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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 infusion - 35 to 40s.

Also, for thicker vessels, pour boiling water directly on clay instead of leaf, and possibly consider using slightly cooler water for first infusion that should be around 40 seconds. Second infusion should be 30.

For high quality leaves, keep rinse short using warm water, not off boiling. An easy way is to pour the water used to warm the vessel into a cup. Add leaf, and then pour back the cooler water from the cup.

From what i understand, the best gaoshan is supposed to taste fruity, floral, minerally, and a bit herbal (esp mint). Mintiness is considered a top quality attribute.


For roasted ball rolled oolong

Similar to green gaoshan but keep water boiling and pour directly on leaves. Hit leaves more and hotter if tea is older. Also second infusion should be same as first infusion since flavor dump is not as big compared to gaoshan





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