Heritage Rougui, 2010

I am having a good tea day. I’m at home relaxing so why skimp on the quality stuff – lol. It’s been a while since I had this so I decided to have some today. I really think the xi ying teapot is the perfect way to make wuyi oolongs.

I decided to steep this up at 180 F for 2 minutes. It’s very roasty and woody with cinnamon notes and dried fruit. Someday I need to go back to Red Blossom and get another of their Wuyi teas. I seem to remember the Tie Luo Han as also being very good.

A guy at another local tea shop told me that the darker style oolongs don’t really go stale and might even improve with age. I wonder if that is true.

see my previous notes on this if you are interested. :)

Thank you to Eric for this lovely tea gift!

Eric from Happy Lucky’s (like he has no other life than that) went to San Francisco after Christmas and brought back a tea gift to me! What a nice young man he is!

I’m going to review ERIC! (Hahahah)

Eric is a Scientist! He only works part time at Happy Lucky’s but his main job is as Science Instructor at Frontrange Jr. College, until he get’s his Ph.D.

Eric is SUCH a great fellow tea nerd! One of the most endearing things about him is how much he knows about tea and how off-hand he is about it. He knows so much about the science of tea and the history of how tea has been produced and spews out information as though the rest of us know what he knows. Uh, no we don’t Eric!

What he brought me as a gift, was one of his favorite tea’s, which made me feel special.

I prepared the tea in my Gaiwan, just the way Eric would have done.
A short 30 second steep created the scent of flowers and Chinese food. (Something you might smell in the Summer walking by an outside cafe)

The flavor was sweet roasty stonefruit, water on granite rocks and very clean.
I decided to lengthen the steeps which made the flavor more roasty and woody than before with persimmon, peach and apricot sweetened with honey.Cinnamon spice punctuated the finish.

Those were a lot of flavors packed together, but this was a smooth tea. The flavors blended together like an old fashioned stone-fruit pie (my stone-fruit pie) with only the best ingredients, packed full of fruit and dripping with natural juices and a little spice kick.

(This tea is supposed to have an orange flavor but I didn’t taste any orange. I smelled the aroma of orange wafting around the cup.)

Delightful tea made more special by the giver! No wonder this is a favorite of Eric’s!

I received this as a sample with my order. I was not bashful with the steep times and the result was very good. Dense fruit and very flavorful. Truly a very enjoyable tea. I was getting a burnt orange cinnamon spice flavor. A lovely aroma. The taste lingers in my mouth….