Sesame Baozhong Oolong

I am 99.9% sure that this is one of the teas from White Antlers, so many thanks!

We went to Lidl last week, which is a huge deal for us. We buy very little and we seldom go but for some reason it is almost a date night. Lidl is new here, and we really love picking up some unusual little something to try. That something this time was frozen baklava.

Before you judge, let me just put it out there that years ago we could only get baklava once a year as far as I knew, when the Greek Orthodox Church in town holds their World’s Largest Spaghetti Dinner in November.

Then I found out that a restaurant nearby owned by one of the church members sells it – but they sell out fast. Every time I have had a baklava craving, I have heard the sad words, “We are sorry! Someone came in and bought the whole tray!”

So when I saw frozen baklava at Lidl I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

But what tea to pair with it?

I have been eyeing this one, but was afraid I wouldn’t like it and it would ruin my baklava experience and almost had Da Hong Pao, but the more I thought about it, the more I was sure that the toasted sesame flavor would be great with the walnut baklava.

Because once again, the craving hit fast, there was no following those sissy instructions and letting the pastry thaw for two hours on the counter. Time’s a-wastin’, people! I popped it in the microwave on the very lowest setting for a few minutes, turned it around, and gave it another minute. It went really well.

As for the oolong, I gave it a quick rinse and then followed the instructions. (Unlike the baklava…) The first steep is brilliant gold and gleaming in my silver lined cup and smelled almost toasty smokey with a hint of burned crust, but tasted nutty and definitely sesame. It really did taste great with the baklava. Neither detracted from the other and the tea cut the sweetness of the pastry nicely. The second steep was creamy and nutty, smooth, and flavorful but not overpowering. The strong roasted aroma is turned down a bit and sesame rules now.

Third and fourth steeps are paler gold and still going great with the baklava. I am so glad I chose this instead of Da Hong Pao, which would have been good but I got to have a little tea adventure tonight!

061/365

I probably shouldn’t drink tea like this at work, when I’m having a horrible day and I’m feeling more than usually distracted. I’d brought it with me as my pick for today, though, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let someone obnoxious put me off my tea stride. So. I’m trying hard to concentrate long enough to form a coherent opinion, and maybe that’s exactly what I need to do in order to calm down some.

Anyway, this strikes me as another winner (and there have been a lot of those from Dark Matter.) Initially, it’s a lightly roasty, lightly nutty oolong. It’s none of the things I don’t like about oolong (again! I have clearly misjudged oolong…), and a lot of things I’m deciding I do like.

The second steep has a delicate honey-like flavour, and a touch of sesame, although not as much as I expected given that it’s called sesame. Still, that’s a minor complaint when what I’m drinking is so nice. I haven’t taken it any further yet, but I’ll probably resteep a couple more times before I call it quits. It’s a good ’un!

For anyone interested in reading about Taiwanese Baozhong, may I point you to you TeaDB’s overview: http://teadb.org/baozhong. After many hours of jumping from one to another scant, often questionable or contradictory writeup about this tea, James’ post about Baozhong was quite the find, and I’ve edited this tasting note accordingly.

It was on Day 1 of the hunt that I learned that Baozhong, Pouchong, Baochong, Paozhong, and each of their two-word versions are all translations of the same Chinese character meaning “the wrapped kind,” since originally, and still occasionally today, the tea leaves were wrapped in paper. James referred to the paper as the packaging; Wikipedia said the paper was part of the drying process. Perhaps both.

Today, the tea marketed to a Western audience as Baozhong is almost always grown at 400-800m elevation in northern Taiwan. In the 1870s the tea came to Taiwan from directly across the China Sea in Fujian, China, where it continues to be grown. I might assume that this Sesame Baozhong was grown in Taiwan, simply because every tea called Baozhong that I’ve run into has been from Taiwan. But this tea seems to chart its own path. For all I know, it could be from Fujian or elsewhere.

