I was rummaging around in my tea box (Yes, I keep my tea in a box. It’s easier to pack it up for when I go home for the weekend.), and I came accross my 4 oz. bag of this. I looked back, and realized that I hadn’t had any of this for something like 5 months, so I decided to retry it.
Today I’m actually not going to brew my Oolong grandpa style, and instead, opted for standard Western-style brewing. I’m using boiling water, with a rather generous ammount of leaves, and steeping for 3 minutes. Recently, I’ve found that Green Oolongs don’t benefit from long infusions, as it starts to get more astringent, and the flavors are more muddled.
After brewing the first infusion, I realized how much more appealing it is to drink this tea when the weather is actually warm. The aroma is very pleasant, and very appropriate for the beautiful weather today. The taste is a lot better than I remember, especially because it isn’t even the least bit astringent. The flavor of the tea is also a bit sweeter than I remember, possibly because I used a quicker infusion. Regardless, I’m upping the rating on this tea.
The second infusion saw the developement of a pleasant aftertaste. A lightly floral flavor lingers on the hard palate, lasting for at least 1 minute. It’s not a long-lasting as Tie Guan Yin, but that’s not really a fair comparision. Also, this infusion was a bit sweeter, but other wise the flavor was unchanged.
More to come later.
How big is the box? :-P
Approximately 12 in by 15 in by 4 in. It holds my entire stock of tea, which amounts to something close to 700 grams right now.