Hello, all. Floundering beginner here again!
I'm setting out on another tea-buying adventure this weekend and am
hoping to expand my small collection of tea by adding greens and
oolongs. My exprience with greens thus far over the last few years has
been great and getting better, and I've got a short list of varieties
to try and pick up that people on this list have suggested. (Am very
excited about trying a bit of gyokuro!)
However, my experience with oolongs is limited to very "commercial"
sorts and the sorts I've been served with Chinese food, etc. I know
very little about the production regions or variations in oxidation,
only what I've gleaned from conversations here and information
elsewhere, and I couldn't tell the difference between "twisted" oolong
and some other type of oolong if it they took me out to dinner and
stayed for breakfast...
I plan on continuing to learn on my own, and I'm certainly not asking
for even a beginner's explanation to the nuances of oolongs, but
suggestions would be helpful.
So...if you were recommending three or four very specific varieties of
oolong tea to someone who loves all sorts of teas (including very
strongly-flavoured, oddly-flavoured, and delicately-flavoured teas),
what would they be?
I'm hoping that all of you will help me narrow down my mind-boggling
list of "oolong names I've encountered" to a short list of a few to
try. Information on why you're suggesting them or what to watch for
when trying them would be a huge bonus.
Thanks very much--you've all been very helpful, and I only hope that
I'll be able to contribute a bit more someday upon further learning.
Tess
http://teadonism.wordpress.com