Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company

I’m beginning to really enjoy my daily oolong sessions. They calm me, and oddly enough, they don’t give me much trouble sleeping. I dug this tea out of the sample pile last night and decided to go with it. As a side note, every time I think I’m making headway on reducing the number of samples I have on hand, I find two or three more. They’ll all be gone one of these days.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was then followed by 11 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted wonderful aromas of butter, cream, vanilla, hyacinth, lilac, honeysuckle, gardenia, and grass. After the rinse, the floral aromas intensified and were joined by traces of sweet cinnamon and cucumber. The first infusion produced a more balanced bouquet. In the mouth, I easily detected notes of grass, butter, cucumber, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and fresh flowers. Subsequent infusions allowed the tea’s floral qualities to really shine. I began to pick up a hint of orchid, while impressions of pear, peach, and honeydew emerged. Later infusions were mostly buttery, creamy, and grassy. Minerals emerged fairly late in the session. I was able to detect a note of lime that I hadn’t noticed before, as well as traces of honeydew, cucumber, vanilla, and flowers beneath the dominant impressions of butter, cream, and grass.

This was an extremely nice high mountain oolong. It was complex and flavorful without being particularly heavy or overly flavor-forward. It also displayed wonderful body and texture in the mouth. I would definitely have no problem recommending this tea to anyone looking for a quality Taiwanese oolong.

Received a sample of this with my last Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company order. Being a light baked Alishan tea, it was a little different from the greener Taiwanese oolongs I usually drink. I found this to be right up my alley. It’s got a greener flavor profile and although roasted, the roast is subtle and adds a nice biscuity element that I really enjoyed.

The aroma of this tea resembles a jade oolong. Creamy and fragrant floral with hints of baked bread. Wet leaf aroma is an intriguing mix of florals, roasted nuts, and caramel. The tea brews up to a green liquor with a faint amber hue. Initial steeps have bit a spice from the baking mingled with a juicy sweetness. There’s a savory graham cracker undertone reminiscent of a Ruan Zhi tea I sampled from Verdant. The roast isn’t overbearing nor does it mute the delicate green oolong notes. It just adds a nice tinge of warmth to enhance a good quality Ali Shan. Around the 3rd or 4th steep, the toastiness wears off and it takes on a more green character.

I liked this tea a lot more than I expected to and can see myself ordering some in the future. I think it will appeal to fans of lighter oolongs. It does a great job of preserving the best qualities of Ali Shan while adding a touch of warmth and spice. Another advantage this tea has is once opened, the flavor doesn’t deteriorate as rapidly as green oolongs due to the baking.

I recently received a 5 gram dragon ball of this tea as a free sample with an order from Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company. Since I’m still sick, I’m trying to watch my caffeine intake. It had been way out of hand for a number of months, and not only had burnout fully set in, but I was becoming increasingly prone to infections. I’m trying to stick with a single session, either Western or gongfu, per day, though I do plan to take at least one day off each week. Anyway, getting back on track here, I found this to be a pleasant white tea with which to close out the day.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped the 5 gram dragon ball in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 10 seconds. This initial infusion was followed by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea ball emitted mild aromas of honey, nuts, elderflower, and fruit. After the rinse, the aromas of honey, nuts, elderflower, and fruit intensified and a slightly yeasty, bready aroma began to emerge. The first infusion produced a bouquet primarily comprised of yeast roll, honey, almond, elderflower, and elderberry aromas. In the mouth, the tea liquor displayed a smooth, silky texture and mild notes of butter, elderflower, elderberry, honey, yellow plum, and yeast rolls. Subsequent infusions brought out impressions of sweet cherry, almond, white peach, and rose underscored by barely perceptible traces of hay and menthol. Later infusions maintained the tea’s smoothness in the mouth, while the nose and palate began to increasingly emphasize the almond, butter, and yeast roll impressions. Subtle impressions of honey, elderberry, cherry, and hay lingered in the background. A very fine minerality also showed itself.

