Five Year Aged Rou Gui Oolong

Without my realizing it was happening, my taste in tea and my desire for it has changed.

In the beginning, there was a glittering path with lots of tea all of which I was ready and willing to try out. You could say that I binged on tea much like a child in a candy shop.

I soon realized that some tea’s I was binging on tasted better than others. The best tasting tea’s rose to the top and became the tea’s I craved!

As my appreciation for tea developed, I found that the tea that I loved the most were often harder to acquire. Tea from small farms, seasonal or wild picked soon became part of my new love affair.

This past month in particular, I’ve had some of the best tea’s of my life. Oolong from Verdant and Mr. Han’s Black, a Red Blossom 2010 Wuyi Oolong and Taiwaniese Wild Mountain Black Tea from Butiki have all been outstanding.

The experiences drinking the tea’s stopped me from writing as much as usual. These moments go by quickly, and I need to pay attention to the voice of the tea’s I’ve been drinking. It is very important to be still with good tea.

I kept the steep time rather short with this Oolong. 5 seconds on the first steep after a rinse, then 10-15 seconds.

I’ll discuss the flavor in a somewhat static way…

Fruit leather, stone fruit…plum, peach… Autumn brandied fruit compote. Slight smoky roast with cinnamon stick finish. Cooling on the tongue. Lingering flavor with the memory of Oriental Beauty sweetness. Creamy smoothness.

The first three steeps were best. Later pours were weaker but worth brewing.
When I say “the later pours were weaker but worth brewing” here’s what I mean: The taste of the tea is so good, that even when weaker, there is a longing for more and more…even if it’s a shadow of the first glorious cup.

Fine tea produces that longing for more. A desire for more than flavor. A desire for the entire experience that reaches a quiet place inside.

I put this on the ol’ blog too… www.teaandincense.com

Standard disclaimers apply: dark oolongs are not my jam, and wuyi even less than dan congs. They just don’t make my heart sing, but I can still enjoy my gong fu session with them. I am also not in a super analytical mood today, so maybe not the best time to do a real tasting note, but I wanted to log it anyway.

This is from the reserve club, January. The warmed dry leaves smell a little charred and minerally, with definite plum/prune notes in the background. My rinse ended up being longer than usual (maybe 5 seconds), so I drank it and I’m glad I did. Someone posted recently on the discussions about only enjoying the first steeps of teas, and it made me think of how much usually enjoy the rinses of my teas. I feel like I’m throwing out so much flavor if I throw them away. Anyway, the rinse wasn’t super toasty, although there were definitely some of those notes in there, and not minerally at all. More fruity, and a woody.

Later steeps brought out the charred wood flavor more, along with the rocky minerals. A few steeps in I had a nice, lightly sweet one that I enjoyed. Someday I want to go to Minneapolis and have a gong fu session with David on some of these teas, just to really experience them as they should. Although I know the steps well by now, I am still convinced there is some error in my gong fu.

I sort of feel like I’ve become the official secretary for the Reserve Club: taking & uploading photos of tea, typing in David’s comments. I’m been placing them in the Verdant (Special) folder. I didn’t create that folder, but it seems like the right place to put them.

This tea has large & full, irregularly twisted leaves in colors of mahogany, brown, & Black. It looks wild & appealing.
The dry aroma was a little tart & reminded me of pickled plums (Umeboshi). I heated my Gaiwan, put the dry tea in there to warm up, smelled it again, & it was of tart plums & carob. After the rinse, it smelled of grape peels, & a toasty earthy wine.

The early steepings of this were tart, like a plum wine with a little smoke added. A nice fruity taste lingers after you swallow it!
In successive steepings the flavors continued to develop: Rich, warming, sweet, a little toasty.

The later steepings included a rock taste & a hint of chocolate.

First of all, these past two weeks have been incredibly busy, so I haven’t been posting about the teas that I’ve been drinking. Today I decided that I was going to try this tea. I put a nice ammount in a cast iron teapot, and let it steep for 30 seconds using near-boiling water. Even though I have a bit of a head cold right now, the the roasted aroma of the tea was easy to detect arround the pot.

Anyway, when I first took a sip, was was amazed at the smootht texture of the tea. I’ve found that the first cup of aged Oolongs can be a bit…stale, but this was perfect from the get-go. The initial flavor of the tea is that of a deep, dark roasty flavor, something that I adore, and the middle flavor has a interesting spicy tingling. It’s a bit early to be judging it, since the roasty flavor is dominating the palate right now, but I bet it’s going to be very pleasant later. Finally, the aftertaste lingers forever. I love Wuyis, and this aftertaste is the perfect balance between the roasted flavor and the smooth mineral texture that characterizes these teas, and it’s really a cut above just about everything else I’ve ever had. The only thing that compares was the Big Red Robe that David sold a while back. I went through the pot really quickly, and I’m really anxious to see what the next steeping tastes like.

The second steepign was prepared the same as the first, a little longer than I would have liekd, but I got distra—Oh look, snow! anyway, the falvor has mellowed a bit, yet it retains that smoothness and deep roasty flavor. Teh aftertaste has lightned up, a bit less roasty and a bit more mineral, and the result is pretty much a very pleasant improvement.

Third infusion, 45 seconds, near boiling water. The spice has resolved into something a bit like cinnamon, and I’m actually really liking the taste. The tea starts with a smooth yet balanced roasted flavor, and then the cinnamon starts to dance arround the surfaces of my mouth. The amazing thing is that it’s not overpowering like cinnamon tends to be in food. Finally, the aftertaste linger in my mouth with a gentle mineral taste, starting out very mild but strengthening over time. The third steep is usually the best, but this greatly exceeded my expectations. If this is the type of stuff that the One Word guys drink regularly, I envy them.