2021 Spring Farmer's Choice Baozhong

Quick note-
I GOT THE PACKAGE FROM LEAFHOPPER!!!!!!!

It made my night after a tough day. I decided to sample this first, then Bok’s Lishan.

I will write more later, but this tea tasted very strongly like pineapple to me. It was more fruity in the earlier steeps than later ones gong fu shifting more floral. It does get sweeter, but sugarcane/almost gardenia sweet. The dry leaf is super complex in the smell, bordering on nutty and toasty, and the nuts was more prominent in the rinse and third steep.

Either way, this checks all my oolong lover boxes so far. I will go into depth when I’ve got more time.

I always buy Baozhong, then let it sit because I’m not sure how to steep it properly. Hopefully these swap boxes will allow me to offload some of this tea and encourage me to experiment with brewing parameters. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lilac, honeysuckle, cookies, citrus, and pineapple. I must have done something right because the first steep is a pile of flowers, with lilac, honeysuckle, violet, and maybe peony. There’s butter, cookies, and grass as well. The second steep has hints of pineapple and citrus, but is still mainly floral, with stronger lilac and honeysuckle notes. There may be lilies and sweet peas in this flower pile, too. The next couple steeps are sweeter, though they also have more spinach and grass. The tea gradually becomes more vegetal, with lettuce, spinach, green peas, and herbs, though it’s still sweet and a bit floral. The last few steeps are like a floral green tea.

As someone who likes floral teas, I enjoyed this Baozhong greatly, though I wish the fruit had been more prominent and the last few steeps had been a bit less vegetal. This was a lovely spring tea in the middle of winter.