Another tea from the backlog that I am steadily making progress toward completely clearing, I finished a sample pouch of this oolong last week. This was the sort of tea that made me wonder what my specific gripe with so many flavored/scented oolongs has always been because, as scented oolongs go, this was great. It was the sort of tea with which I could not find anything to seriously fault.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted a vibrant, powerful jasmine aroma. After the rinse, the jasmine scent was still dominant, though I caught touches of cream, butter, daylily, and sugarcane as well. I could not find anything all that different on the nose with the first infusion. In the mouth, the liquor offered a light jasmine note backed by hints of cream and butter with a touch of vegetal character. Subsequent infusions brought out stronger impressions of jasmine, cream, and butter. The daylily and sugarcane appeared on the palate and new impressions of daylily shoots, lettuce, orchid, coriander, sweetgrass, spinach, seaweed, parsley, mineral, and vanilla joined the fray. I could also detect hints of honeydew, cantaloupe, and pear lurking around the fringes. The later infusions were smooth and mellow with a delicate jasmine character surprisingly remaining on several of them. Notes of daylily blossoms and shoots, sweetgrass, butter, parsley, coriander, sugarcane, and cream were still there too. Surprisingly, the mineral notes never really took charge, though there was a subtle minerality present throughout the last series of infusions.
One of the best scented oolongs I have tried to this point, this was an exceptional, interesting tea. It provided a very pleasant drinking experience throughout and displayed admirable longevity, depth, and complexity. Definitely consider giving it a shot.
Flavors: Butter, Cantaloupe, Coriander, Cream, Floral, Grass, Honeydew, Jasmine, Lettuce, Mineral, Orchid, Parsley, Pear, Seaweed, Spinach, Sugarcane, Vanilla, Vegetal
