Really Weird Taiwanese

Edited to add:

After trying this western instead of gongfu, I can say this is most likely an aged Taiwanese red tea. Really nice chocolate and cherry-scented tobacco aroma with that wintergreen character present in Ruby 18s. Much more interesting gongfu!

What a ride! Is it an aged raw tea? Is it an old oxidized white? Is it a sun-dried red? Is it a GABA oolong or simply an oolong? The only thing I can feel confident declaring is that I have no idea how this tea was processed! Is it a forgotten relic, stashed away in some dark corner for years? Is it an experiment gone wrong, or rather oh-so-right? Like the Indonesian Yellow that Liquid Proust sells, this tea defies all preconceived notions of any specific processing. Most of the material is one leaf picking like Baozhong oolong and it’s well oxidized.

Taste- and aromawise, it starts out with humid aged nutty and forest floor notes, then moves to barnyard and mushroom, then to something almost malty, then to something lighter and fruitier like pear, then to pure watermelon-cucumber and yellow cherry with light grape skin tannins.

Several characteristics are apparent throughout all steeps: a welcome sweetness, a refreshing wintergreen-type quality, seamless transitions, an inability to be oversteeped and a complete lack of bitterness no matter what temperature water is used.

So much complexity wrapped up in ridiculous longevity. Did I mention watermelon?!!

Thank you for sharing, beerandbeancurd, you lovely creature.

I have no idea what the hell this is, and I will probably never be able to drink it again. Came as one of a handful of surprises as part of an “LP Hookup” I blindly and happily trusted. Cheers to the weirds, y’all.

Warming leaves are wintergreen and honey, with some forest notes. I accidentally poured 135 degree water on this, then poured it off, so it had a bit of a non-steep/barely a rinse.

Pour at proper temp is light amber; smells of minerals, faint manure; tastes of stonefruits and some bright citrus notes — more classic red/black tea notes than the wintergreen intro led me to expect (though the manure is keeping things interesting).

I steeped by color, and the second one ventured into 15 seconds — probably a touch too long. Some tannins, more crisp and bright citrus, just a touch of that minty note. The nose is fruitier and juicier than the body ends up, but in tandem they manage to work.

Pot smells of a meander through a damp camphor forest… it’s lovely. Slightly shorter steep this time, and the color remains a strong amber; nose has moved to barnyard and fungus; body is light and juicy with minerality, tannin, crisp fruit (peach pit, pear/apple, maybe grape skin?).

Next steep vacillates between refreshing spring water minerality, fruit, barnyard. The wet leaves have moved into wet wood territory. Further steeps don’t uncover much new, but it steeped satisfyingly into 10 or 12 pots. Fun little romp.