Leaves:
1. From which vendor, farmer, source: Teamaster
2. Date of Harvest: 1980
3. Elevation: High. Guessing 1200-1500+
4. Soil based: Soil/Rock
5. Which area: Dong Ding
6. Varietal. Hung Shui
7. Fired level: Traditional
8. Bush age: young
9. Grade: 1st
10. breathing tea before brewing: 3 days
Brewing vessel, water:
1. Water source: Poland Spring
2. Aged or fresh: 5 days
3. How you boil your water: Charcoal
4. Temp. for the first 5 steeping: Rolling boil, rinse, 1-5th brew.
5. What kind of brewing vessel: New Huang Long Mt. Purple zisha 1175 fired. 180ml
6. What kind of cup to drink from: Tall, 1900's Japanese China
Brewing Parameter:
Amount: 4g
Rinse time: Flash
Set time: 30 sec
infusing time: 15 sec/15s/20s then add 30 sec
Height of water pouring: stomach level
Hitting spots: side, till rolling leaves.
Result of the brew:
Color: clear, pale yellowish amber
Aroma: Maltose candy, Ocean, floral, minerals
Texture: full, clean fresh spring water
Mouth feel: sweet, roasted seaweed, floral, grain and fragrance malt. Not veggie and grassy at all.
Effects of the brew: lingering long sweetness, clean and refine smoothness, ocean breeze and High Mountain mist.
How many brews: 10+
Weather:
Drinking time of the day: early Sunday Afternoon
High/low humidity: 75s% hum, low 60s temp
Rainy or sunny? Cloudy. mild and cool and light rain
End notes:
This is so far the best among the 5 packs. A high quality, high mountain oolong. Clean, refreshing and comforting. I am enjoying this enormously, taking my time and thinking of the high mountain tea fields in Dong Ding. The dry moss smell rising from the rock next to a clean creek. Every characters I long for on a good quality high mountain tea, and the Maltose Candy! That hits my childhood memory. Thanks again Stéphane for such amazing samples.
As you can see there is a small sample next to the teamaster pack, which is from Brian Kirbis. It's breathing in my small onggi jar at the moment, and I can't wait for this Sunday to open it up.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the detailed notes. I'm glad (but not surprised!) you would like it. Actually, the elevation is only 700 meters. In 1980, the star was still Dong Ding itself (these leaves come from Feng Huang, just next and slightly above Dong Ding village). The High Mountain Oolong trend was just about to start.
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