I decided to do my first-ever gong fu session with this tea. I was having a rather bad day – my car was towed because of the registration being expired, so now I have to sort all of that out and go get it this week. So I had hoped that this would cheer me up. I based my parameters mostly off of Sarsonator’s recent tasting note (I believe it was a milk oolong from TeaVivre), but I used less tea per water as was suggested in the comments. And I also used 200 degree water because I seem to be uncomfortable going for boiling on any teas besides herbal and rooibos. :P So sue me!
The parameters: 5g tea per 4 ounces of water, 10s rinse/25s/35s/45s/55s
Used two of my noble cups from David’s. They’re about 10 ounces total and came with lids, so I figured they were perfect! Hard to pour, but I got the hang of it…
(http://imgur.com/du542o8)
Rinse (10s): extremely light vegetal flavor with floral notes, light peach aftertaste
Steep 1 (25s): creamy and peachy, light vegetal background with floral aftertaste
Steep 2 (35s): creamy, buttery, quite floral with slightly bitter vegetal taste, peach aftertaste
Steep 3 (45s): quite floral and vegetal, apricot aftertaste
Steep 4 (55s): extremely floral with some vegetal notes, light apricot/peach aftertaste
I could have gone for more steeps, but I found myself liking this less and less as it steadily became more floral. I want more of that lovely creamy peach steep! I have enough left for a smaller session, so I might try this one again with shorter steeps. If anyone has suggestions, I would love them! I did enjoy this tea, but I was looking for more of that milk creaminess that I got in the first couple of steeps. I’m finding that green oolongs tend to be too floral for me.
Flavors: Apricot, Butter, Creamy, Floral, Peach, Vegetal
I did my first ever gong fu session today too :-)