Standard disclaimers apply: dark oolongs are not my jam, and wuyi even less than dan congs. They just don’t make my heart sing, but I can still enjoy my gong fu session with them. I am also not in a super analytical mood today, so maybe not the best time to do a real tasting note, but I wanted to log it anyway.
This is from the reserve club, January. The warmed dry leaves smell a little charred and minerally, with definite plum/prune notes in the background. My rinse ended up being longer than usual (maybe 5 seconds), so I drank it and I’m glad I did. Someone posted recently on the discussions about only enjoying the first steeps of teas, and it made me think of how much usually enjoy the rinses of my teas. I feel like I’m throwing out so much flavor if I throw them away. Anyway, the rinse wasn’t super toasty, although there were definitely some of those notes in there, and not minerally at all. More fruity, and a woody.
Later steeps brought out the charred wood flavor more, along with the rocky minerals. A few steeps in I had a nice, lightly sweet one that I enjoyed. Someday I want to go to Minneapolis and have a gong fu session with David on some of these teas, just to really experience them as they should. Although I know the steps well by now, I am still convinced there is some error in my gong fu.
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I agree re: drinking rinses. I have no problems throwing out the first rinse of a pu’erh, because often those wash away some ickies, but for oolongs and whatnot, I also feel like I’m throwing out a bunch of goodness! Especially if the rinse is more than just a literal rinse, i.e. pouring water over and off the leaves.
(Also, I’m dying to participate in a gong fu session with someone who knows what they’re doing as well! A trip to Minneapolis sadly is not happening anytime soon though).
I agree re: drinking rinses. I have no problems throwing out the first rinse of a pu’erh, because often those wash away some ickies, but for oolongs and whatnot, I also feel like I’m throwing out a bunch of goodness! Especially if the rinse is more than just a literal rinse, i.e. pouring water over and off the leaves.
(Also, I’m dying to participate in a gong fu session with someone who knows what they’re doing as well! A trip to Minneapolis sadly is not happening anytime soon though).