Happy new year everyone. Wishing you all lots of success in the decade to come and many happy tea adventures. Haven’t been on the site as much lately due to traveling and helping my brother with his wedding preparations. I’ve got quite a few tasting notes to clear in the backlog so here goes.
It’s been an awfully long time since I’ve had a yancha. I used to enjoy them but they could be a little too ashy sometimes. This Qilan is a light roast Wuyi oolong and I picked it up hoping for a greener flavor profile. The dry leaves have a gentle aroma of flowers, cocoa, and baked bread. The wet leaf smells like sandalwood, wet rocks, and buckwheat. The brewed tea is primarily woodsy with notes of autumn leaves and oak. There’s a soft mineral quality to it and a faint hint of spice.
Wasn’t terribly impressed by this Qilan. While it’s not overly roasty, it had a generic flavor profile and I wasn’t a fan of the wood flavor. The greenness just didn’t come through as I had hoped. I’ve had better luck with YS yanchas so I will try theirs or maybe What-Cha in the future.
Flavors: Cocoa, Mineral, Oak
I was going to suggest YS’s Wild Da Hong Pao for a yancha more whimsical and floral but I see you’ve already tried it :)
Yep, that was a good yancha. I was hoping for a greener Da Hong Pao – if that even exists – but no dice here.