Followed MST’s parameters, using 5g, 100mL, 195F, rinse followed by 6 steeps of 30/45/60/70/?/??s
The dry leaf had a faint aroma of honeyed brown toast, red plum and rose. Warming and rinsing released notes of brown sugar and hints of cream and pear. Light liquor aroma. The taste was a little stronger than the aroma, mellow with notes of brown toast, honey, plum, raisin, persimmon sweetness and faint cinnamon and rose. Later, the toast turned into barley and malt, the sweetness turned more toward turbinado sugar and some very light butter and wood presented. Aftertastes and texture were also quite light with only a hint of astringency. Toward the end, I did notice some waxiness lining my tongue.
Overall, I found this to be a very mellow, unfussy tea. It didn’t strike me as being exceptional in any way, nor did its Alishan provenance stand out. One thing I did appreciate was the lack of any overpowering lingering flavors from the roast. I would recommend this tea to somebody looking for a daily drinker roasted red oolong.
Something more exciting than my opinion of this tea — my motorcycle caught on fire. Luckily it was just in the driveway being worked on and there was no damage at all to the bike but I did rip some fingernails in the process of trying to access a fire extinguisher. Also luckily my friend put out the fire with a water hose so I didn’t have to clean up any nasty extinguisher powder. I’m looking forward to getting this old girl running again and going for a day ride along the cheese trail.
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Okay, my car has been an absolute pain recently (five trips back to the machanic all during the last month) but at least — to my knowledge! — it never set itself on fire. I’ll consider that a win.
Geez, I hope all the issues with your car are now resolved. I won’t get into the details of what caused my bike to catch fire because I’m sure that’s all boring mechanic speak but it went POOF! and then I was like OH SHIT. I went through so much work moving it to my new home and thought ‘It ain’t gonna end like this.’ Had a hearty laugh at the expense of my friend after the fire was extinguished.
I honestly am not sure if Cargate is done yet or not. My Dad thinks I should get a (new) used car, but I don’t have all that many miles on my current one and worry about getting screwed badly by shady salesmen because I know nothing about cars, the way I obviously got screwed by the mechanics. Sigh.
Well, as long as you are both laughing about it and there isn’t another California fire started by a motorbike… I’ve only ever combusted things in my microwave with my complete lack of culinary skill. :-)
Okay, my car has been an absolute pain recently (five trips back to the machanic all during the last month) but at least — to my knowledge! — it never set itself on fire. I’ll consider that a win.
Geez, I hope all the issues with your car are now resolved. I won’t get into the details of what caused my bike to catch fire because I’m sure that’s all boring mechanic speak but it went POOF! and then I was like OH SHIT. I went through so much work moving it to my new home and thought ‘It ain’t gonna end like this.’ Had a hearty laugh at the expense of my friend after the fire was extinguished.
I honestly am not sure if Cargate is done yet or not. My Dad thinks I should get a (new) used car, but I don’t have all that many miles on my current one and worry about getting screwed badly by shady salesmen because I know nothing about cars, the way I obviously got screwed by the mechanics. Sigh.
Well, as long as you are both laughing about it and there isn’t another California fire started by a motorbike… I’ve only ever combusted things in my microwave with my complete lack of culinary skill. :-)