China Yunnan Jingmai Gushu Oolong Tea

Tea type
Oolong Tea
Ingredients
Oolong Tea Leaves
Flavors
Forest Floor, Hay, Wet Earth, Wet Moss, Wet Wood, Apricot, Bark, Butter, Camphor, Caramel, Cedar, Cherry, Cream, Eucalyptus, Grass, Honey, Lemon, Lychee, Malt, Menthol, Mineral, Mushrooms, Oats, Peanut, Pear, Petrichor, Pine, Plum, Smoke, Stonefruit, Tobacco, White Grapes, Wood
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 5 oz / 134 ml

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From Our Community

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0 Want it Want it

2 Own it Own it

3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Sipdown (601)! I’ve been sitting on this sample for a while – but I realize how easy of a sipdown it would be so when I was feeling much better in the week I decided to treat myself to a late night...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “It starts off with almost no taste. Let it soak a bit at first to get the ball open. After its open you get an extremely earthy strong taste straight up tastes like grass and moss. Just like a...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “This is yet another review I have been intending to post for some time. I bought this tea last year because I wanted to try it alongside Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Jingmai Gushu Oolong Orbs,...” Read full tasting note
    94

From What-Cha

A most unusual oolong produced from tea leaves typically used to produce pu’erh. It has a pungent aroma with a sweet lingering taste with apricot notes.

Produced from leaves which are usually destined for pu’erh cakes, the unique processing as an oolong offers the best of both worlds, by bringing out many of the pu’erh characteristics while rounding out the tea and making it perfect for immediate drinking.

Tasting Notes:
- Pungent aroma
- Sweet lingering taste similar to a red oolong
- Apricot notes in the finish

Harvest: Summer 2016

Origin: Da Ping Zhang, Jingmai, Yunnan, China
Altitude: 1,500-1,600m
Tea Garden: Ancient

Variety: Zhong Xiao Ye Zhong (Small/Medium leaf)

Sourced: Direct from the producers Yubai and William Osmont

Brewing Advice:
- Heat water to roughly 90°C/194°F
- Use between half to one Dragon Ball per cup/small teapot
- Brew for 15-30 seconds

Packaging: Each Dragon Ball wrapped in paper

About What-Cha View company

Company description not available.

3 Tasting Notes

85
15575 tasting notes

Sipdown (601)!

I’ve been sitting on this sample for a while – but I realize how easy of a sipdown it would be so when I was feeling much better in the week I decided to treat myself to a late night Gong Fu session and brew it up. It was actually a damn good tea.

It’s been so long since I last ordered from What-Cha but if this is still being carried on their site whenever I next order then I would definitely consider restocking. Plus, it was a very aesthetically pretty tea to look at and I don’t think the photos that I took capture that. The leaves were this splendid rusty red/brown colour. Very striking!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwa2kFfH4d3/

Here’s what I had to say about the flavour on instagram, since I did a pretty good job capturing my thoughts/feelings there when I was actively drinking the tea:

This is a weird and wonderful tasting oolong tea; thick infusions with initial floral tasting notes and an upfront sweetness. Progressed in a way that was still floral, but more strongly hay/straw tasting with plum-y, sweet stonefruit undertones and an almost candy floss/spun sugar delicate and airy sweetness.

It’s been a while since I had a tea that just naturally reminded me of cotton candy, and it’s always very enjoyable – I do quite enjoy sweet and sugary things.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nQoBAKZy9Q

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70
48 tasting notes

It starts off with almost no taste. Let it soak a bit at first to get the ball open. After its open you get an extremely earthy strong taste straight up tastes like grass and moss. Just like a forest smells. Tastes way more like a pureh typically does and almost nothing like an oolong. Lasts for a ton of steeps. Just not really my thing.

Flavors: Forest Floor, Hay, Wet Earth, Wet Moss, Wet Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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94
1048 tasting notes

This is yet another review I have been intending to post for some time. I bought this tea last year because I wanted to try it alongside Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s Jingmai Gushu Oolong Orbs, but until last week, I had yet to set aside time to try this tea. Going back and looking at the note for the other tea, I see that this one struck me as being very similar. I found it to be immensely enjoyable, a hair more enjoyable than the tea to which I planned on comparing it directly.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped one dragon ball (a little over 6 grams) in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

The dry tea ball emitted aromas of honey, smoke, hay, wood, and stone fruits prior to the rinse. A little of that sheng-like funkiness was there too. After the rinse, I found new scents of grass, menthol, tobacco, and malt. The first proper infusion brought out a subtle pine-like aroma. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of malt, grass, hay, wood, and cream underscored by hints of tart stone fruits, honey, and sheng-like funk. Subsequent infusions grew steadily more intense, aromatic, and flavorful, offering distinct impressions of sour plum, longan, sour apricot, tart cherry, oats, butter, camphor, pear, lychee, mushroom, cedar, peanut, minerals, caramel, lemon, white grape, eucalyptus, and tree bark. The notes of malt, tobacco, pine wood, smoke, and menthol managed to show up in the mouth too. On a couple infusions, I thought I could just barely catch a hint of petrichor on the nose. The later infusions were more satisfying than anticipated. I could still find impressions of malt, minerals, mushroom, and tree bark balanced by subtle notes of honey, stone fruits, camphor, menthol, and tobacco that were most apparent on the back of the throat.

These Yunnan oolongs are steadily growing on me. I loved the mix of aromas and flavors this tea displayed. Very challenging, yet simultaneously very satisfying, I could see this being a great tea for adventurous oolong and pu-erh drinkers alike.

Flavors: Apricot, Bark, Butter, Camphor, Caramel, Cedar, Cherry, Cream, Eucalyptus, Grass, Hay, Honey, Lemon, Lychee, Malt, Menthol, Mineral, Mushrooms, Oats, Peanut, Pear, Petrichor, Pine, Plum, Smoke, Stonefruit, Tobacco, White Grapes, Wood

Preparation
6 g 4 OZ / 118 ML
What-Cha

We both get the teas from the same source, and I think they were probably the same harvest too, hence why they are so similar

eastkyteaguy

I kind of thought that might be the case. This one seemed fruitier and more complex though.

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