Hong Shui Oolong Tea

Hong Shui is an oolong type I have little experience with, especially when it’s slightly aged. (This version is from 2014.) Thanks to Tea Side for the sample. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these small, dark, uneven balls is of berries, wood, dark chocolate, and roast. The first steep has notes of chocolate, honey, and banana bread. The second steep adds notes of tart cranberry, blueberry, plum, spices, wood, and darker rye bread. The next steep offers lots of red berries, with a pronounced strawberry aroma, balanced by dark chocolate, wood, tobacco, and roast. The roast isn’t overpowering and there’s no astringency. The raspberry is particularly prominent in the fourth steep. The chocolate, bready, roasty flavours continue for the next few rounds, with the berries gradually fading. The last few steeps concentrate on chocolate, baked bread, malt, wood, and minerals.

This is a fantastic oolong that will make anyone with a sweet tooth very happy. It’s like a Laoshan Black combined with a Gui Fei. I foresee many more Hong Shui oolongs in my future!

Dark, anxi-looking balls of oolong, dry leaves smell of hay/grass, slightly alcoholic.

In the warm gaiwan, Smells a lot like the red tea from a couple days ago, that Roanji Red tea, dark mango notes, with some woodiness, but really floral, kinda rose-like?

After the rinse, the leaves smell of dark earth, bread, rose, sugars, peach

Brewing 96C, 60ml Gaiwan ~90% full of wet leaf.

It’s weird.
So first the sip hits with this sorta dirty, messy taste in the mouth that’s rather unpleasant but then after the swallow the aftertaste overcomes with an intense sugarry sweetness, with notes of rice, rose and peach. after a few sips I couldn’t really taste the messy dirtiness anymore. Tastes very similar to the Red Tea Roanji

It’s becoming more sweet and floral, less dirty and less full feeling as the steeps go on, it has a nice tingly mouthfeel. The flavours have faded a lot by steep 4, the aromatics move to a nice sweet .. fruity floral melody I can’t really describe, the badness is gone now (steep 5)

Around steep 8, it starts tasting kinda like hot apple cider, delicious :)

Overall not as good as the previous two, but still thoroughly enjoyable

Shout out to Amanda Soggyenderman Wilson for adding this tea to Steepster. I have been having to add a page with each of my TeaSide reviews lately as no one else has reviewed them yet!

The scent of this rolled highly-oxidized oolong after the dry leaves have rested in a warm gaiwan is rather sweet, honeyed, fruity, and a little floral. I am already reminded of Guifei oolong. The wet leaves after the first infusion are bursting with aromas of plum, fig, and subtle flowers.

The taste is rather honey-like, with a bit of plum and subtle floral. I’m reminded of those little plastic honey-tube candies that are often flavored, where you cut off one end and suck the flavored honey out. The aroma of the golden tea liquor smells a bit like spiced oatmeal. Despite the aroma of the leaves reminded me more of Guifei, the flavor of the tea reminds me more of Baihao if we are talking bug-bitten teas. I have no idea if Hong Shui is a bug-bitten tea (will have to read up on that in a minute, I like to review with a neutral mindset), but it has the same sweet qualities as one.

The second infusion tastes more floral to me, and reminds me of clover honey. There’s a subtle fruitiness but it’s a bit tough to describe. Plum might be the closest idea still. Maybe fig.

By the fourth infusion I’m tasting more floral and it’s kind of tangy, with lingering notes that remind me a bit of autumn leaves and spices.

It is STILL freezing rain outside, everything is coated in a beautiful yet crunchy layer of sparkling ice. I am honestly quite surprised and happy we have not lost power, I would be greatly put out and would be in a panic over my fish tank getting too cold. Pretty sure that is every owner of tropical fish tank’s greatest fear, the power goes out and the temperature starts to drop. Luckily I have only had to deal with this disaster once, and the death toll was very small, I know people who have lost entire massive aquariums to this very thing, so sad! Of course there is always the problem of no tea since the stove is electric…I wonder if everyone would be cross with me if I made a fire-pit in the backyard so I could still have tea?

Today is a special tea, part of a pile of samples I got from Tea Side, a company specializing in teas from Thailand. Flashback to almost two years ago, I tried my first heavily oxidized without heavily roasted Oolong and I was in love, I found that steeping it bowl style was amazing, and when I ran out I was immensely saddened. So imagine my giggle of happiness when I saw Hong Shui Oolong Tea amidst the samples sent to me! First off, what is Hong Shui? Translating it, it means red water, referring to the dark red color of the brewed tea, not necessarily a reference to the specific kind of tea or varietal. What makes this tea special is the way it is produced, very nuanced amounts of roasting and oxidizing to create a work of art. The aroma of these dark leaves is something else, this is one of those Oolongs that I advise sitting down to sniff, because the sweetness will knock you off your feet. At least it did that for me! Strong notes of sweet fruit blending cooked plums, cherries, and peaches with an underlying creaminess and a tiny hint of leaf loam. The combination of notes reminds me of the harvest, all the excess fruit in autumn baked into a compote.

I had to brew this one bowl style (or grandpa style, so many terms so little time) true, this tea is wonderful gongfu style, but I just absolutely love it steeped for hours in a bowl. The aroma coming out of the bowl is intoxicating, it is so sweet and creamy. Strong notes of stewed plums and peaches, cherries, dates, and a creamy finish that borders on coconut milk. It smells decadent.

The taste starts out immensely sweet which goes wonderfully with the creamy thick mouthfeel, honestly if you are a fan of fruity dessert teas then I say grab some of this because it is intensely sweet. One of the really fun things about this Oolong is bowl steeping can take hot temperature and it never gets bitter, usually I have the temperature a bit lower when I am bowl steeping, but this one can take my usual Oolong temperature of 195°. The taste reminds me of an ice-cream covered fruit cobbler, complete with crust. Sweet notes of peaches, plums, cherries, and dates dance with creamy notes in my mouth, and the aftertaste, oh how it lingers.

Continuing on with many refills of the bowl, the taste stays strong for quite a while. As the fruity notes start to fade towards the end they are replaced with mineral notes and a gentle woody quality. One thing that never fades is the intensely creamy finish and subsequent aftertaste. Even when most of the other notes have faded, the finishing creaminess that borders on coconut milk lingers. This tea is a treat, and one that I wish to never run out of.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/11/tea-side-hong-shui-oolong-tea-tea-review.html