Old Tree Baiye

TTB
We have some red rocks in Big Horn canyon where I drive the boat, and this oolong testes like some rusty rock scrapings fell into my cup. There is a sweet and floral oolong underneath the iron minerality, but it’s buried deep. I’ll try a few more steeps to see if the oolong can rise to the occasion, but on the whole this one is too lopsided for me.
Thanks for adding it to the box!

TTB Review #23: I don’t have much to say on this one. It was fine. Acceptable. Average. Nothing special, nothing to write home about, and nothing to really complain about either (aside from its blandness, perhaps).

The problem with having two places to store tea is that the one that is further away won’t be looked at as much. This is a sample, thanks Vallhallow, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before but it was probably because I repackaged it right away. The minerality is amazing. The flavor, the mouthfeel, and even the aroma both wet and dry. It is like a wet granite rock drying in the sun. But it also has some unique fruit notes. And a slight lemony but also a brightness with tropical floral notes. There is a bit of astringency but nothing like a black tea.

Preparation: Gongfu
Tasting Note:

First steep: Floral notes, little astringency, very faint wood notes. Very pretty colored liquid though: it was sort of a peachy-amber.
2-4th steep: Floral notes fade and wood notes more prominent, slight astringent
5th steep: Least astrigent, more wood notes but not overwhelming, and something very faintly fruity in the aftertaste- mix between peach and cherry.

So I definitely didn’t double check my order before I checked out for this tea. I order a quantity of two (each 25 g )for this tea when I hadn’t even tried it yet. After tasting, I wish I didn’t accidentally buy that second bag. It’s by no means bad or boring, it just didn’t stick out to me as something that I would drink that much of. Definitely something I would be willing to share in a TTB or swap.

A coworker was recently in Vancouver and stopped at Cultivate tea; she’s getting her Sommelier degree right now and has been really diving into straight and traditional teas as of late – she picked up a nice sampling of teas and was kind enough to bring them in to the office for us to all try/experience as well so that we could compare notes and thoughts!

I tried two other teas from the company – notes on those to come at a later date. However, I ran out of time during the work week to try this one as well so she let me take 7g of it home with me to brew Gongfu this weekend. I did that yesterday morning and took notes to share with her. I also wrote a nice summary on instagram so I’ll do what’s become habit lately and just share that write up here…

I was a little skeptical because the aroma of the dry leaf was a little sharp and sour/grassy, but the tea actually infused quite wonderfully throughout this tea session. The roast is quite smooth and present, along with a nice minerality and dry peanut/brazilnut note. It also progresses into quite a juicy and floral lychee and red apple note with an undertone of wildflower honey in the finish. It was a great intermission to my afternoon today!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5OsVGnAJjs/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRdavHUV5XM&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=6

Smelt “tea” in the bag, but once I poured it into my pre-warmed gaiwan, I got a strong whiff of honey peach.

This is also kind’ve an excuse to test the little bamboo strainer I got from them as well. I usually just use a teaball-half as my strainer, but my inner need to buy tea accessories finally caved for this little bamboo one. It fits into my travel gaiwan bag well enough, and kinda matches the wood teaspoon I got with my Justtea oolong.

The leaf was surprisingly small (I don’t remember this one having a sample-jar in front of it), but the tea itself doesn’t seem to suffer any bitterness from it. Lightly green and toasty, not getting any peach from it but it’s only the first steep. Three’s usually the best. First steep was ten seconds.

Second and third steeps ~6 seconds. Eliminated the toastyness a bit with the shorter steep. Keep thinking I’m getting maybe hints of something fruity, but not sure.

Will try and post something more in-depth when I get a better chance to sit down with tea.