Lanna Oolong

Taking a day off is fun, until you return to job and… you work overtime every day for 2 hours. That’s my week.

I have arrived home later than I was expecting and I wanted to. But I never left work undone.

Anyway, today I had a mood for oolong. Or actually, just gongfu brewing something. And this tea sounded like a perfect choice. An oolong, so certainly good for gongfu, and a new experience. Thai oolong. I remember I had one before, it was something with “red” in name and I think it was from What-cha. And now I am too lazy to search in my history.

Anyway, Thailand isn’t a place famous for oolongs, afterall. But when I see it in the offer of Siam Tee Shop I have decided to pick 20 grams and trying it out.

Dry leaf have an aroma of lemon zest. Pithy, strong lemon zest. Almost sour, hints of sourdough a bit as well.

I have done a rinse, very quick one. This woke up lemon aroma even more, mixed with touch of vegetals and florals.

As I have been steeping this, without precise timing, with around 90°C water in thermos (so maybe it was cooling down a bit during the session), I got aromas from very lemony, through vegetal, with smooth and floral in the end of the sessions.

The notes of flavours are quite similar to me, while first steeps were quite astringent, quite throat shrinking feel and maybe even a bit drying. Later steeps were fruity-sweet and smooth, with hints of minerality and earthy notes as well.

It is amazing how this tea develops and one must be patient to get through first steeps which are indeed quite “hard” to enjoy. But afterwards getting rewarded with smooth, fruity-floral notes with mineral-earthy undernote, is great. It wont be an oolong that I would crave often, as I have found I prefer more roasted/fruity ones from very first sips, but those 20 grams I would finish within a few months I think.