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Dinosara

259 Followers / 213 Following

2011 Spring "Shui Xian" AA+ Wuyi Mount Chinese Oolong Tea from China Cha Dao

Dinosara drank 2011 Spring "Shui Xian" AA+ Wuyi Mount Chinese Oolong Tea by China Cha Dao

I feel like I’m running around like a madwoman trying to get ready for my next trip… a month in Argentina, starting this Sunday! So find myself having to stop a moment and remind myself to brew a cup of tea! Next up on the dark oolong road, this one.

Obviously I’m comparing these teas strongly to each other, and have thus far tried the 2011 “Golden Key” and the 2011 “Qi Lan”. The brewed aroma of this tea is more similar to the Qi Lan than the Golden Key, in that it is roasty but not overwhelmingly so. I can detect a few honey-floral notes in the background of this tea.

The flavor of this tea is much brighter than the previous two, surprisingly so. It’s got a slight mouth-tingling brightness that I usually associate with darjeelings. There are some honeyish notes here, but I’m not getting any real sweetness from this cup, if that makes any sense… like the honey flavor without the sweet. The toastiness is there but very definitely in the background, and I’m having trouble sussing out other flavors over the sheer brightness of the cup. This one’s not my favorite of the ones I’ve tried so far, but still definitely a drinkable tea.

2011-08-24 10:50:29 -0400

190 °F / 87 °C

4 min 0 sec

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JacquelineM 2011-08-24 15:43:38 -0400

I hope you have a wonderful trip! So many of my relatives from Italy lived in Argentina before coming to America. There is a whole little Italian expat community from what I hear. I would love to go there to see what it is like.

Jenn 2011-08-24 16:52:27 -0400

Argentina is gorgeous! The people are so warm, the architecture/ culture is very European/ Italian especially in Buenos Aires, and the food is amazing albeit challenging for a non-meat eater :) You’ll have so much fun and a month is ample time to enjoy all it has to offer. Enjoy!

Dinosara 2011-08-24 22:35:06 -0400

I’m really excited, but I’ll also be spending most of my time doing research in museum collections, so I unfortunately will only see a very small part of what Argentina has to offer, despite all the time there! But it should be fun anyway.

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I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

I’m a grad student and in my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

I have an Adagio Teas UtiliTEA kettle and a Tea Forté Kati cup for brewing. I also have a Chinese Ru Kiln tea set for gongfu brewing.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: These teas are mind-blowingly good to me.
89-80: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
79-70: Tasty teas that I enjoy, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
69-65: Teas that I would probably drink again, but wouldn’t seek out. They don’t quite do it for me in one aspect or another; often just not quite my style
64-60: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
59-50: Bleh. I usually choose not to finish the cup because life’s too short to drink tea I dislike.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.