No 9 Emerald Alpine Oolong

Finished off this lovely low oxidation low roast oolong. It is quite light and fresh tasting, with a hint of vegetal character and sweet florals. It was not buttery or creamy to me, although it was not thin-bodied either. Matched the sunny day well.

This is the first Dachi Tea i’ve ever tried and I must say, it was pretty damn good. The flavor was mellow in a calming way, but rich enough to keep the taste buds wanting more. It reminded me of a good milk oolong, but it wasn’t as pungent.

One thing I really liked about this tea is that it was one of the most calming oolongs i’ve ever had. Because of it’s mellowness, it was soothing and relaxing. This tea lasted for over a dozen steeps as well, which is always a plus for an oolong.

When I was done with my session, I sorted out the wet leaf pile. I was surprised to see how large of a leaf/stem you get from this oolong. I even found an entire tea tree stem with all of its leafs intact in my vessel! It was very clear that this tea wasn’t processed in any way and looked like it came straight from nature – something of which i’ve never seen in an oolong.

Here’s a photo I took of my session!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BC_aaEEDclw/

A little hesitant about trying this last night because my Dachi sampler from last year disjointed me. Since I’ve been drinking puer and yancha, green oolong have an upper hand on pleasing my taste buds because it is a missed flavor that I love; it’s just that I drink them outside of winter.

Upon brewing this I have a bit more to look forward to because the leaf isn’t as bad looking as last years samples. The taste came through quite clean, providing a way to relax while brewing the next cup. A little floral hint, with a mild texture to it.
I’ll look into trying some of Dachi’s 2016 teas to see if they find a special ones, but in the world of green oolong there is competition just like puer and I face the hard question on which to get… Beautiful Taiwan Tea is a must, What Cha is a must,Tealux’s exclusive is a must, J Tea is a must, Yunnan Sourcing is a must, how much tea is tooooo much???

Oh technology how I love you! Until an update gets rolled out that makes you useless. I was one of the lucky ones who the new Instagram update does not really work for, each time I try to upload a photo it crashes, which is better than how it was pre-reinstall where I could not even open it. My normal morning ritual of checking notifications and posting my first tea of the day was ruined and I have been in a foul mood ever since, which in turn is a little amusing. Why is it amusing? Well, it puts things into perspective, how reliance on a set schedule or pattern is great, but to keep in mind that things happen and to not let a hiccup in a pattern ruin your entire day. Thanks for the reminder…now roll out a patch so I can use IG correctly!

Continuing on with the glory that is Oolong Week with Dachi Tea’s No 9 Emerald Alpine Oolong, whose name just sounds evocative of mountain frolicking and pine trees, but that might just be me. This lightly roasted Oolong is from Alishan, one of my favorite mountains in Taiwan for tea, I find that a lot of times a tea I become enamored with hails from that region. Amusingly enough the cultivar tab on the website talks about how the leaves were harvested later in the season, but does not list the actual cultivar, so fun mystery there. The aroma of the balled up leaves is very sweet, and hilariously remind me of cake batter! That cake batter sweet creaminess turns pretty quickly into floral notes of magnolia, hyacinth, orchid, and honeysuckle. It is quite the bouquet, but manages to not be heady, just very sweet and floral.

Into the gaiwan the leaves go, and I am glad I brewed them there because I might have missed how stem-y this tea was, and that would be sad.The aroma of the wet leaves is sweet and yeasty, creamy, and again it reminds me of cake batter…with a nice bouquet of flowers. The liquid is vegetal and buttery, with notes of crushed sugar cane and a finishing burst of magnolias and lilacs, adding a nectar quality to the sweetness.

The first steeping is mellow, it starts with a creamy and gentle mouthfeel, which gets smoother it seems the more I sip it. The taste starts with a gentle buttery note and pretty quickly moves to sweetness, like sugarcane and honey butter. Then it blooms into flowery notes, primarily lilac, but also a note of magnolia and lily at the finish. For the aftertaste there is a lingering flower nectar sweetness.

Onto the second steeping! The aroma is intensely floral, wow, so much floral! Strong lilac and magnolia notes, and even a touch of orchid and gardenia. I feel like I can play floral bingo with this tea. The mouthfeel is smooth and thick, buttery, definitely a mouth-coater! The taste starts out slightly buttery and yeasty, again I am thinking of cake batter, though a not so sweet batter, so maybe more like pancake batter. I am a connoisseur of batters. This moves to flowery mouth-splosion, strong notes of gardenia, magnolia, lilac, hyacinth, and honeysuckle go off like little floral fireworks on tongue, this might be the most diverse with types of flowers Oolong I have had. The aftertaste is honeysuckle nectar, fresh out of the flower!

Third steeping time, and the aroma is still intensely floral, so much! Mostly just lilac and magnolia, with a sweet cake-like finish. Buttery and smooth in the mouth like the previous steeps, that shows no sign of stopping, though the start of this steep has a crushed vegetation greenness that immediately goes into floral explosion. Strong notes of magnolia and lilac as the main note, honeysuckle at the end of the flowery burst. The finish is buttery and sweet, and it lingers, I sat a while with this tea, lost track of exactly how many steeps I had!

Blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/10/dachi-tea-no-9-emerald-alpine-oolong.html