This was an interesting tea. I don’t have a ton of experience with Shou Mei, but this struck me as being a very good, very sophisticated one. I got practically no astringency at all. In the end, I would have no problem recommending this tea to anyone looking for a quality white tea.

It’s been several days since I’ve posted a review here on Steepster. I ended up sick again over the weekend and cut back my tea consumption to virtually nothing. I think I’m once again starting to recover, but I’m not at a point where I can handle anything heavy. This was the tea with which I chose to break my silence. I figured something mild was in order for this evening.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. I kept my rinse short (only 4-5 seconds). After the rinse, I steeped approximately 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This initial infusion was followed by 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted a soft, mild fragrance of cream, butter, vanilla, lilac, and hyacinth rounded out by something of an indistinct vegetal character. After the rinse, I detected more pronounced scents of butter and vanilla as new aromas of cucumber and puff pastry started to emerge. The first infusion produced a similar bouquet that offered more fully formed scents of puff pastry and cucumber. In the mouth, I mostly found muted notes of cream, butter, and vanilla chased by ghostly floral and vegetal presences. Subsequent infusions offered a little more variety. The butter, cream, and vanilla notes were strengthened. Simultaneously, the puff pastry and cucumber impressions appeared alongside emerging aromas and flavors of honeydew, butterscotch, kale, and leaf lettuce. To be honest, I did not find this to be a particularly floral oolong. There was a faint floral presence in the mouth, but the little bit of floral presence I found tended to most clearly express itself on the nose. Later infusions were mostly buttery and vegetal with a slight minerality towards the finish.

Hmm, this was such a light tea. I have noticed that many of Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s oolong offerings over the past year or so have primarily leaned towards displaying soft, full, smoothly textured bodies and mildly savory, vegetal and/or grassy characters with just a hint of fruit and/or flowers to provide some depth. This tea certainly did not buck that trend. I found it to be a very clean, pure, refined tea with a nice mouthfeel.

GCTTB Six

What a strange lovely tea this is! It is an oolong that tastes like a honey black. I could have sworn that I was drinking honey black.

The small and medium leaves in my clear glass steeper are perfection. Just loveliness.

Thank you, Ubacat, for adding this to the box.

Moderately thick and quite smooth, this Jin Xuan has clarity, strength, and freshness to its milk flavor, paired with a note of buttered greens. A very slight floral and fruity quality is present in the aftertaste, but the predominant flavor is milk.

Alishan black tea from the Da Bang village that was rolled like a black tea… excuse me, but why haven’t you bought this is a question for you and your wallet to discuss.

I have always found Taiwanese black teas to be superior to Chinese; and here’s more proof of that. Between my Sun Moon Lake, Shan Lin Xi, and now Alishan, black teas… I find myself drinking more fully oxidized tea.

This stuff is my every day drinking tea at work. Went through two ounces in less then two weeks, which is fast because I have a decent selection of teas at work throughout the week.

This has a very mild taste to it with some notes of honey and then wet cinnamon. Small hints of toast if you sit there and close your eyes and let it work through the mouth. Easy to brew, solid taste, and decent rebrew ability on this unique tea.

I have to be 100% honest: I buy oolongs from BBTC, but some puerh has been coming in to their shop… this is a 9 to 10 gram ball and I am very pleased with it. Probably the best valued tea for a daily drinking or all day work session tea. Brewed 92to95 c in 120ml for 15 seconds over and over. Semi orange color with a developing depth from the start. Some after bite in the touch as it pulls from your mouth with that astringency. Some mild texture to the tea which tells me it’ll get thick over time.

Literally, nothing I can say about this would be bad. I expected it to be harsh to drink with 10g for a session but 10 steeps in and I was like “people should buy this” and thus, here is a Liquid Proust recommendation which I rarely do.

