Master Bi's Jin Guan Yin Wuyi Oolong

I’m trying to make more of an effort to drink ALL OF THE TEAS in my collection. The other day Sil made a comment about me having teas from 2012. Which I initially denied.
Guess what, tea sister, you’re right! LOL!
So, I’ve had this wonderful tea for 3 years. It’s awesomeness led me to hoard a ridiculous quantity of it. This is the very Oolong that inspired me to purchase my first yixing, and although other Wuyi oolongs get to have their turn in that tiny teapot, it was seasoned with this one, and will forever be dedicated to this one, until I run out…some sad day…
And it is just as wonderful as ever!
The dry aroma is of roasted barley & fruitiness…drop it into a preheated yixing and let it sit in there a few minutes to warm the leaf and it’s dark chocolate & raspberries, so heady and thick that I could just sit there huffing it forever…sigh…
Drinking it is pure delight…sweet, thick, with lingering tastes of berries, chocolate, and roastiness. And that incense like after-aroma in the sinuses. And a good tea buzz.
and in the later steeps, the waters of a Sacred Spring, lightly flavored, almost effervescent…

I have accomplished nothing today except breakfast & tea…I need to do SOMETHING!

I was going to get into some of my reserve club puerhs today, but then I read the tasting notes for this one and I decided to have it instead. It’s a roasted wuyi oolong, so not my favorite type, but I am of course looking forward to trying it out.

The steeping instructions call for a crazy amount of leaf per ounce for gongfu… almost double what I usually use. But I followed them, using almost the whole package for my 6oz pot (10g). It did fill the pot 2/3 full, which is what the instructions say that Master Bi does with this tea. The warmed leaf smelled like a toasty oolong, but also intensely fruity, and I definitely could smell raspberry distinctly. It smelled very promising!

This, of course, yields a very strong tea. The rinse was crazy dark, and the first 3 steeps (only 3-4 seconds each) were just too strong for me, with a note that edges on bitter to my palate. I did get berry notes on the aftertaste and maybe a hint of bitter chocolate, but overall the bitterness was overwhelming my palate in the main part of the sip.

Quite a few steeps in (I lost track how many) it started smoothing out and losing that unpleasant (to me) edge. The sip was bright and minerally, not so roasty (I think I washed a lot of that out). There’s actually kind of a sweetness here that is very nice. It’s still quite fruity as well, and with a lot of body.

In the end this was a pleasant tea and I enjoyed my tasting, even though it is decidedly Not My Style. But I didn’t expect it to be, and this club is all about tea adventure to me.

another sipdown for today (178) as i’ve been drinking this with focus this morning, running through a number of steepings to decide where i land on in terms of this one. Final verdict? While this is a lovely oolong, it’s still an oolong for me. So the rest of this will be going to a couple people whom i think would love to try this one.

Third day of spring and it’s snowing here near Seattle. And right when my body was starting to expect the spring temperatures. I really need a warming brew today. Surprisingly, when deciding what that should be my mind didn’t go for the spiced black teas I normally reach for on a chilly day — it went straight to this. It seemed the perfect reason to use up the second half of this Reserve Club sample.

This tea embodies warmth. The second that smokey aroma starts wafting out of the cup I feel like I’m huddled around a crackling campfire. And someone is making a s’more because I can smell their burnt marshmallow melting the bar of chocolate it’s dripping over. It’s so nostalgic and warming to just smell. And it’s commandingly strong; I’m still catching whiffs of it all around the house almost 3 hours after my first brew.

At first sip this tea tastes like the smell to me — smokey. And while that’s okay it’s not something I find myself wanting to drink a lot of. But by the second and third sip that smokey taste almost immediately turns into a rich dark chocolate aftertaste. I can’t taste it when the tea is on my tongue but it comes up immediately after the sip and lingers there forever. Five minutes after my last sip I can still taste that rich dark chocolate, but as time has passed it’s become a dark chocolate spiked with citrus or berry, I can’t decide which.

