New Sun for the Leaves

New teacup & 2010 Teamasters Gao Shan Luanze Fall Oolong from Bi Lu Shi

Some of you may have noticed the little competition going on at the end of last year on Mattcha's – Petr Novák offered this lovely teacup as a prize:

And yes, I was lucky enough to win :-)

When the package arrived to my place, there was another nice surprise that Petr sent along with the teacup – this Gaoshan Luanze oolong from Teamasters, picked on 5 September in Bi Lu Shi (Check also Petr's post on it. Edit: And Matt's).

The obvious high quality of this tea can be seen right as the leaves are being examined; this autumnal oolong has incredibly creamy, yet gentle sweet smell with nuances of flowers, which, however, lack the aggressiveness of so many light-oxidized oolongs (because of which I usually don't drink them very often) and is, in this case, much more natural and pleasant.

Being brewed, this tea gives out light and clean yellow infusions, which are just as clean, light and full on tongue with predominant notes of sweet cream, fruit and harmonic, complex smoothness.

The amount of satisfying infusions this tea can produce seems almost infinite (especially for a person who is used to drink mostly Japanese green teas with their four-brews maximum). Moreover, it seems like it doesn't get too bitter even when brewed for a long time – I forgot to pour off the third infusion and still, the resulting liquor was very enjoyable, sweet and only enriched by noble, not at all unpleasant bitterness.

I spent a long time with this tea, infusing it again and again, with every brew a bit different than the previous one, contributing to the very nice Saturday afternoon.

Thanks again for your kindness, Petr.

2009 winter crop Nantou Mingjian Tsui-Yui oolong

As the name of this article suggests, this is tea from Mingjian township, located in Nantou County, one of the most productive tea regions in Taiwan. Although these teas are quite massively produced, they still maintain decent quality and are, on Taiwan, very popular for everyday drinking.

There are generally two types of Tsui-Yui (also called Green jade) tea, one being labeled “light” and the other one “medium”. These two teas actually vary a lot, as the first one is a newer invention, accommodated to, in my opinion, bigger demand of those sweet, floral oolong teas nowadays (great example is Chinese Tie Guan Yin, which is originally supposed to be on quite a high oxidation level, but lightly oxidized versions are much more popular, at least in Europe) and the second one is more traditionally processed, being darker in color and whole character.

This is the second type.

Typically for this kind of tea, leaves are curled into little balls, which are, in this case, even smaller than in most Taiwanese oolongs. They are also a little bit darker, but the difference between light and medium version isn’t that big in color.

Smell of dry leaf is more roasted-like, with tones of chocolate and almond typical for amber oolongs, but also floral, fruity notes of lighter oxidized ones. This tea is labeled as “medium” oxidized, so this is all expectable.

Infusion color is honey-gold, really bold and with smell of flowers. This tea is, as most Taiwanese oolongs, able to produce several great infusions, all of them full and rich in taste. As a result of stronger oxidation, it’s a bit more spicy and “deeper” in taste, smell and whole character. A little bit of decent astringency is also present.

Taste doesn’t change that much in further infusions; instead of that, it maintains the same mild, delightful character and vivid aftertaste with noticeable roasted tones.

I once again am tea-drunk. And once again, it feels better than anything else.

2009 Bao Zhong, spring harvest

It already is spring for some time, the season I like enjoy to its fullest - and I usually drink mostly fresh Chinese teas nowadays – but today, I was just in a right mood for something different.

I purchased this tea in a local teahouse about half a year ago and, as I found out today, there still is a little bit left on my shelf. It’s Wen Shan Bao Zhong from the 2009 spring harvest.

My probably most favorite part about this Bao Zhong is the smell. It’s hard to define – some would say floral, some spicy, some would say anything. I would say it’s simply the smell of Bao Zhong. Personally, I can also smell something slightly similar to dried bananas – it really is a very complex, unique scent.

The infusion is golden yellow, different from green teas and different from jade oolongs – just as I would expect from Bao Zhong. Same goes with the taste – it’s neither green nor oolong, as it’s rather unique on its own. There is a little astringency in it – that kind of astringency you have to like, because it just goes with the whole character of this tea perfectly. It’s also fairly present in this tea’s wonderful, long aftertaste.

As you can probably see, I’ve got inspired by Matt’s wonderful blog and brought some little flowers from my usual walk today - and actually, I was really surprised about the good feeling these two bitsy florets fetched into my room. It’s wonderful just to look on them quietly, while sipping the tea from cup.

Overall, I made five infusions, personally preferring the second and third one most. Just then, the leaves were fully awakened, able to produce wonderful beverage for me to drink. Other infusions were great, too, each in its unique way.

I’m pretty much looking forward to 2010 version of this tea.