If you like those younger raw teas that will grow into something beautiful over time but are already a crowd pleaser, well here you go: https://beautifultaiwantea.com/collections/pu-erh-teas/products/2015-bing-dao-balls

I’m continuing to mow down Taiwanese oolongs today. I’ve had a 10 gram sample of this tea for several months now and wanted to finish it. I found this to be a subtle and refined oolong that came off as a tad reserved.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 11 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves gave off mild aromas of cream, butter, sweetgrass, and fresh flowers. After the rinse, distinct aromas of honeysuckle, lilac, orange blossom, gardenia, and hyacinth appeared. I also caught scents of vanilla, steamed milk, and cucumber. The first infusion produced a nearly identical bouquet with slightly stronger scents of steamed milk and vanilla. I detected restrained notes of cream, butter, steamed milk, vanilla, and sweetgrass balanced by distant floral impressions and a hint of cucumber in the mouth. Subsequent infusions emphasized vanilla, sweetgrass, steamed milk, cream, butter, and cucumber notes. The floral impressions remained faint, though when they were more noticeable, the lilac, gardenia, and orange blossom seemed to be the most prominent. I also began to note hints of minerals, sweet pea, and sugarcane towards the finish. Later infusions emphasized butter, minerals, steamed milk, sweetgrass, cucumber, and sugarcane with hints of orange blossom, sweet pea, vanilla, and gardenia lurking in the background at various points.

This tea had a lot to offer despite its restraint. While the description provided above may give the impression that this was a very busy tea, it really was not. It just happened to offer something a little different with pretty much every infusion. The character of the tea was primarily deep, complex, and savory. It had quite a bit of body and a smooth, buttery texture in the mouth. For a budget oolong, this was surprising. Its emphasis on savory aromas and flavors and its subtlety marked it as being different from virtually all other four seasons oolongs that I have tried. In the end, I would recommend this one, but I cannot help feeling that it would perhaps appeal most to those who are already fairly familiar with Taiwanese oolongs.

The flavors here are light malt and a faint honeyed sweetness that grows stronger in the finish, along with an intriguing note that reminds me of pumpkin flesh. Smooth and enjoyable, though subtle for a black tea.

Thick on the tongue and quite toasty, with a subtle sweetness. The aftertaste is long, and the overall flavor reminds me of houjicha, but smoother and without as much emphasis on the charcoal.

As of this afternoon, I can smell and taste again. I didn’t know how long that would last, so I decided to enjoy it while I could. That meant that it was time to break out a high mountain oolong. I had 4 grams of this tea left and decided to finish it off while I had the chance.

Naturally, I opted to prepare this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped all 4 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 11 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted subtle aromas of butter and orchid. After the rinse, I detected a pleasant mix of vanilla, butter, cream, and orchid scents. There was also a subtle hint of some kind of mild spice, but I could not place it. The closest I can get to describing it would be to compare it to sweet cinnamon. The first infusion produced a balanced bouquet with a slightly more pronounced vanilla presence. In the mouth, there were mild, balanced notes of cream, butter, vanilla, spice, and orchid underscored by a touch of grassiness. Subsequent infusions did not do all that much different. The vanilla, butter, and orchid impressions swelled. The impressions of grass were also slightly amplified. There was another kind of vegetal presence too. It may seem strange, but it reminded me of banana leaf. I got a hint of green plantain on a couple of these infusions too. The later infusions were typically mild and mellow, but with slightly more flavor than expected. There was not a ton of minerality to this tea. Instead, the later infusions emphasized a balance of mineral, cream, butter, and grass to go along with faint orchid and plantain notes.

I know my perspective may be skewed owing to my inability to do much with teas like this for quite awhile, but I greatly enjoyed this tea. It was not particularly busy or complex, but it had a great deal of charm. Though straight-forward, the blend of aromas and flavors on display was unique and instantly appealing. I also appreciated the texture. This tea had great body and was so silky in the mouth. I’m glad I had the opportunity to snag some of this before it disappeared for good.

