Taiwan Wenshan Baozhong Oolong Tea

Gah.  I should not have been drinking one of my favorite types of tea yesterday- baozhong – when I knew my allergies would be at full boil. Thank you all the same, derk.  And I have more to try at a later time.  Since my allergies were annoying I couldn’t taste much.  I noticed a delicate creaminess and sweetness to these deep emerald and huge twisty leaves.  From what I could tell, very consistent steeps but the third steep did not seem overjoyed by the boiling temp? It seemed more like a mineral type of overdone flavor.   A harshness when cooled, though not astringent. Maybe this one really shouldn’t be steeped Western? I was trying to be delicate with my steeps. Not much to say, but I needed to make a note that I tried it…
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 29 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2  // 20 minutes after boiling //  2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min
Harvest: 2017

Super sad SIPDOWN 54. Thank you a lot derk!

My previous notes say everything; so kind of redundant note. Wonderful, super floral, but still amazing aroma. Mostly lilacs (can’t wait to see them bloom!) and elderflowers.

Taste is mild, green and floral as well. Creamy somehow. Many steeps worth. Once I will be able to buy some more tea (still drowning, but I see the waterline!); I will certainly add this one to basket on What-cha. Because it’s so great!

I am finishing a day of samples from derk with this Baozhong. The expectations are high!

I am not going to dwell too much on the particular flavours and aromas. However, I do get some grilled sweetcorn on top of the sugar snap pea, which wasn’t mentioned before. Overall, the taste is very well balanced between vegetal & floral. It verges on the sweet side, but there is some tartiness too. The milky flavour is definitely noticeable although not too pronounced, which I appreciate.

The most memorable aspect of the tea for me is probably the mouthfeel, I adore it! First two infusions were more milky/creamy, but then the liquor became much more oily/buttery, thick and super smooth. Throughout the session it is really mouth-watering and slightly bubbly. There is almost no astringency to be found.

On the other hand, where I found the tea to be lacking a bit is the aftertaste. It’s not bad per se, but doesn’t present anything exceptional.

Nevertheless, this one is definitely among the best green oolongs I’ve tried so far and possibly the best one from Taiwan.

eastkyteaguy and Daylon R Thomas nailed the tasting notes of this tea.

Nov 2017 harvest.

This tea is fabulous. Incredible aroma, taste and aftertaste but too intense for me to be a daily drinker. It’s super floral without being entirely heady, green, fruity, citrusy, sweet, creamy and buttery. Long-lasting. Does well with a range of leaf amount and temperatures, today being 5g/150mL and 190F. I’ve used a gaiwan every time and will venture into western someday. I’m looking forward to drinking this baozhong on a cold and clear winter day. Even though it doesn’t snow here, I’d recommend it as a stunning accompaniment to an early spring snowmelt. Sitting outside, feeling the long-forgotten warmth of the sun, birds chirping. Oh yeah.

Edit: get all you can out of these leaves by doing a cold brew with the spent material. Oh yeah.

Yeah, I got this tea, and pretty much second eastteaguys notes, but I am not sure about the rating yet.

I tried this thinking “Yeah, this is what I’d expect from a baozhong slirp-ooooh apple. But there are so many other teas to purchase, maybe I should not have gotten fifty grams-slirp mmm violet…..” And then I drank this for three mornings. It is particularly bright, green, immensely creamy, and immensely floral. Sweet pea, cream, vanilla, gardenia, green apple, and violet are the most prominent notes I get from this bad boy, and they can shift depending on how I do the gong fu. I do like this western a tad bit more since I’ve gotten more apple notes then with a touch of citrus in the aftertaste, whereas gong fu has brought out the more floral notes in momentary dividends.

Although I’d drink this tea anytime because Baozhongs are teas that I can’t really say no to, this is a spring tea for sure, when the cool air of the winter meets the sun for the new buds of the season. And this is not a tea that I would drink at night from the little buzz I get from the green notes and the caffeie. Again, this tea is very sunny.

New Year’s Eve ended up being all about comforting teas in my household. This was the tea with which I rang in the New Year. I stayed up (didn’t end up watching the ball drop) and started a gongfu session somewhere around 10:00 PM, finishing up a little after midnight. The fact that I took my time with the session allowed this to technically be the first tea consumed by me in 2018, and honestly, there were far, far worse things I could have consumed to ring in the year. This ended up being a great baozhong and further proof that the fancy competition grade teas do not always provide the best and most satisfying drinking experiences.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 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, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected surprisingly strong aromas of lilac, violet, sweet pea, cream, and butter. After the rinse, I found emerging aromas of pastry, vanilla, custard, gardenia, and magnolia. The first infusion brought out a hint of sugarcane on the nose. On the palate, I found pleasant notes of butter, cream, vanilla, pastry, and sugarcane that were thicker than expected. These notes were balanced by hints of lilac, violet, sweet pea, melon, and orchard fruits. Subsequent infusions brought out stronger floral notes on the palate, and on these infusions, the magnolia and gardenia appeared. I also started noting fully formed notes of cantaloupe, honeydew, pear, and green apple. New impressions of sweetgrass, mango, lime, tangerine, minerals, and lettuce emerged, though I could also find faint underpinnings of peas, spinach, and custard, which had surprisingly both disappeared from the nose and never bother to turn up in the mouth until this point. The later infusions offered lingering impressions of butter, cream, green apple, pear, sugarcane, and minerals balanced by lingering floral and citrusy hints.

A surprisingly heavy, complex, long-lived baozhong, this tea clearly had not lost a step in storage. This seems to have been out of stock for quite some time at this point, but if I could acquire more of it, I most certainly would. I really found it to be that good, and to be honest, I’m much pickier than most people would ever imagine with baozhong.

Light and completely smooth, with a mild floral note paired with milkiness and a slight acidity that hints of lemon or citrus. The taste of milk becomes even more apparent in the finish and transitions to butter as it settles on the tongue. Thoroughly enjoyable and reminds me of a more refined Jin Xuan.

Yummy stuff, having it for breakfast today. Im unsure if I’ve had Wenshan before, but I’ve had tea from Taipei so maybe.

Sweet pea, butter, grass, florals in the the initial steeps leading into sweet pea & a little spinach. Drinking gongfu ive been getting quite a few steeps out of it throughout the day & as the butter faded it stayed flavourful becoming more sweet pea & spinach as the day went on, ive actually lost count now how many ive had by now but its nice & long lasting & has a lovely flower petal sweetness to it.

Im still getting a floral aroma of some kind but I dont know what it is. Also fresh cut grass & fresh fruit & veg & petals. Its all just very nice fresh things.

Really nice longevity (ive almost done a litre out of 5g) & I love the subtle florals. Great stuff, nicely priced compared to the high grown but similar tasting teas