Wenshan Bao Zhong Winter Tea, Lot 598

There is so much going on within this Taiwanese Oolong – hints of roses changes the palette immediately with a thick and dense scent and taste of orchid, magnolia and osmanthus but even those ones aren’t enough to describe this intense floral overload ~ but in a very VERY good and masterly composed way. The texture is so fresh and creamy at the same moment. With this elegant creaminess comes also a perfect taste-wise counterpart to it which would be described best as butter biscuit. This is my second Baozhong by TTC and I think they were ones of the best I’ve had so far. Highly recommendable!

So, I had intended to buy one sample of this tea…accidentally bought two and due to some miscommunication, wasn’t able to amend that.

I am not quite sure how to feel about this one yet. Session started out normal enough. The leaves were green and very nicely twisted, so I only got about 5g into the gaiwan. Nice, sweet vegetal aroma and a very light yellow liquor.

The flavor started out more or less as I would expect of a greener oolong. A sweet, beany vegetal flavor without too much in the way of floral notes in this case. I enjoyed it will enough for the first few steeps and rhinkle was undecided until she hit one steep that she said tasted like foot odor. I brushed her comment off since she’s got a cold and kept drinking once our break was over.

And then…I got the same thing. Not in the body, but in the aftertaste of a single steep, the odor of sweaty feet filled my nostrils. It was very strange, as after that, the taste evolved into something pineappley, with a tropical fruit blend aftertaste, something I’ve tasted in another sample I tried recently.

Over continued steeps, a mouth coating viscosity developed, and I enjoyed that for a few steeps before the flavor overall started to die off. Going to have to play around with this one more soon to get the best out of it!

I bought this tea instead of the winter competition bao zhong which unfortunately wasn’t available this year. TTC assured me that it was on par with the higher grade teas. After tasting it, I have to say they were mostly right.

This tea starts out with a medley of different floral aromas: orchid and lilacs, honeysuckle, and osmanthus. The first steep is gentle, and very sweet. The sweetness grows stronger int he second steep, into a sugarcane like flavor. Around the 3rd steep, the tea shifts to a pleasant green tea-like flavor that I would describe as sweet morning dew.

Though I enjoyed the tea’s progression through steeps, my favorite method of brewing bao zhong is grandpa style and sadly, it left a lot to be desired. The tea’s flavors become muddled and its nuances are lost.