oolong, am I doing something wrong?
Four Seasons is my favorite oolong so I’ve tried just about all them I can find, and have yet to find one that even remotely resembles the taste of hay. They are usually creamy, buttery, floral and spicy in my experience. Your parameters seem fine, though. Perhaps it’s your water quality? Are you using tap or filtered?
Yup, every four seasons spring tea I’ve had was floral and sweet. There’s mixed reviews online about Teavana’s four seasons tea though. Teavana’s straight teas can be good if they’re fresh but sometimes you might get a old, stale batch. Their monkey picked oolong never tasted right to me either :-/
Personally, I prefer Rishi’s four seasons oolong. Delicious, not to mention cheaper and higher quality than Teavana’s.
Im using Tap, but I have no problems with the taste of our tap water. Think I should use filtered?
Definitely get yourself a good water filter. I use the Zero Water filter and it works great. We have good tap water where I live but tea will bring out the worst in your tap water. The Teavana store will be using filtered water for sure.
My favorite so far is Green Terrace’s Four Seasons, which is unbelievable good. One of my all-time favorite teas. Mountain Tea Co has an incredible one as well. I haven’t tried Teavana as the stories have always put me off of them.
Allen, I would definitely recommend a water filter. We have decent water here as well, but (IMO) a filter makes a world of a difference with tea. I actually use two for my tea water :)
i do fisheye-sized boiling bubbles, not a heavy rolling boil, 3g per 10oz water, 2 mins if western style. then i really get the flavour of the oolong.
Gongfu style im still experimenting with 5/10/15/20 sec steeps and 15/30/45 secs and different ratios of tea. Im new to gongfu but enjoying it loads!
I cold steeped these leaves last night in the refrigerator. Took it out just now and had a cup. MUCH better! The hay taste was almost gone and it actually tasted good.
Nice. I find that cold steeping almost always improves the flavor of less than delicious tea. For rolled tea like four seasons spring, I like to brew a couple of hot infusions first to open the tea leaves and then steep the leaves in the fridge. Gives your cold brew a head start so to speak.
yeah…I used the same leaves from two prior hot steeps. Got more water in it now in the fridge.
Thanks LuckyMe for the oolong suggestion. I’m new to oolong as well and am looking for good ones to try.
I guess it’s ok for me to sound like a snob and say, purified water is a must. (You all understand) It is a night and day difference. I always drink bottled water because for some reason tap water makes me feel sick to my stomach. I think I’m a bit sensitive to all the impurities in it. And the flavor comes through better when brewing, no matter what tea you use.
Thanks TheTeaBewb for starting this discussion. It’s going to help me with my oolong adventures!
Maybe sometimes it’s just the tea?
I don’t know if this goes for all of Teavana’s batches of Four Seasons oolong, but for some reason I’ve always had bad luck with theirs, and I’ve tried a few times. I’ve tried steeping it all sorts of ways, and I find most oolongs to be generally forgiving of a fairly wide temperature and time range. I’ve had Four Seasons oolong from other companies, even cheap supermarket tea and it tasted better. I don’t know what Hay tastes like, but Teavana’s version always smelt like vaguely chemically, sodden paper towels to me.
In the store I find that they overbrew alot of teas and put in quite alot of sugar in their samples. Their golden monkey black tea is nice, but it’s so overpriced I usually only ask for it for my birthday ounce.
Just off boiling water for all my oolongs except dancong. Steep times vary for each individual tea even of the same type. I gong fu everything with pretty heavy leaf to water ratio but everyone will be different there, it’s all about what works best for you. 1g to 15 ml on average for rolled and I’ll start at 15 to 20 seconds for the first infusion, no rinse. Another thing I’ve found helps for me is after the first steep is to let the tea sit for a few minutes with the lid to help the them open. 1 to 10 for yancha sometimes even higher. I like it strong. Water in and out till it starts to weaken, usually a few steeps. Another option that I’ve had good results with is “grandpa style” as was coined by marshaln. It’s really pretty similar to western style. Speaking of marshaln if you are looking to learn about tea that is one of the best places to start. He even has a page devoted to grandpa style.
Some blogs out there are amazing learning tools and how I gained most of my tea knowledge before I started doing it myself. Some good places to start are marshaln, the half dipper, tea closet, death by tea, teadb and may others. If I left anyone out that reads this I’m sorry. I either forgot cause it’s 3 am or haven’t discovered you efforts yet. Other good resources are various teachat threads and the sheng of the day thread on badger and blade.
Once again these are just some of the parameters I use. They are just a guide along with what everyone else has suggested. Try some and if you like the results great, if not then don’t be afraid to “break the rules” since there really isn’t any, maybe you discover the next big thing. I can see the headlines now…. Theteabewb discovers new steeping technique. Teamasters around the world in awe… And back to sleep!
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