2020 Winter Farmer’s Choice Baozhong

Story

Baozhong is brightly fragrant, open leaf oolong. Leaves are long, spindly and deep forest green. Although the floral, green profile is similar to high mountain oolong, Baozhong is more direct and straightforward.

This Baozhong is made by our longtime farmer friend Mr Chen in Pinglin. We have been working with him since 2005. He was born into a family of rice farmers, and he switched to tea when he was 17. He is a delightful, hard working and upbeat man. He has an experimental attitude about tea farming, and does every step of the processing in house, instead of outsourcing as is common practice now.

Farmer Chen processes this tea to give it a heavier body and more fruit notes. It is not made to win competitions; that would require extremely light processing, floral notes and a jade colored broth like the Competition Style Baozhong.

Description

The broth of this crop is well balanced, and spreads over the tongue in a full way. The delightful nature of the farmer, Mr Chen, really shows through in the feeling of the tea. The scent feels bound up in the broth because it just arrived and the tea is jet-lagged, but the bottom of the cup as the tea evaporates gives off a big, juicy scent of pineapple. Just like every season, the tea will open up over the course of a few weeks.

The overall note is more of fruit and sweet cooked zucchini. And again, the sense of balance is really good in this tea’s broth. A classic example of Mr Chen’s Baozhong! It is a sweet, comforting tea.

Facts

Harvest Location : Pinglin, Taiwan
Harvest Date : November, 2020
Cultivar : Qing Xin
Farming Method : Conventional