This one has an odd grassy tone. I can pick up the familiar grassy green tea scent; however, there is a bit of peach and asparagus in there that makes an odd mixture. I pulled out my shibo and brewed her up. The taste is very bean-y. This is an incredible amount of bean. The astonishing beanator. The great gam-beanie. hahah. I could also pick up a bit of lemon grass, but that was about it with this tea. It’s very simple, basic, and not complex at all. It was super easy to drink, brew, and clean up. This is the foundation of a daily drinker. If you like beans, that is.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BREMeCPAuo7/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

Had a sample of this from BTTC. The 10g sample was almost all in one lump, which flaked apart easily with the pick. The dry leaf is very dark, with some golden buds. Warm dry leaf has a generic mature sheng smell, sort of sweet and hay-like.

The leaf was well-separated and after a 5s rinse I got 5 increasingly dark 5s infusions before feeling a need to increase the time. The flavor is smooth and pleasant, slightly sweet but rather nondescript. Good thick mouthfeel, oily, up through about steep #7. There is practically no cold cup scent. I taste no hint or dirt or stone. I kept at it for 18 steeps, with the last one being 2min. The last 6 infusions probably should have been 2, going straight for the long steeps. I was getting a tea sweat around steep 10.

This tea has very clean dry storage with no trace of wetness I can detect, good longevity, and starts out with a strong feel. The flavor is on the boring side.

Old-school factory cake made of varying grades of chop (you won’t find any big fancy leaves or intact budsets) with little stemmy stuff. At some point the storage got damp enough to give it that wet stone smell that never steeps out. Not terribly strong tea, but smooth. Some sweetness from the first steep on. Whatever bitterness was present is aged out. Makes dark red soup for 10+ steeps, gradually trailing off into sweet colored water without ever passing through the harsh “used up” stage.

There’s not a lot of flavor beyond the wet stone and a sort of generic aged tea smoothness.

I have a little buyer’s remorse for having bought the whole cake of this, but not much. I like tea with a stronger feel, and suspect that the collector who sold this to BTTC decided that this one was only going downhill from where it is now.

Recommended, with the proviso that you can get past the damp basement smell.

I’ve had this tea for awhile, so I finally decided to start digging in. The leaf is a dark green with nice vivid hue. I can pick up scents of rough greens, kale, seaweed, and a sweet nutty undertone. I warmed my gaiwan and dumped the large spindly leaves inside. The scent opens into some green bean with an odd strawberry (?). The strawberry tone is a bit sour, and it is muddled by some kale and crème. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste is very grassy along with some slight sweetness. The body is sharp and thick with a light lily floral tone. The aftertaste is sweet, but it does come off as strange. This tea is a peculiar degree of grassy and sweet. I’m not sure what to say about it, but it is unique.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQNr8p-gFcK/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

I had just a small sample of this from a little swap I did a few months back. I found it to be a good and tasty dragonwell with a little bit more green-ness than others I’ve tried. This was represented both in the flavor and the appearance of the leaves. They were a pretty dark forest-green, and the flavor was nutty with a bit of a spinachy vegetal note. The texture was pleasantly thick with a bit of a buttery feeling to it.

Another oolong sample I have been holding on to for several months, this was not actually the tea I intended to review tonight. I was originally hoping to review Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Shan Lin Xi Premium, but I grabbed this one out of the cabinet instead. I didn’t mind in the end though, because this turned out to be a nice, basic, approachable high mountain oolong.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. Subsequent infusions were conducted at 8 seconds, 11 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves gave off subtle aromas of cream, butter, grass, and flowers. The rinse caused the cream and butter aromas to intensify somewhat. The first infusion saw hints of fresh baguette, cucumber, and vanilla emerge. In the mouth, the tea liquor was smooth and thick, though it only offered thin notes of grass, butter, cream, and vanilla. I caught a ghostly nectar-like impression on the finish. Subsequent infusions maintained the tea’s overtly bready, grassy, creamy, buttery, vanilla heavy character, while faint impressions of cantaloupe, honeydew, nectar, lily, gardenia, honeysuckle, and honey cut through the murk at various points. Later infusions saw the tea regress to a somewhat simplified version of its original character, mostly offering cream, butter, and grass notes. I could, however, still detect a hint of vanilla as well as a touch of minerals.

