China Guangdong 'Ya Shi Xiang' Oolong Tea

This was one of my sipdowns from early in the year. I actually forgot that I had this tea in my cupboard and only got around to trying it shortly before its 36 month best by date expired. Fortunately, the tea was still vibrant in the mouth and seemed to have lost little of anything in extended storage. I greatly enjoy Ya Shi Xiang, so I would have been angry with myself if this tea had ended up being stale.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of roasted almond, orchid, orange blossom, cherry, vanilla, cream, and custard. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of smoke and cannabis. The first infusion introduced aromas of coriander, cooked lettuce, grass, and pomegranate. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, roasted almond, orange blossom, orchid, and butter that were chased by hints of custard, vanilla, baked bread, lychee, pomegranate, coriander, grass, cooked lettuce, pear, cannabis, and smoke. The majority of the subsequent infusions introduced aromas of minerals, earth, orange zest, plum, peach, steamed milk, lychee, spinach, violet, and green wood. Stronger and more immediately notable impressions of custard, vanilla, baked bread, grass, cooked lettuce, pear, and lychee emerged in the mouth alongside impressions of orange zest, honey, oats, peach, plum, caraway, violet, steamed milk, sugarcane, cherry, and green wood. Hints of earth, apple, cattail shoots, and spinach also appeared. As the tea faded, the liquor continued emphasizing notes of minerals, cream, butter, steamed milk, grass, pear, orange zest, sugarcane, green wood, and roasted almond that were chased by a swell of subtler, more delicate notes of custard, vanilla, cooked lettuce, plum, apple, lychee, coriander, orchid, orange blossom, honey, earth, spinach, and cherry.

This Ya Shi Xiang displayed good complexity and balance on the nose and in the mouth and produced a liquor with good body and great texture, but it was not the most vibrant or consistently engaging tea of this type that I have tried. I will say that this was obviously the product of a very high quality picking judging by the appearance of the tea leaves. Maybe I’m being too hard on this tea, but I found it to be a very good, very solid Ya Shi Xiang and nothing more. It did not really surprise me or captivate me in any way, but it was also simultaneously very enjoyable and very far from disappointing.

As the sun has come out, and the air chills, I’ve been catching up on my Dancong. I’ve also become more aware of my tea preference patterns for the season, and I tend to buy and drink black during fall and then heavily in December, and then I transition back into Oolongs during late winter and early spring, sometimes going into the summer with fruitier profiles.

As for this one, I think I’ve been sitting on it for about a year. I could have sworn I wrote a notes. I am kinda glad I didn’t since it’s evolved a little bit with the time I’ve had it.

When I first tried it, the tea was heavily floral, pungent, milky, and fruity, occasionally being a bit sharp for my preference. Leafhopper already beat me to describing the almond and gardenia profile along with the other ones like the minerals, oats, and honey. The tea is definitely on the greener side of Dan Congs, and the florals with slight astringency in the over leafed gong fu session gave me a little bit of a headache, so I gave myself a break…that turned into a year.

Now a year later, the tea mellowed out a bit and not quite as green. Almond milk, mineral, and acidic fruitiness is what I’m gettting this time. Earlier brews were more florals after about 45 seconds with 5 grams and 4.5 oz, and intensely creamy accented by a little bit of a nutty roast. Second brew is milky too, but more floral with a little bit of a pink salty mineral and sneaking fruitiness. Third brew, where I’m at now, is giving me more pithiness in the after taste and heavy minerals on the tongue more than creaminess. I wouldn’t describe it as citrusy, but it has a citrus peel feel-hence pithy. Aroma matches, but is heavy into almond blossom, cream, and gardenia. Not too off from a jasmine.

Brew four is more mellow, but its almond flavor, thinner body, and sneaking minerals. The tea is still floral, but it’s starting to resemble a more subdued green.

I am really glad I got this and would recommend it compared to other YaShis. This one is actually a bit smoother, but I would recommend it more to intermediate drinkers because it requires some attention to avoid astringency and bitterness. It is less astringent than most Dan Congs I’ve had, but shorter steeps help you avoid biterness altogether, but I do recommend using a lot of leaves for quick 5-10 second brews if want to, but less grams if you don’t think you can pay attention that long. I do not recommend grandpa for this one, but it works well western and tends to be smoothened out that way if you don’t go over 2 or 3 minutes.

I enjoy this one, but this one is really more seasonal for me personally. It was the perfect wake up tea after sleeping in to late, and for me getting back into my back to school in person routine.

I don’t have a lot of experience with Yashi Dan Congs, aside from a greener one from Yunnan Sourcing, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. But since it was around $13 for 50 grams, I decided to give it a shot. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 9, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry leaves smell overwhelmingly of roasted almonds, with some florals and stonefruit at the edges. Roasted almond dominates the first steep, with hay, cream, orchid, and peach in the background. (The peachy aftertaste is the best part of the steep.) The next couple steeps add notes of honey, grain, apricot, roast, grass, butter, and florals I can’t identify (gardenia?). Steeps four and five are a bit fruitier, with more apricot, peach, and peach pit flavours along with the almond. The next few steeps emphasize the roast and almond, and the tea becomes a bit drying in the mouth. The session ends with almonds, roast, and minerals.

This is a pleasant Dan Cong, especially for the price. I gave it extra points for the lovely peachy aftertaste in the first few steeps. However, I tend to enjoy greener Dan Congs and this just didn’t bowl me over like some previous What-Cha teas I’ve had. I still recommend it for those who like this type of tea and want an affordable option.