1980 Aged Tung Ting

This is one of two teas that were my first real foray into quality tea. I stumbled into Red Blossom without any prior knowledge of who they were or the teas they sold. After friendly welcome, I started smelling as many teas as I could.

It should be noted, I’m a coffee roaster, and have been entrenched in American specialty coffee culture for a solid 5 years or so.

As soon as I smelled this ~35 year old oolong, I was intrigued. Muted florals sat underneath a slightly pleasantly musty black tea-like sweetness. I asked the helpful staff to purchase a bit, at which point she insisted on sitting down for a tasting, and offered to taste a 2015 tung ting side-by-side. Yes please!

What a wonderful experience, contrasting a 35-year-aged and fresh-crop from the same area.

I’ve brewed this in many ways, but my favorite way so far has been to do small, short infusions with sufficiently hot water, gradually increasing my time with each steep. With the first infusion, the aromatics are amazing, with a cotton-candy like sugary aroma (may be what others are referring to as plum/candied plum). Subsequent steeps lose the extreme sweet smell, but still carry a lot of complexity.

Been saving this one for a while. Aged Tung Ting, ca. 1980, Formosa Oolong.

A 34 year old Tung Ting (yes, from 1980), from when it was still hand rolled in Taiwan, which makes for looser tea clusters, requiring firing at higher temperatures for preservation, in turn producing a richer, more robust tea.

I’m sold.

Actually, I didn’t have to be. This was a sample sent to me from Red Blossom along with an order from several months ago, and I’ve been waiting for a good time to try it. Patience is not my best virtue, so I got sick of waiting and… here we go!

I didn’t use my large tea pot for this one, as I only got a 1 ounce sample. I used my tea ball and set it into a large ceramic mug. I can tell just by looking at it this is something special. Deep reddish in color, very rich and smooth in aroma.

The taste. Is. Amazing. So rich, so smooth. Just a hint of that roasted goodness brings out the richness even more. Hints of cocoa dance on the tip of my tongue. And did I mention it was smooth? So smooth. I could use the word velvet. Like the first bike of a Red Velvet Cake, the way the taste overwhelms the taste buds, the heavens align, and for just that moment, all is well in the world.

This may be the best tea I have ever tried. If, in the end, it is, I’d be OK with that.

-E

Smokey, especially good with meals. Not a standout, but pleasant. Reminds me of TTC’s Oriental Oolong, except better.

(I’m taking a wild guess that this is the tea that Red Blossom calls “Aged Tung Ting, ca. 1980.”)
Smells sweet and mildly earthy. Fairly tannic initially, but smooths out. In my opinion, it’s pretty balanced but not very interesting, compared to other aged teas, including the ca. 1970’s Tung Ting from Red Blossom. That one really does “feel old.” The 1980 also lacks the strong butterscotch notes that you can taste in roasted Tung Tings. There’s something subtly intriguing in the aftertaste, but that’s about it.