As with the green oolong trend, seen with Dong Ding and Tieguanyin (other than Muzha TGY), Baozhong is most commonly offered as a green oolong—very green, James wrote, 5–20% oxidation—and is described along the lines of floral, buttery, sweet, vegetal.

Again, though, this Sesame Baozhong, does not follow the trend. After all, Andrew included it the 2016 Dark Matter group buy—no place for a green oolong! Instead, it seems the leaves were lightly roasted, yielding a soft but still full-flavored medium-light toastiness. (If I had more leaf, while sipping my next cup I’d be thinking about oxidation, and trying to tell the difference between oxidation and roasting.)

I didn’t see any sesame seeds in with the leaves, so I guess the “sesame” name means the leaves have been scented or otherwise flavored. James wrote that “the original Taiwanese Baozhong was scented for added fragrance, similar to Jasmine tea”; today the tea is offered both unscented (naturally floral, in its green oolong form) and is also commonly seen scented, usually with rose or jasmine. No flowers in this cup, though.

The combination of light roast and sesame blended into a savory-sweet nutty flavor that I found to be a quite pleasant session. I followed the parameters on the package: 205°F 2g 4oz 45/60/75 sec, and continued for another two steeps after the first three.

From the 2016 Dark Matter series.

I’ve been playing video games all weekend since I’ve caught up on homework, so I was trying to avoid “serious” tea sessions. However, after reading a few reviews, I figured it’d be time to try this. Unfortunately, I hadn’t written much while giving it a go. I was most likely preoccupied this afternoon when drinking it.

1st steep: Not much happening. Very light nutty/roasted note. Heat water to 195F instead of 175F (I must’ve thought, “Smells like Genmaicha, so I must brew it at a lower temperature”).

2nd Steep: Really tasting that oolong base. A little bite of sesame seed laced with roasted honey (?).

85% Recommended.

That’s all I had written. So, that’s all I’ll write now.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE32bH8A-5K/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

P.S. I had finally beaten Uncharted 2 yesterday. I must say that this game series is quite enjoyable.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE0wK19A-6d/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

From dark matter 2016:

Of all the Dark Matter teas I’ve tried so far this has been possibly the most enjoyable and of course it’s the one with only 2 grams, little to now information on it, and no way of buying more. That’s what I get for not sticking with tea bags I guess. This tea smelled a little strange when I opened it like some type of candy (havlah maybe?). Brewed, it smelled a little like toasted sesame oil. There was a noticeable light toasty flavor without the char I’ve been getting in the roasted oolongs I’ve tried recently. It was floral and a little fruity and the end of the sip was a dry creamy flavored finish. I steeped this about 7 or so times with good results then continued to steep very weak steeps after that refusing to let go.

I used the whole 2.2g of this sample from Dark Matter 2016 in my new 60mL gaiwan with 200 degree water. The dry leaves had a light sesame smell but were not particularly aromatic. Once they were wet however, the intense smell of toasted sesame with a slight fruit undertone was present in the aroma.

I didn’t rinse this one – I did steeps of 12s, 10s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 45s, 1m, 1.5m, 3m, 5m.

The first steep tasted like sweet toasty sesame with a subdued fruity aftertaste. The second steep, which may have been my favorite, exploded with a sweet creaminess that reminded me of vanilla the instant I took a sip. Steeps 3-4 were a sweet nutty flavor with a creamy fruit finish and just a bit of sweet spiciness that stayed in the mouth after the sip. The rest of the steeps were rather uniform with sweet nutty/sesame taste followed by a fruity finish. The fruit may have been raspberry, but I don’t know if I would have said that if it hadn’t been listed in the tasting notes on the bag. The nice and slightly creamy texture persisted through all of my steeps, though it did become just a bit weaker in the final ones.

This is a tea I might buy 50-100g of if it were available in those quantities, but it was interesting to try nonetheless. It didn’t really remind me of the only other Baozhong that I have tried at all. Also, why’s it called “5ample gram” if there’s 2g in the bag? Not a big deal, just confused me a bit.

The sesame aroma is evident in the freshly opened package. Tea has a light fruitiness to it alongside the sesame