wei-chuan

Sipdown

This is actually a sharedown. I have some Harney ceremonial grade and I really prefer it, but for casual drinking the second highest grade they sell is perfectly good. Superanna drinks copious amounts of matcha and after sharing some of this with my neighbor and drinking a bit of it myself, I gave it to Superanna today.

I will work on a sipdown of my Harney matcha and then during the next sale I will get both their top and second tier matcha fresh.

This one is fine for shaking in cold water for morning shots or for lattes. I am just really trying to go for fresh and vibrant because I feel like it is a lot better for you.

This was a gift from a very sweet couple I know. They gave me lots of matcha and I have been sharing that love because there is no way I can drink all this by myself before date.

My neighbor who is just getting into tea was visiting. I have shared a different matcha with her already and will be giving her some of this one when her tin is empty, but I wanted her to see the difference between really good matcha and culinary. We compared the color and fineness of this one with Harney’s top grade, the extra thick, as they call it.

This one is dusty army green and Harney’s was brilliant verdant green. Harney’s powder also appeared to be a much finer grind.

But she and her husband are drinking matcha for health benefits and they just shake it up in a jar and drink a bit cold each morning. They love it!

That’s the treatment I gave this tea today. One teaspoon shaken in a mason jar with fifteen ounces water and two ice cubes. I then poured three ounces of that, three ounces of unsweetened coconut milk, and a tiny dribble of maple syrup in a small glass and gave it a stir.

Prepared this way, it makes a tasty mid-morning drink for a little extra energy and hopefully some antioxidants.

Solid little supermarket tea. I picked this up vacuum sealed for ~11 bucks at my local asian market. It’s labeled as a high mountain oolong but its way more roasted, more like a dong ding. I’ve only tried this once so far, I think I can still get a lot more out of it in terms of flavor by tuning temperature and time. You get pretty clear smokiness, some minor sweetness in later steeps with lots of woody-autumnal-floral fun. Nothing crazy or unexpected for a cheap oolong like this but I enjoyed it a lot. I’ll revisit this review after a couple more sessions.

We have a wonky family tradition among siblings and nephews of random, unexpected gift boxes of questionable provenance and value. This was an entry in this year’s shipment, along with ultra-spicy hot seaweed, carrot-flavored candy from the Philippines, canned eel, and palm leaves in garlic. (The seaweed and candy ended up being game prizes for my Sunday kids and were a hit.)

As to this tea. It’s cheap. It’s mild. It’s green. It isn’t bitter. It’s drinkable and welcome as a hand-warmer in a concrete block office that’s had the heat turned down for nearly two weeks.

This cheap oolong is one of my favorite daily teas. I steep 2 tsp at 212f for 4 minutes for a strong, nutty arid earth taste. Gongfu style, this tea had me stumped for a.long time. I experimented with different quantities and water temperatures, but always came out with bitter tea. The only pleasent way I have found to brew it is with 3tsp tea in my 60ml gaiwan at 160f, increasing temps at later infusions.

This is my husband’s new iced tea obsession. He dumps 60ml of it in the big ingenuitea with the same amount of Teavivre’s Paris Champs…..of course the leaves end up overflowing from the pot…..
Anyway, he brews it strong and adds a little bit of agave syrup for the best sweet tea I’ve ever had!

Let it steep a bit longer then 3 minutes because I was giving my husband a head massage and forgot about it. Luckily it still has that earthy aftertaste that I’ve come to love about oolongs. (I particularly love it in Ginseng oolong teas). The main flavor is also very earthy. On a side note my little one is one month old today. Time flies too fast

Tea #30 from Considering a new TTB
Before the TTB I had never heard of wei-chuan, i’m always excited to try new to me companies. This tea had a sweet, almost peach, fruit flavor to it. It isn’t nearly as bold as I like my oolongs, but it wasn’t bad at all. This is the kind of tea I could see myself picking up at the Asian market if I’ve run out of tea while I’m on the road.

I like Jasmine tea when I am feeling poorly, no chamomile please. This was a good bargain, 100 teabags for around $3.50 – makes a nice cup of soothing tea

My first tasting from the Traveling Teabox organized by Artp. The dry leaf is tightly rolled and when brewed it produces a golden liquor with a nice vegetal aroma. The taste is bright and easy on the tongue with a hint of citrus. I’m enjoying this cup. This is a decent everyday oolong to keep on hand.

I really like this tea and I have only been a grocery store tea sipper for about two years. I was hooked after a transatlantic cruise and experience High Tea on day with no land stops. These were the normal Bigalow teas. Last May we took a Viking Cruise down the Yangtze River and had an opportunity to sample real Chinese tea on shore excursions. I brought up various packet brands from the three hotels. The Oolong was really good as well as the Wu-long. Back home I search for oolong in my grocery store with no luck. A restaurant owner gave me twenty packets of the oolong tea bags she doesn’t sell and they were not very tasty. I found the Hong Kong Market #3 in NW Houston and bought the The Du Oolong brand distributed by the Wei-Chuan company. I could not find wu-long tea and the manager told me both teas were the same. Searches on the internet have proven this fact. The best part was that 100 tea bags only cost about $3.50.

Really nice oolong. I had put in 2 tsp into 16 oz and it’s a little dry. I will try 1 tsp next time.

The taste is a bit woodsy as others have said. I can’t detect any floral notes, but it is a very smooth taste (until the dryness… oh man, I need to rebrew this with 1 scoop).

