Who can resist an ounce of tea for a dollar?
The dry leaves are lovely, fairly-tightly curled and smell absolutely wonderful; like a fresh, floral Taiwan oolong. The first steeping yields a greenish-honey colored liquor, which has a lightly floral and even more mildly herbaceous smell. The taste is much more…polite than the smell of the dry leaves leads me to think it will be. When sipped quite hot, the predominant flavor is that vegetal, herbaceous quality that you get from the odor. After it has cooled for a few minutes, the more timid floral-ness comes forward slightly, and sometimes there is what seems like a slight hint of almost a honey flavor on the back of the tongue, which is quite nice. Unlike many other oolongs I’ve had, which seem sometimes to be the most floral when they have cooled a bit, this tea is definitely at its best when quite warm.
The wet leaves seem to mostly be large, single leaves, but mostly whole and with that pretty tell-tale purplish oxidization on the edges. There are some lovely little tips, and some broken pieces of larger leaves, but they are mostly large, whole leaves.
This is a very pleasant tea, and an incredible bargain at $11.00 for 5oz. (~141 grams)
Edit: I brewed this tea gongfu-style in a small porcelain teapot.
