Tekkoon Tea
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Rubbery. Just really rubbery.
I really hope that this is not how it’s supposed to taste, because it’s one of China’s top 10 teas.
The aroma was like a new packet of rubber bands wrapped in blutack.
The flavour was pretty much the same. Unpleasant.
I have a feeling the aroma and flavour are a taint, due to storage – perhaps a rubber/plastic container?
I hope someone else has tried this tea and can clarify that it isn’t supposed to taste or smell like this. Disappointed!
Could I have burnt the tea? Does it taste like this if the water is too hot?
Preparation
This was my girlfriend and I’s go-to tea for a long time, because of its full-bodied flavour and inviting aroma. I still drink this tea often.
The colour of the brewed liquid is a light jade with a yellow tinge.
The aroma is a very inviting, deeply earthy fragrance. It brings to mind the image of fresh green leaves slowly fermenting in a pile under some shade on a warm spring morning (interestingly enough the way tea is processed isn’t much different). I may go so far as to imagine little monkeys with hand-held fans fanning the fragrance toward you.
The flavour is complimented well by the aroma: it starts off nice and crisp, and then mellows out into a deep, buttery/malty flavour that is circumfixed by a pleasantly fermented-taste. The fermentedly-buttery flavour (for lack of a better descriptor) I find is a distinguishable characteristic of the MaLiuQi that is not present in any other teas I’ve tried. Some may liken it to a dirty taste, or perhaps to leaves that have been sweating, but if you can somehow imagine this to be a good thing, you will come near the correct impression of this tea.
Some of my friends have tried it and said they didn’t enjoy it – I think it is the kind of flavour that you work your way up to enjoying, as you would with wine or coffee.
In conclusion, I enjoy this tea quite a lot. It takes you on a pleasantly short ride through a few different flavours that I find juxtapose well and are balanced nicely with the aromatics. One of my preferred teas over the NZD$45 mark.
PS: I recommend drinking it out of a Gaiwan, as it’s easier to appreciated the aroma this way, and the flavour is a lot easier to experience.
Preparation
Well. We’re all moved in to the new place, so I have a bit of time on my hands to drink tea and things.
This morning I finished off a pot of my (dubiously authentic) Menghai pu’er that I started last night, and it dawned on me that I haven’t brewed this tea gongfu style yet. To the tea cupboard! (I have a cupboard filled with teas. It makes me happy. I like to stand back and admire it… anyway)
So this tuo is packed much looser than my other bing pu’er. It’s much easier to break off bits. In fact, it’s almost too easy; I had to put some back.
I used a bit less than a tablespoon or so in my little pu’er pot – it’s about 150mL, if I remember rightly.
Rinsing. It’s about 4˚C this morning so the steam coming off my gongfu set is lovely. Wonderful smells too.
Reddy-brown liquor.
First steep: ~25 sec at ~95˚C. Perfect strength.
Aroma: Earthy, woody, smoky.
Taste: Malty, bittersweet, buttery smooth. Very little bitterness; no astringency. Much better than my other shu.
Second steep: ~30 sec at ~90˚C. Perfect again.
Aroma: Woody, earthy, smoky.
Taste: Malty, smooth, chocolatey. Even less bitterness, quite sweet. Lingers for a while.
Third steep: ~30 sec at ~95˚C. A little weaker now.
Smell: As above.
Taste: As above, though a little more subtle.
One more…
Fourth steep: ~40 sec at ~95˚C. Perfect again.
Aroma: As above. My nose is being annoying this morning (dust allergies, I think) so I’m having trouble smelling. Grr.
Taste: Despite looking stronger than the previous brew, the flavour has diminished somewhat. Still woody and earthy though.
Well. I’m pretty impressed with this.
Overall a very drinkable tea.
Preparation
My cheapest (at NZ$38/250g) wulong.
I don’t know anything about it, other than the fact that it’s from Taiwan. The only English on the container is “High Mountain Tea”, and the only Chinese I could work out translates to the same thing.
The first time I tried this tea, I was disappointed.
It tasted like spinach.
After a bit of experimenting though, I discovered that as far as wulong goes, it’s very green. Thus, the reason it tasted like spinach that first time is because I had cooked it.
This tea wants the water temperature to be in the 82-85˚C range. Any higher and it becomes quite unpleasant.
Brewed correctly, though, it’s actually quite nice. Nothing spectacular, but readily drinkable.
Probably. 90 is very high for a green tea. I usually use water between 75 an low 80 for this type of tea. The rubbery taste is probably a mix of bitter notes from too hot water and the nutty notes often found in these teas.
Next time I buy some I’ll ask to try it there (Tekkoon Tea shop) to see if it still smells/tastes the same, and if the tea master has anything to say about it. I did leave the boiled water sitting for longer in other attempts, but it still had the same rubbery flavour (It could have still been over 80 though). Inspite of this aroma was much the same, even of the dry tea leaves. How would you describe the aroma of this tea (pre/post brewing)?
That’s complex question, lie wine it can depend on where it’s from, when it was harvested, and what cultivar it has. Many ties I have seen it noted as nutty, sweet, orchid like( which I usual determine as some bitter green floral unless they specify a type of orchid), and fruity, some describe it as toasty at times as well. I haven’t had my long jing in a while. I don’t remember the dry leaf smelling as bright or as sweet as some of the greens I have had. If you can find more information about the harvest date , it might help you with this tea as well I find that earlier harvest teas tend to be more sensitive to temperature. When brewing for green teas I usually don’t let the kettle come to a oil I watch for the first small bubbles rising off the base of the kettle and then I take it off the burner. For sensitive greens it is sometimes better to brew them uncovered. For my more finicky teas I leave the lid off my gaiwan for brewing. You might want to try cold brewing this tea if you have any left as it might confirm if the rubbery taste is a result of the tea itself. Good luck.
Hey thank you for that extensive comment, it was very enlightening! I dawdled down to a newly opened commercial tea store called T2 to check out their range of teas and tea implements and found that they have a loose leaf LongJing. The dry leaf aroma was completely different to the one I had bought previously from Tekkoon. I recognized the nutty floral notes you mentioned, but am yet to try it. I have a feeling the rubbery taste/aroma was due to poor storage :( there was also a dragon well tea purchased from there with similar rubbery characteristics. Oh well, learning curves aplenty!
Your welcome! It’s true, there’s definitely a lot to learn when it comes to tea, but that’s part of the fun exploring different tastes and discovering your own preferences when it comes to flavours, brewing styles etc. Have fun.