This presented itself as a very mellow and balanced oolong. Though I generally prefer sweeter, more floral oolongs, I could still get into this tea on certain levels. I could tell that it was a quality tea, but I found it to be the sort of tea I could appreciate more than outright love. In the end, I would recommend this one to folks looking for something easygoing and accessible.

I am finally catching up on some things both at home and at work, so my tea reviewing schedule is back on track. After three straight days of spring-like warmth, the temperature has plummeted, allowing me the opportunity to indulge in a recently acquired craving for smooth, sweet oolongs. I started on a sample pouch of this one immediately after getting home from work, and I have to say that I find it to be perhaps the most consistent Jin Xuan I have tried, at least to this point.

I prepared this one gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. Yes, I decided to play around with my brewing methods again. No, it will never end.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaves gave off mild buttery, creamy aromas. The rinse introduced a subtle scent of vanilla frosting. The first infusion produced bolder aromas of cream, butter, vanilla frosting, and daylily shoots. In the mouth, I picked up delicate notes of cream, butter, vanilla frosting, sweetgrass, and daylily shoots. Subsequent infusions introduced floral and fruity qualities. I began detecting mango, papaya, orange, cantaloupe, honeydew, and well, actual daylily as opposed to just daylily shoots. Later infusions were mildly creamy and buttery with the dominant notes of cream and butter underscored by progressively fainter daylily, citrus, vanilla frosting, and melon impressions.

This was really pretty great for a Jin Xuan. Many teas of this type will bludgeon the drinker with over-the-top and/or artificial creaminess, but this one didn’t. It was nicely balanced and I greatly appreciated that. It also displayed wonderful texture and body in the mouth. I could have cut my session short by at least a couple infusions, but I just did not want to because this tea felt so nice. If you are the type of drinker who has ever lamented the lack of subtlety and sophistication in many contemporary Jin Xuans, I would strongly urge you to try this one.

Here we have another sample pile discovery. I remember buying 10 grams of this tea about the time it went out of stock. Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company no longer lists it, but I have recently seen a listing for a Li Shan oolong on their website. I’m guessing it is either the same tea under a different name or a similar tea that was introduced to replace this one. Whatever the case, this was a mild, creamy Li Shan with a pronounced grassy, vegetal character.

I ended up preparing this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. I followed this infusion up with 11 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. So, I went with a more or less mainland Chinese brewing approach again. It may not be optimal for this style of tea, but I wanted to see how long this one would go.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted mild aromas of cream, butter, sweetgrass, vanilla, and flowers. After the rinse, the floral aromas became a little clearer. I got hints of gardenia, honeysuckle, lilac, and hyacinth. The first infusion produced a similar bouquet. In the mouth, the liquor was very light, offering fleeting impressions of sweetgrass, cream, butter, vanilla, and an extremely distant, vague mix of flowers. Subsequent infusions were similarly mild. Sometimes the floral notes seemed a little more pronounced, other times they didn’t. I thought I caught faint impressions of custard, pear, and peach at times, but I could have been reaching. For the most part, this just remained a creamy, buttery, grassy tea throughout. Later infusions introduced a hint of minerals, but that was about it.

