Bi Luo Chun

It’s been a while since I’ve even thought of this one and SoccerMom inspired me with one of her recent posts.

It’s always difficult to measure out the leaves for this one. They’re all curly and getting twisted up in each other, so when you think you take a normal size spoonful, you actually find you are lifting a third of the tea out of the tin… So a few false tries and I finally got a couple of spoonfuls of acceptable size.

Grass-y aroma is grass-y. And very very sweet.

I was skimming over my previous posts about it. A bit like a cheatsheet, reminding myself of what I thought of it before. Apparently at one point I was searching for a peach note. And there was the mint-y aftertaste.

Mint-y aftertaste is still there, making the edges of my tongue feel a bit cool. Peaches? Hmmm… Maybe. I think now I know what the peach-y note is, or rather which flavour is supposed to be the peach-y note. I’m not sure I really agree on peaches though. Maybe a little more apricot-y, I think, if I have to pick a fruit.

It’s just not a note that says ‘fruit’ to me. I find it more blossom-y to be honest. Not jasmine, not even close to jasmine, but the same sort of flower-y feel. I don’t know enough about how different flowers used in tea taste like so I can’t really get any closer than that.

It actually reminds me of that Dong Ding oolong from Nothing But Tea I had a few days ago, the one that I thought was way too green in flavour and not at all sufficiently oolong-y. This is just a slightly greener version of that. Weird then that I like this one so much and didn’t really care much for the oolong on account of it being too like this… Chalk that up to me wanting my oolongs to be oolong-y! That’s not a lot to ask, is it?

And would you know! The area of origin for this one is Dong Ting in the Jiang Su Province. Does anybody know where Dong Ding oolong is produced? Names can cheat but I’ve got a strong suspicion here. Am I right?

sips

Hmmm…

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Hmmmmmmmmm…

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Who was it wot mentioned having found peach notes in a plain bi luo chun?

sips

I can’t find it.

And I can’t figure out if I’m disappointed or relieved. I don’t really much like peach in tea, see. I just thought it would be cool if I would be able to find it too.

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No, nothing. Still otherwise yummilicious, though.

This is actually the second steeping of this one. Tonight it’s my trying to ground myself again tea. I need it because I’m presently in a foul mood and have been fuming over an issue all weekend. It doesn’t even help that I just submitted my tax deductables and I’m expecting a refund. It helped a little, but I’m still pretty annoyed.

This is one of my first ever green teas. I think it was this one or gunpowder that was my debut, not counting bagged cheap ones. It has really cute twisty spirally leaves and I have a soft spot for it because of this.

These spirally leaves, however, are tightly twisted and they interlock with each other, so that when you take a spoonful of leaves out of the pot you have to pay attention because chances are there are more leaves on your spoon than you were counting on. It’s so easy to use too much leaf here.

After having been accu aqua acqaui getting to know Sencha lately, I was actually struck by a surprising initial thought in this one. It didn’t remind me that much of Sencha as I drank it, but the initial sip where I wasn’t paying too much attention had the same green vegetable-y flavour to it. It was just for a moment and then it turned back into something else. Being in the mood I was in at the time, I can’t actually tell you what it was that changed, but it just did.

Second steep is very sweet. Not really much else in the way of flavour notes, but this is good enough for me. I’ll enjoy the rest of it this evening.

But yeah, I’m still pretty irritated. My presence might be scarce for a while. I feel the need to hide and hibernate and let the irritation burn out, so I may or may not be around, but I’m still reachable by PM or email. See you around, Steepsterites.

I made a cup of this earlier and then forgot about it, so it’s all lukewarm and dull now.

As usual though, I had to test-taste it before tossing it and for a brief brief moment I thought I had actually managed to spot the peaches that JacquelineM found earlier in a different brand bi luo chun. I was all, “YAY!”

And then I realised that when I rinsed the pot out after the passion fruit from Adagio (unlogged) earlier I hadn’t done it properly and missed the pinch of leaves lodged in the spout. I’m pretty sure that’s where the sudden fruityness came from.

As lovely as this is when it’s warm, it’s rather dull when it’s not. So I think I’ll go make something else. I’ve quite lost the desire for this particular one right now.