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From the vaults of the tea museum, here’s a Wuyi hongcha from the beginning of the Eco-Cha Tea Club in the spring of 2016. I’ll call it “aged” instead of neglected. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of sweet potatoes, honey, raisins, earth, and medicinal herbs. The first steep has notes of raisins, plums, sweet potato, anise, earth, tannins, malt, sugarcane, wood, and spices, perhaps nutmeg. The plummy stonefruit is more prominent in the next steep, but so are the tannins and the astringency. The next couple steeps add cream and apricot, and I got a floral edge in one of my gongfu sessions. Fortunately, the medicinal character is gone, though there’s still sugarcane and faint anise in the aftertaste. The next few steeps have notes of spiced plum, raisins, squash, honey, cereal, tannins, earth, wood, grass, and minerals, with a nice honey/sugarcane aftertaste.

For such an old tea, this is complex and full of flavour. The honey and spices remind me of other Taiwanese black teas. I wonder if the strong raisins and stonefruit are due to aging, as they’re not noted in the few other reviews of this tea when it was younger. I’m sure Derk and Daylon will be able to add some nuances to this tasting note, as I’ve included it in their swap boxes!

Flavors: Anise, Apricot, Astringent, Cream, Earth, Floral, Grain, Grass, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Nutmeg, Plum, Raisins, Spices, Squash, Sugarcane, Sweet Potatoes, Tannin, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
Leafhopper

It’s an interesting one!

Daylon R Thomas

I wanted to get that one from their reserves, but it always ran out. They also have a Yushan I’d be into, but shipping and Wang Family Tea options. I’m mad that the Jasmine Shanlinxi ran out.

Leafhopper

Do you mean the new Yushan oolong Eco-Cha released this year? (Or maybe I’m confusing it with another one.) I probably have a couple more old Eco-Cha black teas lying around, as well as some oolongs from my couple years in the club.

It’s also too bad that the Jasmine Shanlinxi ran out. I’ll have to ask them to set aside 25 g of the Cuifeng Tie Guan Yin for my summer order.

Daylon R Thomas

As for the club, I’ve got a lot too. I have too many of the darker roast oolongs I haven’t touched in a while, and I haven’t drank the Jin Xuan Black or GABA black. Those give me headaches for some reason. I’m not sure what it is.

Leafhopper

I think I left the tea club before you joined, so I have different roasted oolongs and black teas. :) I’ve always meant to get a Jin Xuan black, but haven’t got around to it.

Daylon R Thomas

They can be smooth, but bordering on cloying or syrupy in terms of sweetness. I have at least 100 grams of it that I have barely touched.

Leafhopper

That makes sense, as Jin Xuan tends to be sweet.

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Comments

Leafhopper

It’s an interesting one!

Daylon R Thomas

I wanted to get that one from their reserves, but it always ran out. They also have a Yushan I’d be into, but shipping and Wang Family Tea options. I’m mad that the Jasmine Shanlinxi ran out.

Leafhopper

Do you mean the new Yushan oolong Eco-Cha released this year? (Or maybe I’m confusing it with another one.) I probably have a couple more old Eco-Cha black teas lying around, as well as some oolongs from my couple years in the club.

It’s also too bad that the Jasmine Shanlinxi ran out. I’ll have to ask them to set aside 25 g of the Cuifeng Tie Guan Yin for my summer order.

Daylon R Thomas

As for the club, I’ve got a lot too. I have too many of the darker roast oolongs I haven’t touched in a while, and I haven’t drank the Jin Xuan Black or GABA black. Those give me headaches for some reason. I’m not sure what it is.

Leafhopper

I think I left the tea club before you joined, so I have different roasted oolongs and black teas. :) I’ve always meant to get a Jin Xuan black, but haven’t got around to it.

Daylon R Thomas

They can be smooth, but bordering on cloying or syrupy in terms of sweetness. I have at least 100 grams of it that I have barely touched.

Leafhopper

That makes sense, as Jin Xuan tends to be sweet.

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Bio

Since I discovered Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong four years ago, I’ve been fascinated by loose-leaf tea. I’m glad to say that my oolong tastes have evolved, and that I now like nearly every tea that comes from Taiwan, oolong or not, particularly the bug-bitten varieties. I also find myself drinking Yunnan blacks and Darjeelings from time to time, as well as a few other curiosities.

However, while online reviews might make me feel like an expert, I know that I still have some work to do to actually pick up those flavours myself. I hope that by making me describe what I’m tasting, Steepster can improve my appreciation of teas I already enjoy and make me more open to new possibilities (maybe even puerh!).

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