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Who can resist an ounce of tea for a dollar?

The dry leaves are lovely, fairly-tightly curled and smell absolutely wonderful; like a fresh, floral Taiwan oolong. The first steeping yields a greenish-honey colored liquor, which has a lightly floral and even more mildly herbaceous smell. The taste is much more…polite than the smell of the dry leaves leads me to think it will be. When sipped quite hot, the predominant flavor is that vegetal, herbaceous quality that you get from the odor. After it has cooled for a few minutes, the more timid floral-ness comes forward slightly, and sometimes there is what seems like a slight hint of almost a honey flavor on the back of the tongue, which is quite nice. Unlike many other oolongs I’ve had, which seem sometimes to be the most floral when they have cooled a bit, this tea is definitely at its best when quite warm.
The wet leaves seem to mostly be large, single leaves, but mostly whole and with that pretty tell-tale purplish oxidization on the edges. There are some lovely little tips, and some broken pieces of larger leaves, but they are mostly large, whole leaves.
This is a very pleasant tea, and an incredible bargain at $11.00 for 5oz. (~141 grams)
Edit: I brewed this tea gongfu-style in a small porcelain teapot.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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I live with my paternal family on a small, family-owned alpaca farm in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been drinking tea, not considering tisanes, since I was relatively small and first allowed caffeine. Here, we are lucky enough to have two lovely, non-chlorinated wells, so I have relatively unlimited access to nice water that doesn’t influence the taste of my tea, and it certainly feels like a privilege. I prepare tea gong fu style, sometimes with an Yixing pot, and sometimes with a small porcelain pot or gaiwan, as that works best for many of my greener oolongs. I love learning, talking about and making tea.
One of my favorite things about making gaoshan oolongs is the focus and care that takes to make them truly shine. If I’m having a rough day, I can sit down and just focus on the time, temperature of the teaware, etc, and it is completely distracting from whatever is upsetting me.
I think that, however, the most fun is in trying new teas (particularly oolongs; they’re just too wonderful) and working with them to learn how to make them taste their best.
I had a job at the island’s tea shop for a while, and enjoyed the opportunity to learn and teach about teas, and to taste anything I wanted of the stock.

Location

Washington State

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