Love You Oolong Time! This oolong is quickly proving to be a favorite. The first time I ever attempted gongfu brewing it was with this tea, and when I had a friend over, we had a gongfu session together with it as well, and really enjoyed picking out the flavor notes from each infusion together. I have the spring 2017 harvest of this tea.
I brewed five grams of this tea gongfu style in approximately 75ml of 200 F water. I got ten infusions from the tea, before it started losing flavor. The steeping times were as follows: 10 sec, 15 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 40 sec, 50 sec, 1 min, 1 min 30 sec. The tea brews up a very bright, clear, golden yellow color.
The first infusion of the tea had a very strong, astringent vegetal note, tasting of spinach and brocolli, with a slight, floral note lingering beneath the surface. The second infusion brought out the vegetal notes even more strongly, with that astringent, bitter spinach bite really filling the mouth, and the lingering floral notes becoming even more subdued.
By the third infusion, the leaves were really starting to open up, and a pleasant perfumey aroma was making itself present in the tea. The flavor of the tea was starting to sweeten out a bit, and taste more of orchids. The next infusion is when it really started to mellow out, becoming very sweet, creamy, and floral, tasting very much of orchids and lilacs! The next few infusions were probably the best, tasting extremely sweet, and entirely of floral notes… any lingering presense of the vegetal notes had disappeared! There was a slightly buttery mouthfeel, the tea was very smooth, it was filled with lovely floral notes, and it was hard to believe that it had such an astringent start. Subsequent infusions continued to have a very sweet taste of orchids and lilacs, though a slight vegetal aftertaste reappeared on my tongue.
The tea had very good staying power, and I felt very tea-full, satisfied, and had that nice aware-and-relaxed feeling from the session. I think fans of green teas or light floral notes would find this a very satisfying oolong.
Full Review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2018/02/18/tea60/
Flavors: Astringent, Broccoli, Butter, Cream, Floral, Orchid, Perfume, Smooth, Spinach, Sweet, Vegetal
