Organic Wu Yi Rare Orchid

Alright, I’m not caffeinated as of yet and I’m feeling unmotivated. I think I’m fighting off yet another cold, which is infuriating. I usually only get sick once a year, in the spring, so it’s already annoying enough that I was sick two weeks ago. Now my roommate is hacking up several lungs and I think I’m starting to also.

Even though I’m being lazy I want to log this ASAP. I should have just done it as I was drinking, but I didn’t so oh well. These are essentially just the tasting notes I took.

water heated until small bubbles began to rise.
dry leaf-sweet and slightly toasty
wet leaf-roasty, smoky?

1- 3minutes.Should have given more time, leaves, or higher temperature. Pleasant, but I think it’s a bit weaker than it should be. Smoky, but not overwhelmingly so, and sweet in the sense of dried fruit. Slight astringency. Pleasantly toasty aftertaste. A gulp as opposed to a sip gives a slightly floral quality in the aftertaste. Either I’m getting used to it or the smokiness mellows as the liquor cools. Sweeter. As I get to the bottom of the cup it smells sugary and roast-y.

2-4minutes30seconds. More blended flavors. Equally sweet and smoky. Really pleasant. There’s a flavor I can’t quite place. Nuttiness, maybe? Kind of weak, I’ll need to increase time for the next infusion.

3-6minutes30seconds. Predominantly sweet with hints of smokiness. Probably last good steep, but may be able to get one more.

4-8minutes30seconds. Weak, but drinkable. Sweet with a faint whisper of smoke.

Enjoyable, but I think it needs tweaking. I think there was something else trying to come through in the first or second steep that needs different preparation.

Interesting, smoky, sweet. A complex leaf. Another winner from Andao.

Starting with oolongs again today. This may be the new normal.

This one is fascinating and wonderful. I don’t think I’ve had anything like it before.

It’s also pretty surprising, starting with the smokiness of the dry leaf. The typical sharp, roasty dark oolong note is not present at all, but a definite smokiness is.

I steeped in the gaiwan, five steeps in five second increments starting at 15 seconds after rinsing.

The first steep was lighter in color than the others — a light yellow, while the others were a more medium golden color.

The tea is smoky, not roasty-toasty, and it is sweet. It starts sweet in a floral sort of way and since it is named rare orchid, I’m going to say that’s the flower.

On subsequent steeps, something fruity appears, but it’s not the woody-fruit flavor of some other dark oolongs, what I think of as stonefruit because it reminds me of sucking on peach pits. This is, instead, the fruit itself, and I am having a hard time putting my finger on which fruit. I want to say peach, or maybe a sweet melon. There’s still some smoke, and still some nectar-like sweetness.

I went for a fifth steep with this and I could have gone more. Toward the end, I started to get something confectionary, like almond pastry. I must emphasize that for me, there is no toastiness here but there is smoke.

Fascinating, surprising, and delicious. Too bad Andao is no more.