Sheng Cha Oolong

Moving slow today but moving.

This is my last sample from Simple Loose Leaf. I didn’t save it back on purpose but I’m glad it did get held back. This tea I would rename The White Rabbit. It took me way down the rabbit hole. I’ve read several reviews. They are all over the place. I recall them being positive but everyone found something different. Here is my take:

The dry nuggets remind me of the scent of strawberry tops. Too subtle for scented but present. The moment the leaf hit my warm damp press I could smell American biscuits. After steeping the leaf was more baked bread with strawberry and apricot marmalade along with more typical lightly roasted oolong notes. The scent of the white grape colored brew was lightly floral and fruity.

Once the leaf unfurls it is humongous.

Then I tasted. Yeah, caterpillars smoking questionable pipes and Cheshire grins abound. The flavors flew by so quickly. First, I tasted biscuit and baked bread, then strawberry tops. I have not seen any other reviews that caught this same note, so it is just for me, and I appreciate it. The next flavor to fly by is a brief moment of walnut shells. Then it settles into a fruity and floral oolong flavor. Mixed throughout I catch brief roasted notes. This has an interesting kind of tart that leaves a little tingle around the lips and gums. It is also a bit sweet. The feel is a bit milky or almost foamy.

It is a very curious cup.

Thanks to SLL for the sample! This is a very unique oolong. It tastes grainy, buttery, with a hint of honey, which makes me think of cream of wheat. Unfortunately, both times I tried it, There was an unpleasant chlorine aroma. I thought maybe it was a fluke the first time, but it showed up again, and I don’t detect that aroma when I drink other oolongs. Kind of a bummer, since the other flavor notes are so nice. Oh well, can’t like them all!

From the Simple Loose Leaf box. This is a unique-sounding oolong, and it did not disappoint. The tea comes in tightly wound “pearls” that unfurl a bit after rinse and one infusion, and expand fully after two. The first infusion (2 min) has a flavor and aroma of sesame seed and grains, like wheat crackers or maybe toasted rice. It’s savory but light, and went well with a sweeter afternoon snack. (Red bean paste and mochi wrapped in a sponge-like sakura pastry—yum!) The second infusion (4 min) mellows out substantially, making for a completely different experience. There’s a more floral, vegetal undertone from the leaf, as well as a sublimely smooth honey sweetness to the finish. It’s unlike any oolong I’ve tried before, and I feel like it has quite a story to tell!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and Valentine’s Day!

It has become a bit rare that I run into an Oolong I have not heard of, so yeah, I went into immediate research mode while drinking the Sheng Cha Oolong. For the most part I could not find much, mostly I kept finding information on Puerh and since I do not know what version of Sheng it is, that made searching even harder. What I did find is that it is from Taiwan, specifically they are from trees left to grow wild for decades, which is pretty cool. The aroma of the leaves is delectably toasty, it smells like baking super grain heavy bread, you know, like one of those 20 grains breads. Now take that loaf of bread and drizzle a bit of honey on it and you have the aroma of this tea. I am salivating, but I am in a constant state of craving bread, so that could be why.

The aroma of the first steep is so grainy! Like someone is toasting grains right next to me, it is honestly a little cruel how much this tea smells like toasted wheat, sesame seeds, and barley. The taste is banging hot, and not in a ‘oh god I burned my tongue so bad’ way, I mean this is the new hotness. It is like drinking honey drizzled whole grain bread while sitting next to a vase of wildflowers. The majority of the taste is toasted grains and yeasty bread, but there are delicate notes of flowers and honey, which I really liked.

Second steep is very similar in aroma, there was a touch of toasted peanuts as well this time around. The taste is more grain and less sweet, it is definitely like eating toast. I am a little wowed by the grainy aspects of this tea, I could see it being a good bread replacement when I am shambling around the house moaning graaaaiiiinns like a gluten craving zombie.

Blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/simple-loose-leaf-co-op-box-day-1.html

Liquid biscuit dough:
Like an airplane heard
After it’s passing.

The second tea of our tea party took up the rest of our too-short time together.
The dry leaves have the dusty scent of crackers and hay. We steeped it for the suggested 2 minutes and we a bit surprised at how light the liquor was: a very green oolong. The initial flavor of the liquor is very light and green. The real body of this tea is at the end of the taste, even after swallowing. A taste that reminded me very like biscuit dough (without the heaviness) blossoms in the mouth, especially as you talk. We decided that this was a conversation tea, as to fully experience the flavor we had to keep talking. My mother kept going on about the sweetness whereas I kept tasting the doughy flavors more.

For our second steep, we went for 1 minute. The liquor color darkened(though still green-light) and had much more scent-bready, crackers. The flavor experience is evened out, where there is more green in front and less doughy sweet in the back. We decided that this steep took less involvement to enjoy, and would be a decent reading tea.

Our third steep lasted 45 seconds. The color was somewhere inbetween the first and second steeps. There was more bloom than the second steep and we wondered if the second steep had not been quite long enough. There are notes of toast as we sip-stronger as the tea is hotter and less prominent as it cools. The bloom is like biscuit dough-sweet and bready.

The fourth steep was 30 seconds and we decided wasn’t worth drinking.

Overall a very interesting taste-trip.

The first steeping of the tea has a rich, roasted flavor and a slightly sweet finish. There was a noticeable shift in flavors in the later steepings. They developed a deeper roasted flavor, reminding me somewhat of toasted sesame seeds (which I’m not particularly a fan of) and tasted salty. I thought at first my son had been dipping his pretzel rods in my tea again (this has recently become his new favorite game) but I kept noticing the same subtle brine-like flavor every time I prepared a fresh cup. I wasn’t expecting such a radical shift in flavors, it caught me a bit off guard and left me to wonder if I would notice such a huge difference if I had decided to steep the tea at a different temperature. This is one of the rare times I wish Simple Loose Leaf hadn’t decided to decrease the amount of tea in their monthly boxes. The new ¼ ounce size just doesn’t give me enough tea to experiment with if I feel the need, as was the case with this tea.

You can read the rest of the review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/2/10/tuesday-tea-tea-co-op-february-box-simple-loose-leaf

The best tea out of this month’s Simple Loose Leaf Tea Club Coop!

This oolong is from wild grown tea trees. The flavor is actually quite different – it’s green oolong, but not as delicate as one. The flavor starts tulips, wheatgrass and creamy sweet. With further infusions, the tea gets less grassy and more savory – with a sesame and wheat cracker kind of flavor, which is quite different and fun.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/february-simple-loose-leaf-tea-coop-club/ Dimetrodon in disguise!