Sooo excited to try my first bai ji guan! ever since I saw that Meileaf video about it I haven’t stopped wanting it so yay!!!!! :D
The dry leaf looks just like in the pic, and smells pretty much like a roasty green tea
in my warm gaiwan it smells .. sorta like iced tea powder, grass, honey,
Oh my god I could just sit here sniffing this wet leaf for hours, orange/peanuts, with some greens, I’m so happy.
First steep: bit of a thin body, uh some gummy taste, super smooth, a nice tingle in the mouth, grass, it’s so fruity, I love this.
the second steep brings out more orange, and a sort of vague nuttiness in the aftertaste
Third steep was a little bland if im honest
the fourth actually tastes like the later part of a session of some kind of green tea, the familiar dryness on the tongue. If you fed me that blind I would’ve thought it was green tea.
It’s very dry, very green tea-ey. I’m pretty sure the typical verdant recommended 98C/208F is too high. I’m trying 95 for the next.. now it just feel too thin, lowered it further, even worse, and I just.. I don’t know what to do anymore. I shoulda just kept smelling the wet leaf after the rinse. The first steep was good. The rest was kinda eh. :(
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Just out of curiosity how much leaf were you using and how long were you steeping? I had misgivings about the temperature myself, but opted to go with it and see what happened. I got eight really good steeps out of it using the method I settled on. The other steeps were okay, but kind of typical for late session steeps.
I had a 5g sample in my new Gaiwan that’s apparently 5-6 oz, which is obviously too much water to leaf so I wasn’t filling it all the way, maybe halfway. And I’m not 100% sure about my steep length but I never did anything atypical. I mean I’d be willing to retry in a much smaller brewing vessel, (especially after reading your review) but I used my whole sample :/
I was just asking because I had a similar issue using a slightly larger vessel and brewing at 208 F. I tried the same temperature in a smaller vessel and got much different results. I still think one could safely reduce the water temperature a bit though. I almost feel like if one insists on using the recommended water temperature, then flash steeps may be the way to go. As a side note, I hope this tea continues to be regularly offered. I want to play around with my brewing methods a bit more and I don’t have much left myself.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that everything I have been reading on Bai Ji Guan suggests that it tolerates a wide ranging of water temperatures and steep times. If that’s true, it may just come down to the amount of leaf used. I’ve also read that it can be kind of a temperamental tea in the sense that the cultivar is very fussy and sensitive, does not produce tremendous or consistent yields, and the traditional production process has to be very precise in order to keep it from being undrinkable. That’s apparently why it’s so rare and so inconsistent from year to year.
Damn. I wish I knew that going in, I have a ~60ml Gaiwan on its way right now that I could’ve waited for. I may have to get another sample in my next verdant order
Just out of curiosity how much leaf were you using and how long were you steeping? I had misgivings about the temperature myself, but opted to go with it and see what happened. I got eight really good steeps out of it using the method I settled on. The other steeps were okay, but kind of typical for late session steeps.
I had a 5g sample in my new Gaiwan that’s apparently 5-6 oz, which is obviously too much water to leaf so I wasn’t filling it all the way, maybe halfway. And I’m not 100% sure about my steep length but I never did anything atypical. I mean I’d be willing to retry in a much smaller brewing vessel, (especially after reading your review) but I used my whole sample :/
I was just asking because I had a similar issue using a slightly larger vessel and brewing at 208 F. I tried the same temperature in a smaller vessel and got much different results. I still think one could safely reduce the water temperature a bit though. I almost feel like if one insists on using the recommended water temperature, then flash steeps may be the way to go. As a side note, I hope this tea continues to be regularly offered. I want to play around with my brewing methods a bit more and I don’t have much left myself.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that everything I have been reading on Bai Ji Guan suggests that it tolerates a wide ranging of water temperatures and steep times. If that’s true, it may just come down to the amount of leaf used. I’ve also read that it can be kind of a temperamental tea in the sense that the cultivar is very fussy and sensitive, does not produce tremendous or consistent yields, and the traditional production process has to be very precise in order to keep it from being undrinkable. That’s apparently why it’s so rare and so inconsistent from year to year.
Damn. I wish I knew that going in, I have a ~60ml Gaiwan on its way right now that I could’ve waited for. I may have to get another sample in my next verdant order