4g with 150ml water in a young zi ni rong tian yixing teapot used for WuYi YanCha.
This is the last of my supply of this tea, so I used slightly lower strength and longer steep despite relatively large percentage of broken leaves. Dry fragrance like lightly caramelized sugar or muted cotton candy with almond and faint apricot. Wet aroma more spicy with clove and wet rock notes. Liquor pale yellow (like many green teas) and crystal clear.
Slick mouthfeel with moderate body and back of throat light astringency that climbs slowly to the tip of the tongue similar to mineral water effect. Mouthwatering and light hard candy sweetness. Mild but incredibly pervasive toasty note penetrates with warming effect throughout chest cavity and comes out with sweet exhalation. Candied walnuts, white peach and white nectarine. I can’t get over the way it makes my tongue taste sweet – it’s so long lasting for such a mellow infusion. Fleeting afteraroma of sedges and iris come in and out for over ten minutes after drinking.
When prepared stronger (7g with 140ml at 90 degrees C), the mineral note comes across as a gravel-like taste and aggressive back-of-throat astringency that just kind of sits back there like you swallowed something rough. More toasted oak and peach pit flavor supersedes the candy tastes but still sweet.
Preparation
Comments
Your tasting notes are wonderful — very evocative. I don’t usually find myself prey to cravings for green tea (not even in the summer months; I realize that avoiding green tea when it’s hot out makes me an odd duck around here)…but green oolongs are another story. This one sounds delicious — appealing the way that Royal Phoenix is, maybe? A greenish Wu Yi, is it? Sounds strange. I still have so much to learn.
Your tasting notes are wonderful — very evocative. I don’t usually find myself prey to cravings for green tea (not even in the summer months; I realize that avoiding green tea when it’s hot out makes me an odd duck around here)…but green oolongs are another story. This one sounds delicious — appealing the way that Royal Phoenix is, maybe? A greenish Wu Yi, is it? Sounds strange. I still have so much to learn.
Thank you very much.
Greenish in character, but not necessarily in oxidation. This is a mid-ox oolong about on par or ever so slightly lighter than most Phoenix Oolngs. Not quite as light as darker TieGuanYins. The big thing that sets it apart from most WuYi YanChas is the light roast on it.