78

Brewed in my porcelain Jingdezhen gaiwan. Los Angeles municipal water is just off the boil throughout.

The tea sample seems somewhat brittle so I don’t make any real attempt to chip away at the nearly 10 gram chunk for fear of it disintegrating.

A brief rest follows a 15 second wash.

1st – 10th steeps (15 seconds): Coffee brown to chocolate colored liquid; earthy and vaguely spicy aroma; hints of cocoa and oats on the palate; medium-dry finish – smooth, clean, with hints of loam.

Here followed a nearly 24 hour rest…

11th – 12th steeps (20 seconds): Identical to the first 10…

…and after another 24 hour rest…

13th – 18th steeps (20 seconds, then increasing by 10 seconds/steep): slightly lighter in color and flavor than the previous cups, but only just.

…and finally on day 4 of this session:

19th – 21st steeps (2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes): milder, slightly nutty, possibly a little sweeter.

A very unassuming tea, but remarkably consistent – like the other shous I’ve sampled thus far, it enhances and is enhanced by a meal (in tonight’s case, “fish fragrant” eggplant and chrysanthemum greens with ginger and oyster sauce served with good quality Japanese brown rice).

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 4 OZ / 125 ML

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Bio

Converted to Oolong and beyond starting around ’98 or so when I was hanging out at the Tao of Tea in Portland.

Expanded my experience with green teas when I moved in with room-mates who were Chinese scholars, workers at the Japanese Gardens (including the tea room), etc.

Always looking to improve my education, but will concede my pedestrian tastes (e.g. breakfast teas brewed strong enough to stand your spoon in).

Trying to focus more on the qualitative over the quantitative in my reviews, so you won’t see me give too many scores/ratings at the moment…

Location

North Hollywood

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