Some new (to me) oolongs
 

I recently got a slew of new teas in the mail, and had some comments
and questions about them. For some background, my ordinary drink of
choice is tieguanyin and its cousins in Taiwan. Typically I load up on
these while actually in Taiwan or China, where I usually find myself
once a year. However this year does not look good for travel, and I'm
running a little low, and I felt like I might be missing something, so
I branched out and got some non-tieguanyin oolongs from Silk Road and
Seven Cups.

The lapsang souchong from Seven Cups is great, smoky and delicate, but
then I knew it would be. It's also a great tea for offering to people
who are habitual coffee drinkers and think that drinking tea without
milk in it is weird (like my wife). I would appreciate any other
suggestions for high-grade LS available on the internet.

Silk Road's Fenghuang Dancong has a very distinct taste that I
recognize from Hong Kong restaurants and from off-the-shelf bottled
oolong, both in Taiwan and China. I don't think it's what Ito En uses,
but I'm not sure because I haven't had oolong out of a bottle (except
mixed with Johnnie Walker) in a while. It's got a very oily mouthfeel
and nice roundness, but none of the fragrance or complexity of flavor
that I get from the tieguanyin. I'm inclined to dismiss it completely,
given my across-the-board preference for Fujian over Guangdong.

The Seven Cups Da Hong Pao is very interesting, but I have only had it
three times and so don't want to make any pronouncements. I had a
really hard time adjusting the steeping time etc so that the orange
color would 'pop' but finally hit it by using more leaves and a shorter
(45 second) steeping time. Any guidance on technique would really be
appreciated.

I also ordered Hairy Crab from Silk Road. I suppose I was intrigued by
SR's website's mention of an unusual varietal, and by a long, pleasant
conversation with Ned (the SR guy). Unfortunately - and again, I've
only had it twice, so maybe I just need to apply myself - I just can't
seem to get anything out of this tea. It looks like oolong but tastes
kind of flat and wet. Does anyone have any tips on this? Any Hairy
Crab fans out there?

Thanks, and hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

>Silk Road's Fenghuang Dancong has a very distinct taste that I
>recognize from Hong Kong restaurants and from off-the-shelf bottled
>oolong, both in Taiwan and China. I don't think it's what Ito En uses,
>but I'm not sure because I haven't had oolong out of a bottle (except
>mixed with Johnnie Walker) in a while. It's got a very oily mouthfeel
>and nice roundness, but none of the fragrance or complexity of flavor
>that I get from the tieguanyin. I'm inclined to dismiss it completely,
>given my across-the-board preference for Fujian over Guangdong.

The best Dancong isn't exported...hell, it usually isn't even taken out
of Chaozhou. There are many different variants of it ranging from a
sorta fruity flavor with a vanilla-smooth finish to your rmore
grassy-green edged astrigent flavor; also everything between. It's a
very interesting tea that isn't worth your total dismissal, and if your
only references are of some restaurant in HK, I think you've hardly
scratched the surface.

But, I prefer teas from Fujian and other provinces, actually.
Guangdong has nearly totally ruined it's tea producing capabilities in
it's uber-industrialization in the past 10 years. The only places you
can get tea now are in sorta the outskirts. The stuff nearby the
mechanized center ain't even worth calling tea.

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

>How about higher in the mountains? It's always a shame to hear about
>self-destructive industrialization and development, no matter where.'

In Guangdong, the mountainous areas are inhabited mostly by the Kejia
(hakka) peoples, and they don't have much of a history with tea. They
used to grow tea more widely, but in the past 10 or 15 years, they have
grown more edibles and things that can be sold for higher prices at
market. Most mountains in Guangdong aren't really so high, so the best
they could produce is some decent grade green tea and some kind of
gaoshan wulong that is nearly too bitter to drink. I have drank some
of the teas produced in these areas like around Shaoguan, Qingyuan,
etc, and while they weren't so bad, they would never go for much at the
market. What they COULD market, though, is their water. They have
some of the last remaining natural springs that haven't been polluted
that makes the tea so sweet when you brew with it, you wouldn't believe
it.

You can search my old thread about the spring water there. Space
Cowboy kept telling me I was going to get some kind of bacteria and die
or something....

heh.

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

Hey, I wish I knew this a while ago. When I lived in Hong Kong, most of
my (non-geordie) friends were hakka. But they were fine with Heineken,
not much use regarding tea.

Picked up some -- lovely scented -- fenghuang dancong in shanghai last
summer, market behind north station, fairly cheap at 30 kuai 100g ...
but had difficulty getting a good flavour from it -

I had to gong fu (or gong fu on a small bed of cold water to make it
slightly less than boiling .. ) ... and I mean being stingy with leaves
relative to normal gf practice ..

can you recommend another brewing practice to try, Mydnight, or others?

cheers,

The Immoral Mr Teas
teaismud at yahoodotcom

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

>Hey, I wish I knew this a while ago. When I lived in Hong Kong, most of
>my (non-geordie) friends were hakka. But they were fine with Heineken,
>not much use regarding tea.

Ya, they ain't much on tea. They do drink some pretty nice green tea
that they grow up in the mountains. But, it is their culture to drink
it very strong and bitter. Just like their wine. hah.

>Picked up some -- lovely scented -- fenghuang dancong in shanghai last
>summer, market behind north station, fairly cheap at 30 kuai 100g ...
>but had difficulty getting a good flavour from it -


>I had to gong fu (or gong fu on a small bed of cold water to make it
>slightly less than boiling .. ) ... and I mean being stingy with leaves
>relative to normal gf practice ..


>can you recommend another brewing practice to try, Mydnight, or others?

I usually take my Wulongs from Taiwan in a zisha pot and use wen xiang
bei (sniffer glasses) in the Taiwanese style if my friends are around.
With the Dancong, I would often brew it using a mid-sized gaiwan with
boiling water and whatever flavor would come out pretty well. You have
to put a little more leaf than usual because of the size and shape of
the leaves. Water temp should be boiling; it's a wulong.

The Chaozhou people also prefer their tea very strong, btw.

It's not so easy to get good Dancong outside of Chaozhou.

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

MarshalN wrote:
> I actually use somewhere between 1/4 to 1/3 leaves and fairly quick
> infusions in my yixing for dancong. Works pretty well. Too much
> leaves and you might get tea that's too bitter. It's a fine balance
> and it really depends on the amount of fire the tea has.

Thanks for the brewing tip. Very useful. I tried that this morning in
a small porcelain teapot that I use for 'unfurled' oolongs and green
tea, and it came out much more nuanced than before.

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

Glad it worked out. It is very easy to overbrew/underbrew this tea.
It's a bit fussy that way. Keep drinking! :)

Some new (to me) oolongs
 

Mydnight wrote:

> I usually take my Wulongs from Taiwan in a zisha pot and use wen xiang
> bei (sniffer glasses) in the Taiwanese style if my friends are around.
> With the Dancong, I would often brew it using a mid-sized gaiwan with
> boiling water and whatever flavor would come out pretty well. You have
> to put a little more leaf than usual because of the size and shape of
> the leaves. Water temp should be boiling; it's a wulong.

I'll try boiling again, for a very quick infusion .. . see how that
goes. I wasn't using 'too much' leaf, in a small glass pot, but really
there was a lot of taste coming out of the leaf anyway. Hmm,
nonscientific mumbo-jumbo, just the way I like it.

TIMTetc

teaismud at yahoodotcom