"Baked Organic GABA Oolong Tea, Lot 887" from Taiwan tea crafts

From vendor:

ORGANICALLY GROWN	Organically grown
STYLE OF TEA	GABA Oolong Tea
PICKING DATE	April 2019
OXYDATION LEVEL	Medium, Oxygen Deprived
BAKING LEVEL	Baked
TERROIR	Baguashan
ADMINISTRATIVE REGION	Nantou County
PICKING STYLE	Mechanically Picked
CULTIVAR(S) USED	Jin Xuan, TRES No. 12
GARDEN ELEVATION	350 m

Lot 887 was baked in February 2020 from Spring 2019 tea.

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The Dry leaf is not very aromatic, with some roasted seaweed notes. Stems are present as expected for machine picking but not too prominent, suggesting decent quality.

Brewing:

8 g / 125 mL boiling water in porcelain pot.

Rinse / 45 sec / 50 sec / 1:10 / 1:30 / 2 min / 3 min / 6 min

Wet leaf has a strong scent of roasted seaweed that leads to some funky seaweed and soy sauce aromas along with raisins and baked fruit cake. The vendor claims this scent is comparable to third flush Darjeeling. I tested this by brewing an autumn flush Darjeeling a few days later. I concur that they share a similar fragrance except the Darjeeling lacks the seaweed characteristics.

In general, this leaf has good stamina and lasted for 7 solid steeps.

Tasting profile: Dark toffee, roasted coffee, charcoal and creaminess that increases with steeps. Creaminess is likely because of the Jin Xuan varietal. As temperature drops, sour cherry notes emerge. These sour notes are common for GABA teas. In this case, the sourness is more fruit forward. There is a strong and satisfying menthol cooling aftereffect as regularly experienced from roasted Taiwanese oolong

For me, at the 3rd steep, the balance falls apart. Leaf flavors ( fruit, cream) seemed more spent but roast characteristics (smoke, charcoal) were still strong. After the 3rd steep, the leaf wins out over the roast in a good way. The 4th steep was more sweet and green. 5th was mild but fruit forward. 6th and 7th retained nice fruit juiciness and subtle roast characters. Overall, a very enjoyable tea at a great price point.

Comments

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...

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