Hmm, I found this one hard to score numerically. There is so much about it that I just don’t know. For one thing, I have no clue which harvest this one came from because the sample pouch failed to provide this information. I bought this sample sometime back around June or July and it has been stored pretty carefully since, so unless this was old to begin with, I kind of doubt it has faded that much. That, however, is the thing with high mountain oolongs and greener oolongs in general-one can never really predict how long they will last and how well they will respond to any length of time in storage. I’ve had at least one 1-2 year old oolong that was spectacular, whereas I have had one or two others that weren’t worth writing about after less than 6 months. I also know that extremely light, timid, vegetal Li Shan is a thing, and since the two other reviewers commented on how light and vegetal this tea was, perhaps this one happened to be one of those. All I know is that I tend to look for more floral, fruity, nectar-like qualities in high mountain oolongs, so needless to say, this one did not quite do it for me.

I received a generous ~7.5g sample of this from Liquid Proust( :) ). It looks pretty compressed in the bag, and when I break it up I notice I’m going to be drinking from the beenghole! Or tuo hole? Yeah, I think it’s a tuo hole. The rinse is a dark amber and the gaiwan lid smells like damp earth. A bit mulchy, too. I think it’s going to take a while for the compression to open up.

First flash steep looks like a red tea already. The taste is sweet damp earth and the smell reminds me of leaf decomposition, but not in a bad way. Reminds me a bit of a shou puer without any of the funky qualities I dislike in shou. Continuing the flash steepings, the tea isn’t changing much if at all. Maybe it’s a bit thicker. It’s pretty pleasant and I can tell it’s going to last for plenty of steeps. Definitely not a complex tea, but it’s warming and feels good to drink. There is absolutely no astringency or bitterness left in these leaves. It’s medium bodied but satisfying.

Looking at the store page on Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s website, I see that this tuo is still available for $24.50/200g. This is not an amazing tea but that’s a nice price if you like this flavor profile enough to buy a whole cake.

Edit: I’m coming back to this review to note that I actually get some pretty significant feels from this tea. It’s very relaxing. I can feel the tea in my chest and face.

Another of the Spring 2016 teas I have needed to finish for quite awhile, this oolong is the competition grade version of Farmer Chang’s spring baozhong. I liked the regular baozhong quite a bit, but that should not come as a shock considering the last version of it I had was the winter 2015 harvest and I generally tend to favor winter harvested baozhongs. This one I found to be appealing, although I have not had a competition grade baozhong recently enough to compare it to any other competition grade tea. I also have no clue how it compares to the regular spring 2016 baozhong either since I did not get the opportunity to try it.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. I followed this infusion up with 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves presented mild aromas of sweetgrass, peas, butter, and fresh flowers. After the rinse, I noted the emergence of vanilla, fresh baguette, and steamed rice aromas. The first infusion presented a somewhat more intense floral fragrance. In the mouth, I detected mild, smooth notes of sweetgrass, peas, baguette, butter, cream, and steamed rice balanced by slightly indistinct floral notes most reminiscent of a combination of lilac, gardenia, lily, and honeysuckle. Subsequent infusions were incredibly balanced in terms of fragrance and taste. A subtle vanilla note emerged on the palate, while sweet pea emerged on the nose and in the mouth. I also caught a slight custard aroma and flavor around this point as well. I will point out that the floral tones mellowed and faded rather quickly, as butter, cream, pea, and sweetgrass aromas and flavors steadily became more dominant in later infusions. A mineral presence also crept in at this point. By the final infusions, the tea was mostly a wash of sweetgrass, peas, and minerals with slight impressions of cream and butter.

As far as baozhongs go, this one was very mild and mellow. I found it to be more mellow than the last release of the regular baozhong I had. It was also more vegetal, and disappointingly enough, it faded faster than the other as well. Part of me wants to say that it may have faded a bit in storage, and while that is certainly possible, I remain a bit skeptical as I finished the winter 2015 Farmer Chang’s Green Oolong last month and it was still as vibrant as could be. This may have just been a milder, more vegetal tea. I didn’t find it to be bad or anything-I really liked its smooth, milky texture and the sweet pea presence that I find to be a signature element of Farmer Chang’s baozhongs-it is just that I have a sneaking suspicion that there are better, richer, more complex, and more distinctive competition grade baozhongs out there.