Thanks so much for this one, Cameron B! I was really missing fresh oolongs when I woke up this morning, seeing as I have been trying to rein in the ridiculous tea stash and not buying fresh teas. I think I have been doing fairly well the last few years — but I don’t know if it’s just the volume of tea packaging that is necessary for just the one serving remaining of tea I tend to leave around, it’s like the volume of tea never seems to decrease. Oh well! One day the stash will be down! And I will certainly know which teas are necessary to have around. I have only had a couple of these oolong bricks in the past. This one seems bigger than the other oolong bricks I have tried, but also seems to use bigger leaves and isn’t quite as compact as they have been in the past. The flavor is light on the first steep. But by the end of the session, the huge leaves are bursting from the basket infuser. Possibly this one shouldn’t be used for mug steeping, but the flavor was never too harsh. It’s actually a hard oolong for me to describe. Nothing really stood out here, in flavor profiles. Where are the flavors for me that derk noticed?! And it was those super nuanced and distinct oolongs I was missing this morning. oh well. I certainly don’t fault the very elaborate packaging here — this one should have definitely maintained the flavor with it being wrapped in three different wrappers. hmm
Steep #1 // 29 minutes after boiling // 7 second rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 3 min
2024 sipdowns: 9