Huang Jin Gui oolong from Teaspring

For the first time since I got this latest batch in from TeaSpring, I had a challenge dialing in a tea today: Huang Jin Gui oolong.

I started off with 4.8 grams of leaf in a preheated yixing, boiling water, 1 minute, like most other teas I've had this week.

The scent was moderately thick and floral. The color was sort of a tinted amber with a hint of green. And there was more tea dust in the cup than other teas I've had lately.

The flavor was subtle and crept up on me over a few sips. A cool, refreshing mouth feel was immediately evident. There was a perfume-like quality to it, but not to outrageous excess.

It reminded me of a jade oolong. If I'd had to guess blind, I'd have tagged it as straight from Taiwan (and would've been mistaken, as it's from An Xi, Fujian Province).

After several infusions, I finally tried just reducing the steep time by about half in a cool pot, producing a more agreeable brew. Next time, I may try a more gong fu influenced approach with ultra-short steeps.

There's honestly nothing wrong with this tea. It's just not my personal style.

However, I think it may prove quite worthy with some tinkering, and is certainly a candidate for blending to lend some of its enjoyable qualities to some other tea.

Ya Bao from Teaspring

This morning's Ya Bao turned out to be an unusually pleasant surprise.

I've had a good bit of pu-erh, and this was unlike any I've tried to date. In fact, it reminded me more of a really flavorful white tea.

I used 5 grams in a preheated yixing pot with boiling water for 1 minute. After several infusions I ramped it up to a minute and a half with no negative impact.

The color was light, and the taste was sweet & pleasant.

The dry leaf looked nothing like other loose tea leaves I've seen, but my phone cam took a really inadequate picture. The vendor has some pretty good pics, which may be found via the link above.

Feng Huang Dan Cong from Teaspring

This morning I tore into the Feng Huang Dan Cong that came in my big Teaspring order.

Contrasting it with yesterday's Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha is easy enough at a glance.

From Fight Club

In this picture, the BLCHC is on the left, and the FHDC is on the right.

The BLCHC is twisted up into tight little nuggets, whereas the FHDC is on the verge of being impractical to handle with a spoon.

I weighed out 3.1 grams and steeped about half a minute in a yixing slightly less preheated than normal in water just below boiling.

It came out amber, unlike the deep brown of most of yesterday's BLCHC infusions. I found the taste bright and complex, with a cool sensation that may have been astringency. In comparison with this, the Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha eats like a meal.

Subsequent infusions over the next several hours continued to produce satisfying cups of tea. I changed up the temp and steep time semi-randomly and was just couldn't make a bad cup.

At the end of the work day, I took the following pic of one of the wet leaves.

From Fight Club

Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha from Teaspring

Last night I came home to my long-awaited shipment from Teaspring!

So this morning I was able to start my work day with some Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha, a welcome change of pace from the green tea I've been drinking to the near exclusion of other teas for the last several months.

I figured Teaspring's brewing suggestions were bogus based on the fact that they say to start out with 212°F water and increase temperature with subsequent infusions (For the science-disinterested, that's not exactly something easily done in the average kitchen.)

So I measured out a rounded, but not heaping, spoon of leaf weighing in at 4.8 grams into my preheated yixing pot. I didn't rinse the tea, as this isn't that kind, but made the first infusion really short to err on the side of caution. (Every now and again you can destroy a perfectly good cup of tea on the first infusion if you try hard enough.)

The color, flavor, and aroma were much to my liking, but I decided longer infusions were in order.

Most of my infusions were probably in the 30-second range, but I guesstimated instead of using a timer.

I eventually lost count of the number of infusions, but kept it coming until early afternoon. The tea prevailed!

This is a great little black to shove in your tea hole.

Late 80's Meng Hai 8972 Brick Uncooked (from Hou De)

According to Hou De, this is a "blend of early 80s and late 80's leaves" produced "1989~early '90s".



I preheated my trusty yixing pot and rinsed 3.6 g of brick. The rinse was as clean a rinse as I've ever seen.

I didn't pull out the clock for this session, but thumbnailed my infusion timing.

The first steep was pretty highly aromatic, with a scent that gave me a better idea of what shu-producers must be shooting for. Only this didn't have the funk and gunk I normally associate with even good shu.



The second infusion was mellower, less aromatic, and seemed very well-balanced. The third has continued this trend.

I'm sipping this tea for breakfast, and I think that may be an ideal application for it. Historically, I've found many breakfast teas to be way too aromatic and heavy, but this is closer to the sweet spot.

I have enough left for a few more sessions, fortunately, and look forward to them. I may take these to the office for good day-starters.