Today I pulled out this sample I received from derk, probably the last one if I am not forgetting some. I have never tried Bai Ji Guan before, but I thought it could be my gateway into WuYi oolongs, as I have had a little hard time with the more roasted ones.
In a preheated gaiwan, the leaves smell of milk chocolate, gingerbread cookies, honey and dry grass. After the rinse, I get mostly quite standard rock oolong smell – mineral with a touch of cannabis. In the empty cup, I can smell mostly floral scents.
The taste of this tea is very interesting, definitely different from any other one I have had. It is savoury overall, but with plenty subtleties. At various times its aspects reminds me of sheng, Dong Ding or Tie Guan Yin. I noticed flavours in the general vicinity of mushrooms, mineral and floral ones.
The mouthfeel is complex too. Honestly, I would need quite a bit more than one session to figure it out. The liquor is thick, soft and slick generally. I also get the a sourness at the very back of the mouth that’s characteristic of TGY. After swallowing, the sensation in the mouth is mostly cooling and a little drying on the sides, while fairly constrictive in the throat.
All in all, an ok tea, but frankly not the most enjoyable or memorable.
Flavors: Biting, Bitter, Chocolate, Cookie, Dry Grass, Floral, Honey, Mineral, Mushrooms, Sour
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For me, this tea seemed to be in the same taste family that What-Cha’s Amber GABA oolong and Indonesia Harendong #12 ‘Jin Xuan’ Dark Roasted Oolong are in. I can’t explain what that family is at the moment (foggy brain), but if you didn’t enjoy those teas much, I can see why wouldn’t be so into this one. The Verdant Bai Ji Guan was a totally different and expensive tea but worth a try.
I see. I can definitely observe some similarities between those. However, hat this Bai Ji Guan reminded me the most of is a light roasted TGY. But, I am not much into those it seems either :D
I have never ordered from Verdant, although I checked their selection at some point. What’s your experience with them? Do they present a good value for money?
I highly recommend Wuyi Origin’s Baijiguan.
Togo, with Verdant, it seems like a good portion of the consumer cost is absorbed by marketing like the website and packaging, but what do I know. Verdant does have good yancha and the price range for their current lineup with some sale prices has about 50% of the teas at less than $0.40/g for 25g packages. They do offer 5g single-serving samples which is how I opted to try their a handful of their Wuyi oolong.
I’ve been wanting to order from Wuyi Origin, so it’s nice to see a recommendation, tanluwils.
Old Ways Tea has some good yancha and can be more reasonably priced. Looks like they recently added this year’s Bai Jiguan.
For me, this tea seemed to be in the same taste family that What-Cha’s Amber GABA oolong and Indonesia Harendong #12 ‘Jin Xuan’ Dark Roasted Oolong are in. I can’t explain what that family is at the moment (foggy brain), but if you didn’t enjoy those teas much, I can see why wouldn’t be so into this one. The Verdant Bai Ji Guan was a totally different and expensive tea but worth a try.
I see. I can definitely observe some similarities between those. However, hat this Bai Ji Guan reminded me the most of is a light roasted TGY. But, I am not much into those it seems either :D
I have never ordered from Verdant, although I checked their selection at some point. What’s your experience with them? Do they present a good value for money?
I highly recommend Wuyi Origin’s Baijiguan.
Togo, with Verdant, it seems like a good portion of the consumer cost is absorbed by marketing like the website and packaging, but what do I know. Verdant does have good yancha and the price range for their current lineup with some sale prices has about 50% of the teas at less than $0.40/g for 25g packages. They do offer 5g single-serving samples which is how I opted to try their a handful of their Wuyi oolong.
I’ve been wanting to order from Wuyi Origin, so it’s nice to see a recommendation, tanluwils.
Old Ways Tea has some good yancha and can be more reasonably priced. Looks like they recently added this year’s Bai Jiguan.