Evoolong

Thanks to Daylon for a sample of this oolong. I love the name! My wallet certainly thinks green oolongs are evil. :P I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honeydew melon, apricot, toasted coconut, orchids, cookies, violets, and grass. The first steep has notes of cookie, orchid, violet, nuts, and grass. Ah, here comes the fruit in the second steep! I get heavy apricot, as well as hints of orange, lemon, and melon. The aftertaste is floral, grassy, and spinachy. The third steep is much the same, and the fourth has a nice orange creamsicle quality, plus some herbaceous and coriander notes. The fruit continues in the next couple steeps, though the vegetal notes are getting stronger. The final few steeps have cookie, nutty, floral, and grassy/spinachy notes with hints of minerals.

Daylon seems to have a knack for finding orangemeloncot oolongs, and I’m glad he passed this one along to me! The vegetal flavours are a little more prominent than in the high mountain oolongs from Trident, but I can forgive that slight imbalance because this oolong is so fruity. Highly recommended!

It’s been too long since I’ve had a jade oolong that was actually cheaper than $10 an oz. I got one oz of this, and I was really surprised with how flavorful and long lasting this one was. The slightly higher oxidation was also a surprise, but the overall character of the tea is still immensely floral like an extremely high quality Tieguanyin.

Minerality, Taiwanese viscosity, and some imagined leafy lemony floral fruitiness are the edge this one has over some other Taiwanese Teas. It was actually more flavorful than a Dayulin I have….I know, blasphemy.

Earlier steeps heavily leaned into orchid and some osmanthus, and later steeps reminded me of skittles in it’s sugar cane-citrus (lemon or orange???)-peach-apricot-WTF-melon? sweetness, accented by hinting grass notes and watercress, or water-chestnut texture in the aftertaste. Honestly, I can’t pin down the fruit I’m getting. It’s like anything from green, yellow, and orange fruits in accents. Playing Foo Fighters is a perfect fit for this, and it’s a contender for becoming a daily drinker.

Hello
I’ve waited here for you
Ev-ooooooooo-loooooooong

Tonight, I throw myself into
And out of the hong
Daily oolong, I sang
….
And I wonder
When I sip along with you

If every taste could ever be this real forever
If any tea could ever be this good again
The only thing I’ll ever ask of you
You’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when
I sang