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Oolong Tea by Red Blossom Tea Company
We purchased this four decades old Tung Ting in 2009 from a tea merchant who acquired this tea in the 1980s. When he made the original purchase, the tea had already been aging for nearly a decade. One long, low temperature roast was given to the tea and it was then stored until we came across it forty years later.
In appearance, the dry leaves bear little resemblance to the Formosa oolongs of today. The clusters are loose, reflective of an older crafting method where the leaves were placed into a canvas bag and manually rolled. The aroma of the dry leaves speak to the years spent in storage.
We get classic aged notes of dried plum and currants, a combination of aromas so distinct that we opted not to have this tea roasted when we acquired it. The flavor also reflects this aging. The tea brews a liquor that is dark amber in color and sweet in flavor, sans astringency or bitterness. Each sip carries the aromatic profile of the tea to a finish that coats the palate.
This has a strong cocoa flavor to it, it also makes the very front edge of the tongue, back of the lips area water a lot. A bit of tobacco and I don’t know what… a taste that I can’t quite place.
As with the 1973 Baozhong I bought from Red Blossom, I like this much better than most oolongs. I think from now I’ll try to stick to aged ones as I don’t find much flavor in newer oolongs. Both this and the 1973 are very good.
