Taiwan Wenshan Roasted Baozhong Oolong Tea

Thanks so much for sending a sample, Kawaii433! I LOVE Baozhong and never have nearly enough around, as it seems they are hard to find… most tea shops don’t seem to have them. They are probably my favorite oolong. I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of leaves and not-quite-full mugs of water to get the suggested ratio (and so I could have another steep session later.) I was worried the ‘roast’ might disguise the amazing flavor of a Baozhong. Baozhong is lovely by itself. The scent of the steeped leaves seemed too roasty to me, but I shouldn’t have been worried. The flavor is divine from these huge, twisty, emerald leaves: smooth, silky, sweet, pineapple (pineapple like every lovely Baozhong should be!) with only a faint hint of anything roasted. The first steep was somehow the most complex. I shouldn’t have steeped the third steep at boiling, but it wasn’t ruined by any means — no astringency. But the flavor was less unique. The first steep couldn’t have been better. It was like sipping from a magic high mountain stream – full of minerals and goodness. This is a fantastic tea, roasted or not. Definitely one of my favorites from What-cha, though that isn’t difficult since I’ve hardly tried What-cha and any Baozhong would probably be a favorite.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 loose teaspoons for a not-quite-full mug // 13 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min

Well, this is is something you don’t see every day: a roasted Wenshan baozhong offered by a Western vendor. When I saw this tea on What-Cha’s website, I just had to buy it. Roasted baozhong has gotten hard to find in recent years as preferences have shifted toward the now ubiquitous jade baozhong. As a matter of fact, I had only ever gotten to try one other roasted baozhong prior to trying this one. I was excited to try this tea, not only because roasted baozhong seems to now be so rare, but also because several people whose individual tastes I trust indicated that they greatly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I ended up not being as impressed by it. It did not strike me as being a bad tea, but it also had a few little quirks that rubbed me the wrong way and that I could not ignore for any length of time.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 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, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of orchid, vanilla, smoke, cream, and roasted almond. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of cinnamon, apple, and baked bread. The first infusion introduced aromas of toasted rice, steamed milk, and roasted barley. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of orchid, sugarcane, vanilla, cream, butter, baked bread, roasted almond, cinnamon, and apple that were balanced by subtler impressions of toasted rice, roasted barley, smoke, grass, coriander, and steamed milk. The subsequent infusions introduced aromas of coriander, sugarcane, butter, daylily, grass, and seaweed. Stronger and more immediately noticeable grass, roasted barley, steamed milk, and coriander flavors came out in the mouth alongside spinach, watercress, seaweed, Asian pear, mineral, plum, daylily, and daylily shoot notes. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized impressions of minerals, pear, toasted rice, butter, cream, apple, baked bread, grass, roasted almond, and spinach that were chased by hints of plum, seaweed, sugarcane, and coriander.

In the end, I’m still not sure about this one. It has been about a week since I finished what I had of it, and I am still not sure I can assign it a numerical score with any confidence. Unlike the other reviewers, I seemed to get considerably greener, more vegetal notes out of this tea, and the way many of them lingered in my mouth and on the back of my throat after each swallow came to annoy me pretty quickly. That’s unfortunate too because the roast seemed to have been very artfully applied to this tea; it produced some absolutely lovely, balanced aromas and flavors. The floral and fruity impressions were also very nice. I picked up both daylily and daylily shoot impressions in this tea, which was odd considering that I generally find those notes in teas produced from the Jin Xuan cultivar, and this, like presumably every other traditional Wenshan baozhong currently on the planet, was produced from the Qing Xin cultivar. In the end, I suppose I should just state that this tea was a mixed bag for me. There were things about it I enjoyed and found interesting, but there were also things about it that irked me. In the end, I think there was more good than bad in this tea, so a score of 76 feels about right for now.

At some point in the past year in my reading about Baozhong oolong tea, I think I remember reading that roasting the leaf was a traditional part of the process. Recently, a trend for greener oolong emerged and dominated the market, perhaps a reason why I haven’t come across this style of tea before. Thanks to Kawaii433, I was able to try a roasted Baozhong for the first time.

I drank this while grinding away on homework a few nights ago and managed to jot a few barely legible notes in the margin of my graph paper.

4.3g, 100mL teapot, 212F, rinse plus 5 steeps at 30/40/30/45/60s. I probably could’ve gotten another few infusions but since it was near midnight, I opted for sleep.

Dry: plenty of roastiness but calm. Roasted barley, roasted almond, roasted coffee bean, sour, very dark chocolate, orchid?.

Rinse: bamboo shoot, polenta

Liquor pale straw color. Thick, soft and round with high note gardenia bouquet in nose and mouth on top of a lightly sweet base of toasted corn meal, chestnut, straw, light mineral. Tart bamboo shoot in back of mouth after swallow. Persistant, sweet and airy gardenia aftertaste. Butter later. Never once bitter and only slightly astringent late despite using boiling water.

This was actually a great, calming tea that complemented night work with its cool, soft florals and warm, comforting grain/nut taste. The floral finish stuck around so long that I had naturally spaced out the infusions which let me focus on my work instead of solely on the tea. Really impressed!

Filtered Santa Monica tap water just off the boil throughout. Poured from a pear-shaped purple clay tea-pot into a glass cha hai, and served in a porcelain (“peony”) cup.

7 infusions from 30sec to 2 minutes:

Very pale canary yellow liquor. Floral/grassy aromatics with a hint of warm roast nuts. Sweet palate entry with vanilla, chestnut, grain (cornmeal?), opening out into a complex floral finish with hints of fresh hay and maybe even a whisper of kelp; yields significantly more flavor than the aroma hints at. Soft rounded mouth-feel, medium-finish, no astringency.

The flavor shifts around after the first infusion, with a faint sourness, almost like that of sumac or wood sorrel emerging at times. The distinctive floral aftertaste persists for a long time, though this fades in later infusions.

Maintains its distinctive varietal character, while the (not quite) medium roast gives a bit more interest/complexity – pleased that this option is available.

I got this because they are sold out of the non-roasted version. It’s a spring harvest 2017, medium roast and medium oxidization 35-40%. The dry leaves were long dark twisted strips with a yummy aroma of roast, floral and nuts. The liquor is light amber. The texture is comforting, smooth and thick. The first couple of infusions were floral, perfumey, light sweetness. Around the 4th steep, I got some roasted nuts notes but it’s still very floral. It’s a perfumed, highly aromatic, toasty cup of tea.

Porcelain gaiwan, 5g, 203°F, 110ml, rinse, 8 steeps: 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 85s, 160s (still flavorful)