Hung Shui Oolong, Fall 2009

28/07/2010, posted by Cha in tea

This year I started to learn more about Taiwan‘s oolongs. Not in the ‘reading’ way , but in the brewing way. This Hung Shui oolong is a roasted oolong, and goes in the wow category. I am not sure if it was only the tea itself (I also used a charcoal from Taiwan), but the tea was very very soft .

Without even getting to the taste, this tea is awesome. Softness is the keyword. Perhaps the charcoal and the pouring method had their effect too, but I can’t try anymore. I  had only one sample.  I had 10 infusions , but  I only posted six pics,  because I brewed it in two sessions.  It is sweet and has  a strange combination between an oxidized oolong (like oriental beauty) and a tie guan yin.  It definitely reminds you of autumn.

This Hung Shui is manually picked, medium oxidized and slowly roasted over charcoal. The village where it was produced is called Feng Huang, and it is located near the Ding Dong region in Taiwan. Hung Shui literally translates to ‘red water’ according to babelcarp , and it’s a term that denotes medium oxidized oolong , low roasted.  So this tea would be translated as a medium oxidized oolong , low roasted, from Feng Huang.

This tea has a better description  here .

brewing tea in a bowl

13/07/2010, posted by Cha in tea

I think this is the most basic form of brewing tea. Even if you don’t have   gongfu teaware, you can obtain very nice results using this method.

I knew tea was brewed like this in the old days, but I haven’t tried it until I stumbled upon an article on The Leaf . Brewing tea this way is truly rewarding and the taste you get is different from the one you would obtain using a yixing teapot. For a young sheng puerh , this has become my preferred method.  No bitterness, and a taste that gradually changes.   Brewing this way is also visually rewarding, because the leaves unfold directly in front of you.

I have brewed in this way using different bowls, and no result was the same. The tea bowl in the pictures bellow has the best results. This bowl is made in Japan, and supposedly, it’s much older than me.

P.S. :  I  don’t like to pour the water directly on the leaves. Instead, I slowly pour it on the bowl , using a circular motion.

2000 Yong Pin Hao “Yi Wu Zheng Shan”

05/07/2010, posted by Cha in tea

This is a ten year old sheng puerh that  I have acquired from Yunnan Sourcing.  I asked Scott (business owner) to help  me  choose, since he knows better what he has.   I have it  for a year or so, but I’m still learning about it.

I must say,  brewing  this tea is difficult (for me) . I don’t know it yet, and it’s been a while since I first started to brew from it.   Lately, each time i brew it, I find my self saying : “This is the way to do it!” . I obtained a lot of great results, but not a consistent experience.  I brewed it in more than one  vessel, in various places, with different quantities.  Once, I roasted it for several minutes and I have boiled it for  8 minutes.  I enjoyed the result , which was a red liquor, very different from what I usually get from this tea.

The picture above is from the first time I brewed it. Definitely the wrong teapot (which will have it’s own post at some point) . The result was far from what I expected and made me question certain things. After  some experimentation with different teaware and quantities, I got better results.    In time,  I also brewed it using my dragon egg  (which is used for shu puerh ) and settled down to the teapot depicted in the gallery bellow.  This cake made me realize  how important a teapot is. It’s not about a  small improvement, but a huge one.

I imagine that a teamaster would bring out the best of this tea, but I am no teamaster and I have no reference of ‘best of’. I keep getting many good results, but different. I can’t decide on the ‘best of’ part.  ( I also think being able to obtain different kind of brews from the same tea is something to be wanted and it’s context dependent. )

Recently,  I brewed this puerh in a gaiwan,  with a little amount of tea.  The result (again) was very different from what I have expected.  In taste and effect, it was like a different tea, with little resemblance to what I usually get by using  a teapot.  And finally, the latest experience will be described as part of a separate post.

It seems like it has it’s own personality and own mood. Perhaps,  a reflection of my tea knowledge.

Vendor description

This tea cake is pressed from naturally growing (wild arbor) trees that are 100 to 200 years of age. The tea is entirely first flush of Spring 2000 (end of March), the kill-green process (sha qing) was done in woks (small batch) and is stone-pressed with a heavy stone press. After compression the tea was dried naturally without baking to preserve its natural state.

The brewed tea is thick and sweet, the liquor color is a deep gold color. An excellent hand-processed Yi Wu tea from a natural setting! This is one of Yong Pin Hao’s first productions and is arguably the best tasting Yi Wu tea I have ever sold! The leaves are solid and heavy, mostly whole leaf/bud sets. The aroma is incredibly complex and aromatic. The flavor is thick and satisfying with so many different levels to it and a sweet finish.

A moderately pricey cake but if you figure 7 grams per session (using 100ml pot or gaiwan), you could get 57 sessions out of this cake. Well worth it for lovers of high quality aged Yi Wu.

Net Weight: 380 grams per cake

Ingredients: Yi Wu Mountain (Mengla) sun-dried Yunnan Large Leaf varietal tea Produced by Yong Pin Hao Tea Factory.