Mao Xie

This Hairy Crab Oolong is a light oolong with a floral aroma. It tastes like buttered flowers and marshmallows. It is a good tea, nice feel, no astringency, but it is just not for me.

So I am not a big fan of this type of wulong, but got a sample ( thanks ) and gave it a try. Nose is very floral, plumeria, gardenia, sweet, light grassy note.
Palate sweet light, floral, grapefruit, spinach, umami, butter, refreshing ozone like note. Not bad.

This is from the Spring 2015 harvest.
Dry: It’s very floral with concord grape, orange and clove and a big wiff of cut grass
Wet smell: lettuce, roasted wheat, caramel

Flavor: Barley and copper. When Smelling the dry leaves i was so excited to try this but the flavor profile was pretty insipid and a let down.

I was really excited to try this mao xie, but honestly I was pretty disappointed by it. I have the autumn 2015 harvest, which went out of stock about right when I bought this.

At first, it’s very apple skinny, sorta milky, but there’s a bit of acidity too. Vanilla, edamame, there’s a lot of roasty heartburny acidity, (this is the bit that disappointed me) lemongrass, regular grass, metallics, light astringency, spinach, wet rocks.

It reminds me of when you’re licking gravel and then it gives you heartburn, you know?

Tea headache. Do you guys get tea headaches from certain teas?

This tea gives me one of the worst headaches. I’m slightly dizzy.

The roasty acid rockiness becomes overpowering in the middle of the session. It basically becomes this taste, and then slowly fades out, gaining a tiny bit of sweetness in later steeps.

Head still hurts :(

I’m starting to fall behind on my reviews again. It’s always amazing to me how I can go from being caught up on a project to behind in the space of a couple days. I actually finished the last of this oolong earlier in the week, but had a rough draft of a review written at least 2-3 days before that. Oh well, I still have a review for Verdant’s Huang Jin Gui from two weeks ago that I need to post. Anyway, on to this tea.

I tried steeping this tea a couple different ways, however, the method that worked best for me is the basis of this review. Rather than using my 5.5 and 6 ounce gaiwans, I decided to use my small 4 ounce gaiwan. I was torn on whether to use 5 or 6 grams of leaves, but after trying it both ways, I went with 6 because the 5 tasted slightly weak to me. I followed the gongfu method outlined on Verdant’s website once again, so an initial infusion of 10 seconds in 208 F water followed by a series of 2 second infusions. I carried this one out to nine infusions (10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 seconds).

Initially, this tea presented a creamy, floral, and slightly fruity nose with a hint of toasted character. Initial infusions emphasized toasted sesame, ginseng, cream, custard, green apple, pear, honeysuckle, lilac, and jasmine notes underpinned by a slightly grassy vegetal character. The tasting notes on Verdant’s website also described nori, apple brandy, rosemary, and alfalfa flavors, but I didn’t get any of those, at least at first. Later infusions saw the floral, sesame, and ginseng notes fade and the cream, custard, orchard fruit, and vegetal notes emerge more fully. I detected alfalfa and hay specifically. I also began to notice a slight citrus note on the finish that reminded me of lime zest. The final couple of infusions were mostly creamy and vegetal. I probably could have gotten at least 1-2 more infusions out of this tea, but decided to cut it off at nine as I didn’t see the flavor radically changing or anything new emerging at that point.

The first time I tried this I was impressed, but my opinion of this tea wavered after a couple more sessions. Over my last couple of sessions, I began to feel like I had gotten it right again and I once again began to really enjoy this tea. Compared to many of the other green oolongs that are available, this has a really unique aroma and flavor profile. I kind of doubt it will be for everyone, but for me, it has all of the savory, creamy, vegetal, fruity, and floral notes I love on one level or another. If you’re a fan of newer style Chinese oolongs, then I think there is a good chance you will greatly enjoy this tea. It is definitely worth checking out regardless.

Received as tea of the month club, labeled “Traditional Mao Xie”. Smells really good, a bit like caramel and very toasted smelling, with a hint of sesame. Very very good smelling.

First steep was 2:00 min at 200F with 5g of tea for 8 ounces. Smells like autumn leaves that have been caramelized with sugar. It tastes good, but is very underwhelming. I feel like it needs to be 4 times as strong. Next brew I’m going to do half the water and see how it changes. I do like it though.

Second brew increased flavor a bit, but it still seems to be a one note tea. It is still good though. Four brews in and still very good.

Finally one that is already in the Verdant website!

Flowers, flowers, flowers.

I wonder why it is I simply can’t taste anything past that? It should be possible. Especially with a tea that isn’t even scented.