Shui Jin Gui Light Roast

I finished a sample of this oolong last night, and after taking a moment to look this tea up on Steepster, found myself wondering why this tea was so poorly received. Now, I, by my own admission, am a huge fan of Shui Jin Gui, but I found this to be an extremely tasty, expertly processed tea. The roast was just present enough to add some depth, but was light enough to showcase the natural aromas and flavors of this cultivar.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in a 4 ounce gaiwan filled with 208 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 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, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of char, vanilla, damp grass, hay, and wood. After the rinse, I picked up powerful aromas of custard, orange, and rock sugar. The first infusion brought out touches of gentle spice, cocoa, stone fruits, and butter. In the mouth, I detected a pleasant combination of damp grass, hay, char, wood, vanilla, stone fruits, and orange. Subsequent infusions brought out the butter, cocoa, custard, and rock sugar in the mouth. I also began to pick up definite touches of roasted almond, caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, apricot, yellow plum, lemon, daylily, orchid, cream, popcorn, and minerals. The later infusions were dominated by minerals, hay, grass, roasted almond, wood, popcorn, and butter, though I could still detect fleeting impressions of vanilla, custard, and citrus in at least a couple of places.

All in all, this was an impressive tea. It was not the most complex or challenging Shui Jin Gui I have tried, but it was very aromatic, flavorful, and satisfying. Teas like this one, the Qilan Light Roast, and the Rou Gui Light Roast are rapidly convincing me that Li Xiangxi does some of her best work when she keeps the roasting to a minimum.

I have to agree with Mr. Waffles on this one, I found it just not very interesting nor very satisfying. On the nose I did get light floral notes and plum. Palate was similar with a light sweetness in the back of the mouth, did not improve using various techniques.

The dry leaves smell slightly fruity and floral like a lighter dan cong. The leaves are really nice quality appearance-wise, with large full leaves and so far no leaf fragments.

Really nice roast tone on the rinsed leaves, with a floral tone peaking through. More charcoal tone on this than expected from the name and the dry leaf aroma, which I’m pleasantly surprised about.

The first steep bring out more of the fruit and florals over the lovely charcoal tone. The flavor is sweet and minerally with subtle slightly masculine floral notes retronasally.

The second steep really bumps up the aromatics with strong orchid aroma and bright fruit tones (not exactly citrus, but it is a brighter more terpenous fruitiness, so I get where Verdant is coming from with their description). There’s some crisp acidity to the thick brew that compliments the charcoal minerality, sweetness, and aromatics.

Third steep and beyond brings out more nutty-chocolaty charcoal roast tones bringing the fruits and orchids into balance, with an expected slow fade out to 7 steeps. Interestingly around the fourth steep a lighter, more feminine floral twist (gardenia or jasmine or something) sets in modulating the orchid aroma a bit, before fading out in the next steep to mostly complex mineral character. Maybe a little black pepper setting in late.

All in all this is a pretty nice yancha. Very pleasant to drink.

Intensely boring. Verdant’s site says it’s supposed to taste of orange, orchid and vanilla. I get little more than indiscernible wafts of flavor + some minerality. By no means unpleasant, there’s just almost nothing to this tea. Perhaps stored or shipped poorly and degraded in flavor? I don’t know.

I see there are fairly polarized ratings for this tea; I’m kind of on the fence about it. On the one hand, it’s pretty light, and I’ve definitely had roasted oolongs I’ve enjoyed more, but on the other, it does have some interesting flavours (cream, florals) if you have a clean palate and are paying attention.

However, I suspect it’s best brewed gongfu, and I’m a lazy western-style brewer, so I’m probably not realizing its full potential. For that reason, it’s not a tea I’d order again, though I don’t mind having it around.

Side note: I chilled this tea as well, but it’s not overly satisfying cold, so I let it warm a bit so I’d get a bit more flavour. I’ve had quite a few cups of it though, just apparently never logged it.