Trying this one in the new bat gaiwan tonight (thanks to Amanda ‘Soggy Enderman’ Wilson for the lead on where to get one!). I still like this, but sadly, I think my tastes or my tastebuds have changed because I don’t like it as much as I used to. I’m getting far more mineral notes tonight along with some tobacco and some bitterness in the later steeps. Maybe not actually bitter but very metallic. It was never a quenching tea, always more on the dry side but I’m not even getting any malt tonight. Oh, well. I have a whole lot of it and this is from an admittedly old batch, though I store in relatively tightly sealed, opaque tins. I haven’t opened the new package from this year yet. Maybe that will be different.
I know it’s possible that medications can change what you taste. I’m on a new one and possibly the problem it’s supposed to cure could also be impacting – minor GERD with a minor hiatal hernia. So I’ve been cutting back on my tea intake since I’m supposed to watch my caffeine levels (in addition to not eating anything I normally eat…). Oh, and lose weight. I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that when a major part of my dessert substitutes are liquid caffeine. :)
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you have to drink shou. it helps with reflux and other stomach problems and losing weight. Come to the dark side of shou ;)
But I just can’t find any I want to drink. You sent me all those samples and I tried most of them but none of them said “Drink me!” But I am probably not preparing correctly either. I shall have to try again. :)
I’ll keep fighting this battle… but oolong is the best kind of tea period. However, that is not to say that shou is not good :)
A nice ripe can really comfort oneself but a beautiful oolong can take you to another dimension.
The notes on this say apple and floral… did you find that at all? I figure this kind of oolong would be straight up roast.
I have never really gotten apple or floral from this tea. I’d say it’s closer to black than oolong, truthfully. They say it is a heavily oxidized oolong then call it a dark tea. I don’t get the roasted notes that I get from dark oolongs and I don’t get florals like I do from the greener oolongs.
Nicole, its acquired taste. you cannot love it from the first sight. I will definitely send you some to try not once.
This oolong was just roast to me but i really liked it. Thank you for sharing it with me, now i want moar
I might add that with shou that for me: I was able to ease myself into the taste by washing them and then steeping by color…
Basically, when it gets to a dark amber I release the liquid. This typically happens within 7s to 10s. However, there are some STRONG puerhs and I honestly just flash brew them at 2s. I converted four people last Saturday while we were meeting up for tea. They all said puerh tasted like old hay and wet dark earth. So I brewed some ripe as 7s and mixed the first four steeps together to weaken the strength a bit and they all have requested to come to my introduction to puerh event :)
Yeah, old hay, mold, mud and fish. That’s what most puerhs taste like to me. I’ll have to try flash steeping. I just lose track so easily that I’m better off with teas I can not pay attention to. :) I’ll have to convert to more mindful sipping.
you have to drink shou. it helps with reflux and other stomach problems and losing weight. Come to the dark side of shou ;)
But I just can’t find any I want to drink. You sent me all those samples and I tried most of them but none of them said “Drink me!” But I am probably not preparing correctly either. I shall have to try again. :)
I’ll keep fighting this battle… but oolong is the best kind of tea period. However, that is not to say that shou is not good :)
A nice ripe can really comfort oneself but a beautiful oolong can take you to another dimension.
The notes on this say apple and floral… did you find that at all? I figure this kind of oolong would be straight up roast.
I have never really gotten apple or floral from this tea. I’d say it’s closer to black than oolong, truthfully. They say it is a heavily oxidized oolong then call it a dark tea. I don’t get the roasted notes that I get from dark oolongs and I don’t get florals like I do from the greener oolongs.
Nicole, its acquired taste. you cannot love it from the first sight. I will definitely send you some to try not once.
This oolong was just roast to me but i really liked it. Thank you for sharing it with me, now i want moar
I might add that with shou that for me: I was able to ease myself into the taste by washing them and then steeping by color…
Basically, when it gets to a dark amber I release the liquid. This typically happens within 7s to 10s. However, there are some STRONG puerhs and I honestly just flash brew them at 2s. I converted four people last Saturday while we were meeting up for tea. They all said puerh tasted like old hay and wet dark earth. So I brewed some ripe as 7s and mixed the first four steeps together to weaken the strength a bit and they all have requested to come to my introduction to puerh event :)
Yeah, old hay, mold, mud and fish. That’s what most puerhs taste like to me. I’ll have to try flash steeping. I just lose track so easily that I’m better off with teas I can not pay attention to. :) I’ll have to convert to more mindful sipping.