It’s been several days since I’ve posted a review here on Steepster. I ended up sick again over the weekend and cut back my tea consumption to virtually nothing. I think I’m once again starting to recover, but I’m not at a point where I can handle anything heavy. This was the tea with which I chose to break my silence. I figured something mild was in order for this evening.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. I kept my rinse short (only 4-5 seconds). After the rinse, I steeped approximately 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This initial infusion was followed by 12 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted a soft, mild fragrance of cream, butter, vanilla, lilac, and hyacinth rounded out by something of an indistinct vegetal character. After the rinse, I detected more pronounced scents of butter and vanilla as new aromas of cucumber and puff pastry started to emerge. The first infusion produced a similar bouquet that offered more fully formed scents of puff pastry and cucumber. In the mouth, I mostly found muted notes of cream, butter, and vanilla chased by ghostly floral and vegetal presences. Subsequent infusions offered a little more variety. The butter, cream, and vanilla notes were strengthened. Simultaneously, the puff pastry and cucumber impressions appeared alongside emerging aromas and flavors of honeydew, butterscotch, kale, and leaf lettuce. To be honest, I did not find this to be a particularly floral oolong. There was a faint floral presence in the mouth, but the little bit of floral presence I found tended to most clearly express itself on the nose. Later infusions were mostly buttery and vegetal with a slight minerality towards the finish.
Hmm, this was such a light tea. I have noticed that many of Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s oolong offerings over the past year or so have primarily leaned towards displaying soft, full, smoothly textured bodies and mildly savory, vegetal and/or grassy characters with just a hint of fruit and/or flowers to provide some depth. This tea certainly did not buck that trend. I found it to be a very clean, pure, refined tea with a nice mouthfeel.
Flavors: Butter, Butterscotch, Cream, Cucumber, Floral, Honeydew, Kale, Lettuce, Mineral, Pastries, Vanilla
