Dammit, I wrote an entire note about this and then lost it somehow.
The upshot is — if Alishan is Sauvignon Blanc and Tieguanyin is Chardonnay, this is a Riesling.
Gaiwan. 195F. Rinse. 15 sec +5 each time through 4 steeps.
The dry leaf smells green and grassy — not really floral or like diary products. The wet leaf smells very sweet and sugary, like a praline almost.
The color is a vibrant yellow, and the steeped tea has a very light floral smell. The flavor is also very mild, subtly floral, and no dairy to speak of.
I am not sure whether I’ve ever had this type of tea before. Wikipedia says it is similar to tieguanyin, and that’s my experience — though I would characterize it as light bodied rather than full bodied.
I like it, but it’s a little on the light side for what I’d normally want in a green oolong.
Oolong was the first loose leaf tea I experimented with way back when, and I still feel like something of a novice. I have the coarse distinctions down — dark vs. green, Taiwan vs. China — but not the fine ones. I can usually tell a tieguanyin when I smell it and I know know more about milk oolongs than I did even a couple of months ago.
But I don’t have all the names down (either in Chinese or English) which leads to confusion. I had a duh moment a few days ago when I realized that tieguanyin and Iron Goddess were the same.
Is there a good, definitive resource on this? A book? A web site?
Flavors: Floral, Grass, Sugar
I finally have a really good book on Japanese teas, but I’d love one on Chinese teas.