Pamela Dean Send Message

I gave the small dry tea nuggets a quick hot water rinse, then sniffed at the pot — floral bliss! Dr Oolong, co-owner of Zhi Tea, describes aroma of wildflowers, but that fails to capture the richness of my olfactory experience. For me, the light gold oolong broth wafted forth orchid and lilac, with light honey notes. The sweet scent clung so strongly to the empty cup that I couldn’t take my nose out of it. That’s how I want to die — with my nose in a honeyed cup! (any innuendo found in that exclamation, ahem, surely originates in the mind of the reader) Yes, I’m an old bird whose sensuality often, these days, finds itself swimming in a cup of tea. My family, I think, considers my tea obsession a blessing, a diversion which keeps me too busy to venture far onto the wild side. My old bones second that emotion. “Teadrunk nights are quite enough,” they agree. So my hat’s off to those tiny bugs which chewed these leaves and made this tea so special! I got four good infusions, too.

Yeah, grassy and a tad smoky. Can steep a 2nd and 3rd time. It doesn’t compare to green tea made with younger, more tender leaves. I think of gunpowder as the basic green tea, rather mundane, but this is better than some I’ve had.

Dry tea is a fine, light tumble of thin curls with white tips – a promising sight. Use more than a teaspoon per cup. A pleasant green sweetness rises from the liquor as an aroma, and the taste follows suit. Not bitter or astringent. A buttery, salty sea-scent and flavor runs along underneath. Second steep just as good. I like it.

Dry tea is tightly rolled, small nuggets, dark olive green and khaki, and smells very fresh. At 190F, 3 gm in 3.5 oz pot. I poured water in, and then over the pot (which was seated in a small shallow bowl) to increase and maintain temperature, as in Chinese gongfu chadao. Steeps of 2 min, 30 sec, 1 min, 1, 1.5, 2 min.

On to the drinking! The maker of this oolong tea has coaxed a lovely sweetness from the leaf. It is accompanied by orchid notes and low astringency, a combination which spells happiness for me. There is a base of lightly roasty deep-greeness, characteristic of a rolled oolong. Successive steeps mellow the experience, as notes of caramel emerge. A most enjoyable series of cups!

This tea didn’t impress me as outstanding in any way, despite its pretty blue malva blossoms. The complexity I look for in an oolong just wasn’t there. Toasty taste without sweetness or florality, not even the promised (and hoped-for) violet. A bit of spice and caramel emerged in the third steep. However, it must be noted that added flavorings, such as (in this case) violet, weaken with age faster than the innate flavor of the tea. My sample came from a swap, in a well-worn bag, which might indicate an old or ill-kept bit of tea. So I moderated my rating accordingly.

I didn’t get much aroma from the dry tea, but the hot liquor greeted me with a sweet, flowery scent. Tasting happened immediately, because I grabbed the gravy ladle (which scoops and cools off a tbsp of tea very rapidly), blew, paused, and slurped. Yum! Brisk and piquant, without being outright bitter. And the astringency is mild, as well. There’s a toasty component alongside the muscatel brightness. This may be the first time I’ve drunk a first-flush Darj. The ones I’ve had were sometimes oversteeped, too (back when I thought all black tea needed to brew for 5 minutes). Whatever the cause, I’ve been leery of Darjeelings because bitterness puts me off rather quickly, and the only one I’ve really liked was a 2nd flush from Mim estate. This doesn’t have the maturity and complexity of that 2nd flush experience, but its lightness and clarity are really enjoyable, letting the fruitiness shine forth.

If you gift this Wedding Tea or serve it at a wedding, you can hope the marriage is as durable as these leaves! Admittedly, I used a generous amount of the voluminous stuff, but getting five (5) good infusions from green tea was quite impressive. The first couple of infusions were one minute, with the last one (still tasty) going 5 min. The hand-tied mini-rosettes are made entirely of buds. The loose leaves are big and dark green. Stash claims there is yerba mate in small part, which may account for the touch of bitterness which didn’t vary along the steeps. The citrus rind flavor held up all the way, as did the melon flavor, and the green tea flavor, too. I added a dab of light agave nectar to a couple of the cups, and it was good either way. The dry tea blend is beautiful to behold, but I’d drink this to experience it’s uncommon and delicious melon flavor and its inspiring and amazing fortitude!

At 180F temperature, as directed by Adagio, the cup I got was so light as to be almost tasteless. Bumping up the temperature got me a couple of steeps of a mild, unremarkable green tea. Lightness of color is okay, but this was sorely lacking in flavor and aroma. I want more out of my tea than this.

This Arjuna fellow may be a warrior, but beneath his armor he is an epicurean sensualist. The sweet scent and long, twisted leaves of the dry tea are striking and alluring. The spear-like leaves went 5 rounds, heroically keeping their twist through the first three. The smooth liquor evolved through luscious shades of caramel, from toasty to mild, with soft floral notes. As tea-drunkeness enveloped me, I stroked the hero’s back and squeezed his lovely brown buns! Arjuna now ranks in my top few oolongs. Thank you, Zhi Tea, for an unforgettable drinking experience.

Caramel and hay in the scent of long, twisted, dark-brown dry leaves. I put a lot of leaves in my little clay pot, so 30 sec was long enough to make tea. A very ‘yang’ taste, but low astringency. Found definite cinnamon and a touch of bitterness in the finish. The golden liquor shifted from allspice and leather, early on, to a deep, pu-erh-like, peppery taste in later infusions. Sweetness was mostly in the aroma rather than flavor, with richness imparted mainly by the body of the liquor. By the 6th infusion, at 2:00 min, with temp raised to boiling, the big leaves were still going strong, with the tea mellowing out to a sweet, faint linen and leather, and the bitterness vanished.