL 90 C in porcelain Rinse / 10s / 10s / 15s / 35s / 1 min / 2 min / 5 min Strong honey and milk chocolate notes. Smooth and thick with stone fruit (peach) aromas and sweet yam flavors. Some vegetal notes develop in later steepings. Early steepings are quick and strong but drops off after 3rd steeping. Strangely, a pu-erh like wet pile funk is faintly present. This is not particularly pleasant. Western brewing is also acceptable at 1 g /100 mL for 3:30. However, the chocolate notes are much more mild when brewed in this way.

Brewing Taiwanese oolong

Bao Zhong: After some experimentation, I found it works best in this way: ~7.3-7.5 g/125 mL. Basically a little less than yancha. Boiling hot water No rinse 30s /35s/45s/1 min etc Keeping it at 6.5 g but longer time makes the later steeps less balanced for me. Going higher to yancha ratios overwhelms me with qi. Oriental Beauty  This tea can behave like hong cha and white tea hybrid with some oolong notes. for natural clean stuff - 4.5-5.5g / 100 ml - start at 15s and slowly go up increasing by 5-10s.  Allow the cup to cool each time- treating it evenly And gently but also with strength (boiling water) like a fine lady results on full appreciation of aromatic journey For green gao shan Ive learned it depends a lot on the nature of the leaves and the brewing vessel. When using thin porcelain, 6 grams/100 mL, doing Rinse/45s/35s/45s is a good starting point When using a thicker vessel like kobiwako clay, a similar ratio can be appropriate, but maybe a slightly faster first infus...