I absolutely love this. It could be my favorite oolong, as of today.
It smells like brown sugar, plus there’s a definite floral element. The way it tastes emulates the aroma almost in every detail. Sophisticated vegetal-floral sweetness that just stays in your mouth for a while after each sip. It gets itty-bitty bitter as it cools down (but that is barely detectable) and the smell of it turns even sweeter. An amazing experience.
I swear that some oolongs feel more like desserts than the “dessert teas”.
I can’t wait for another steeping of this, but before I make another cup I will take a nice relaxing bath… Oh, this is going to be a lovely weekend. I hope it is going to be just as good, or better, for all the Steepsterites :)
Okay, since I’m an idiot/bumpkin that has no clue…can you tell me what gongfu prep is? I’ve yet to find a source that simply states the facts.
Geoffrey, your 20-second steeps sound perfect gongfu to me :D
@Jamie – Truth is, I’m still a little lost on the details also. Just Wiki it to get a better idea. I have no clue how to do the actual ceremony.
@Ginkgo – I do my best. Wonderful product, sir.
Okay, finally found a video for it that actually had the ceremony demonstrated/explained. I still kinda don’t get it. And I think I’m okay with that.
I guess a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me on this. But I personally do NOT think there is “tea ceremony” in Chinese tea tradition. I think that’s a big difference between China and Japan in tea culture. Most of the Chinese ceremonies we see nowadays are for performance purposes, which is good, but isn’t essential in people’s tea life. Besides, everyone can have/create his own ceremony :D
That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Well, I’ll take that as a go-ahead to just do whatever I want. heh