I’m 7 or 8 steeps in right now and that dark chocolate flavor is still lingering there every bit as strong as it was on the first, but the first taste has mellowed from smokey to citrus (something I’m rather thankful for).

This was the perfect brew to start my chilly day off with. It’s so rich and warming. If it weren’t for the price tag on these reserve club teas I’d definitely restock this one, but alas, my budget forces me to leave it as a pleasant memory after today.

I am enamored with this tea! I’m not going to go into a flavor profile right now, as it is complex, but for me this tea is a keeper!

And I must thank David, and everyone at Verdant…I purchased 3 of the two ounce portions as allowed when the tea was released for purchase, which would be an estimated 170g of tea. Imagine my surprise when I saw two of the original 100g boxes staring at me as I opened up my package! Also the note with a mention that as I purchased a bunch, that they figured they would include the two boxes for me :) As per all of my interactions with David and the Verdant Team, they continue to go above send beyond what is expected!

I feel I am going to be having a very tough time with this April Reserve shipment…A Wuyi, a shu puer, and what looks like two black teas…ugh, I have a feeling I am going to love each one, and I may be parting with a sizeable sum of money in the near future stocking up on these teas!

I don’t really feel like writing, but I need to put these notes down before I forget.

I’m always a little skeptical of Verdant’s descriptions because they are sometimes so out there. However, when comparing my notes to what they have described, there is usually one or two things that they have in common.

My notes for this tea included roast, grapefruit, wild funky flavor, and dark chocolate. Does that sound gross? It does to me, and that’s pretty much how the tea tasted. I think I need to stay away from fruity oolongs. I haven’t seemed to like them.

When I read Verdant’s descriptor “yuzu,” it hit me. I have never had a straight yuzu (the fruit) before, but I have had a yuzu honey tea. It tasted grapefruity and wild funky to me, so there you go. I was surprised to find chocolate as a descriptor because I thought I was crazy when I tasted it.

Anyway, not the tea for me.

I have only a few more samples left from the wonderful bunch Sil sent me back in Decenber…it seems that I saved the best for last.

This has an amazing aroma…it really came as a burst as soon as I removed the lid of the gaiwan. And guess what? It tastes even better!

It’s floral but not in a bouquet kind of way, just a delicate linger…also fruity, fig like.

Some caramel as well and a subtle nuttiness that wraps and ties everything together.

It feels round in the mouth, thick and voluptuous. I think it’s one of the finest Wuyi I have had for sure.

I stopped reading just to make sure I would fully focus all my attention to it. It’s that good. I had 4 delious steeps and will now cold brew the leaves for tomorrow…

Thanks Sil, this was lovely :-)

Dog and tea story…(skip if not interested)

My dog Dexter is a snob. I always say he’s an “AristoDog”, basically he acts like he’s Royalty. He doesn’t like to get messy, spring time, he tries to avoid stepping in mud, and if he does (which inevitably is bound to happen), he licks himself till he’s got no more saliva.
And Dexter likes his comfort. Yes, he’s allowed on the couch. He has special cushions that he grabs and carefuly places at stategic spots so he can morph into a sophisticated potato couch. This is a typical illustration of his concept for comfort:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/laafeevertee/13451905514/in/photostream/

There’s one thing missing though: his “doux-doux” (French prononced “doo-doo” in English). “Doux” means soft. In my family, we’ve been calling our favourite special throws/blankets a “doux-doux” ever since we were little children. I still love special blankets, have several all over the house and ready to be used when sitting in front of a fire, or just to lounge on the couch, a book in one hand, a cup of tea in the other. Dexter has his own doux-doux, the same one since he was just a puppy. He carries it with him pretty much everywhere. When I wash it, he looks for it everywhere.

Today was a lounge doux-doux day for the both of us… I grabbed mine, he grabbed his, and we had a cup of this wonderful tea. I say “we” cause while I was sipping, he kept trying to get into my cup, literally…totally unlike him!

But there’s something about this intoxicating aroma that tantalized his canine nostrils it seems…well I don’t blame him, this stuff is irresistible!