This is my first real Oolong! I decided to brew it for 5 min each time at 98C because I thought I would mess it up if I tried gong fu style brewing.
Dry: The tea is rolled into little balls, and the smell reminds me of green tea. It almost smells a bit like seaweed? But not in a bad way…
Steeped: It brews into a nice yellow liquor and it smells good! It’s a really smooth tea that I just want to sip away at all day. How do you describe this though? Each sip tastes a little different and I was wrong about the seaweed – I can’t taste that at all! It is sweet and mild and very refreshing.
2nd Steep: I re-steeped the leaves for another 5 minutes. I realise this may make me a barbarian but it still tastes really good. I am getting more vegetal notes this time around, but it makes me think of a really good green tea.
3rd Steep: Is this oolong abuse? I’m now on my 3rd 8oz cup. It’s getting really mild now but the grassy/vegetal flavours are still strong enough. I sipped away at it, but didn’t feel it warranted a 4th attempt at steeping.
And wow. I just realised how expensive this tea is. 75g (2.65 oz) costs $22. Yowza. Maybe I’ll try to brew it properly next time, but… it’s just such a time commitment that it’s hard to do.
I am looking forward to trying more oolong teas though!
And here’s a picture of the tea during the 3rd steep: http://instagram.com/p/SjvfMVtWvp/