And you really cannot beat the price. The tea is surprisingly not a crappy quality considering I got this at the Asian market for $7 for the container.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea to enjoy.

Not a bad Oolong … woodsy and earthy … hints of smoke. Pleasantly smooth, sweet … more fruity than floral. The fruit tones taste almost “roasted” to me, like a roasted peach. Enjoyable.

I received this one in a swap – thanks so much (I forgot who it was – maybe Pureleaf)

Dry Leaf Aroma is that of a sweet and sour wood. Once infused it smells like a Roasted and minimally-charcoaled Oolong.

The flavor is a little sweet, a little sour, a bit floral, a bit charcoal, and fairly roasty/toasty. It also has a strong nutty end sip on to the aftertaste.

This one is alright :)

This is actually a revision.
I feel I have to write a note on this tea. It’s the first loose leaf purchase I made and it turned out to be a great stab in the dark. I must admit that cost helped drive my decision and for under $10 I wasn’t very apprehensive about it. As it turns out it is a staple around our house. Daily is there an afternoon pot of either this, or another similar Asian grocery tea, once all are in from work/school.
Dry leaf is sweet and nutty; which I will explain why I’m sure it’s nutty in a minute. Leaves aren’t necessarily quick to unfurl, mostly larger leaves with some pieces. Wet leaves are sweet smelling yet I can’t place what it reminds me of. Color is exactly the red/brown as of the picture on the can.
At first sip there is a nuttiness to the flavor (still not telling why yet). A smooth drink with no astringency. I can drink this one from my Stanley thermos a couple hours after infusing and it is still tasty.
I will often steep this 5-6 times only bringing the steep time up a tad for the last 3 steeps. I will now admit the ignorance I maintained about multiple steepings when I first started. I would lay my leaves on paper towels and re-use them 2,3,maybe 4 days in a row. I didn’t know any better and didn’t suffer any displeasure either. So if times are hard, know that you can REALLY stretch your tea dollar when needed.
So now let me finish the story (if you haven’t opted out due to sheer boredom due to my rambling). My wife is coming along on the no sugar thing with some teas, this one she still uses a spoonful. I had just poured us each a large mug when she pointed out I had to go to my job. I poured the remainder of the pot in my thermos along with what I THOUGHT was my cup and dashed (ahhh you see where it’s going).Once on the road I poured a small cup for myself and when I threw back a swig of the tea,rather than my face contorting in horror as would happen if accidently taking a drink of sweetened coffee,a look of stupified (which comes very naturally) wonder appeared instead.
Somehow I had just drank peanut butter toast…a childhood favorite. The one spoon of sugar from ny wifes cup mixed through 6cups of this oolong was a creamy peanutty surprise.Dare I say I may have to use this formula again.
For those of you who hung on for the ending bravo to you, not that your lives are any further blessed or there was any enlightenment to be gained.

Though I try this tea with a hint of sugar from time to time I still don’t seem to get the same effect that I did on this occasion. I think I still prefer this one without sweetening. Just wanted to revisit this drink since it is so commonly drank at our house.

tunes-Bobby Hebb/Sunny;Leon Russell/Tight Rope;The Stranglers/Golden Brown;The Who/Eminence Front/Reign On Me;Looking Glass/Brandy;Bobbie Gentry/Ode To Billie Joe

This is my very first tea from Wei-Chun thanks to Pureleaf!

This is pretty tasty! I did a ‘double shot’ with a slightly shorter infusion time and it worked well.

Slightly sweet, slightly woodsy, fairly airy, dry, and comforting. Warming aftertaste.

The dry leaves from this tea seem smaller and have plenty of visible stems both connected and loose. There is definitely a sweeter aroma prior to their infusion, however this is lost somewhere along the way. This is, of course, is dissapointing, but all is not lost since the tea is still pleasant.

I find this tea very similar to the Ti Kuan Yin from Shan Wai Shan and both are packaged very similarly; however this one is distributed out of California and Shan Wai Shan is out of Fuzhou, China. Nonetheless, they both are very nice teas for their own price range: <$10 for 300g (found on sale at local International Supermarket)

Regardless of how much was paid (which I do pay MUCH more for other higher quality teas), this tea is judged by what I taste and from knowing that I have reached for this one many times so far this year.

Sigh it’s like saying farewell to a fond friend. Finishing up this one. It’s been such a clutch tea and the Asian market no longer carries it. Much like the matcha that I loved. A good quality Ti Kuan Yin nicely priced.

Well now I feel that I am officially have graduated to another level of tea neediness as I am reviewing my centennial steep. This is one my favorites in my cupboard. I decided brew it differently than I normally do. Usually I just use my strainer but this morning I heated up the water and put the leaves into a sauce pan. I’m at my fiancé’s place so I don’t have my pot. I noticed with this brew the wonderful vegetal aroma. The liquor looked like honey and the flavor is very honey like. A very good star to the morning.

4 steepings today and still tasty….me love you Oolong time!

Oh Iron Goddess of Mercy we thank thee for thy pale liquor. I found this at the Asian grocery for about six dollars for 10 ounces. I can honestly say that I think this tea is just as high a quality as some that you would pay 2-3 times more for. Good for three steeps no problem and not lose flavor. I’ve mixed it with Pu-Erh and a cherry rooibos and have had fantastic results. Mixed with the cherry flavor you get a taste similar to beer.

I brought this roasty toasty tea to keep me sane on the hour and a half long bus ride to our field trip today. So far, it is working.