Jing Tea Shop - Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong 'AAA'

Second of four teas I will be discussing from Jing Tea Shop, is the Mi Lan Xiang 'AAA' oolong.

 The dry leaves are extremely long and have been curled and roasted to what I would call (from my limited experience) a medium roast.  Mi lan xiang translates to 'honey orchid fragrance', and while the dry leaves themselves do not give off much aroma, the leaves in a warmed gaiwan give off a wonderful aroma of honey and flowers.

 

The wet leaves give off an intoxicating smell which is a mix of tropical fruits, flowers, and thick honey sweetness.  I have not smelled wet tea leaves which had a better aroma than this.

The tea seems to be all about fragrance and flavor.  The tea is light in body, however its flavor simply blossoms in the mouth and lingers for a very long time, especially in the back of the mouth and top of the throat.  Early infusions display a strong aroma of flowers and honey, whereas the later infusions turn more towards tropical fruits.  The flavor, at certain points, reminded me of oriental beauty tea.  Perhaps it is the level of oxidation, but the aroma profiles certainly overlap somewhat.  Both have a honey-like taste and aroma, however this is most definitely a more complex tea.  I would consider Oriental Beauty to be much more similar to black tea.   

While drinking the tea, a sense of calm and focus settles in and leads to a good amount of work getting accomplished, along side keeping track of tasting notes.

The first time I brewed this tea, it had an incredible sweetness unlike anything I have experienced before.  The tea tasted like it had sugar added to it.  As the liquid cooled down, the sweetness only became more pronounced.  While my later sessions with this tea have had a great amount of sweetness that lingers in the throat, I was unable to obtain that amazing sweetness of the first session.  I am beginning to think it has something to do with what I eat in the mornings before making tea.  For something this aromatic, I should consider eating something with a lighter flavor beforehand.  

I have pushed these leaves in excess of 8 infusions.  While it does start to lose some of its character around the 5th or 6th steeping, it still retains its fruitiness and a large part of its aftertaste.  This is excellent tea, and very encouraging for an exploration into more dan cong oolongs.  As always, there exists far more tea than time.  What a wonderful problem.

What is Gong Fu Style?

In speaking to a friend about my desire to make a tea blog, I was reminded that not everyone knows what the gong fu style of tea preparation involves.  I thought I would offer my take on the matter to clarify.

Gong fu style, put simply, is a method of brewing loose-leaf teas with a high leaf to water ratio, much higher than many people are traditionally accustomed to, and brewing many consecutive, shorter steeps of the same tea.  The intention is to bring out characteristics of the tea which may not be apparent when it is brewed in a different fashion, and to also offer the drinker a means by which to observe how the tea changes as the steeps progress.

This is traditionally performed inside a device called a gaiwan, or in an unglazed earthenware pot, such as a yixing clay teapot.

 Gaiwan with my morning tea inside

If you have a look at Wikipedia, you will find an extremely elaborate description of what the gong fu 'tea ceremony' entails.  Most of what is described is ultimately unnecessary for practical tea drinking.  From speaking to my friends from China and Taiwan, I have learned that gong fu is not a ceremony, but rather simply the tea preparation style which I have described. 

There are numerous methods for brewing and enjoying tea, and gong fu is simply one of these methods.  No method is inherently better than another, I simply have come to appreciate this particular method, and it has become the method I use most often.  Gaiwans are very inexpensive, and can be found in tea shops, for those who are interested in trying this method of brewing tea.

Tea of the Day - Jing Tea Shop Rou Gui 'A'

I was reading an old post by another tea blogger, MarshalN which I agree with.  He was speaking about not being able to accurately give a sort of review of a tea without having sampled a reasonably large quantity of said tea.  While I have trouble deciding to purchase in increments of 100g of unknown teas, I decided I would sample today's tea several times before forming an opinion.

About a month ago, I ordered 4 different teas from JingTeaShop.  Among them are three examples of Wuyi yancha, and one dancong.  I have little experience with either of these particular types of oolongs, so I thought this would be an interesting sample.

First up is a Rou Gui, designated only by 'A', presumably some arbitrary ranking of quality.  The dry leaves smell of roast, a smell I associated with chocolate, simply for no real other frame of reference.  There is also something I can only sort of describe as "unknown" or "spice".  When they hit the warmed pot, the smell transforms into a very deep, sweet smell with fruity undertones.

The first infusions yield a sort of flavor which I can describe as 'prickly'.  It feels prickly on the tongue, sort of how mineral water can taste.  There is something in this taste which I can associate with the word 'spice', though I cannot place my finger on precisely which spice.

The roast reveals itself more heavily in the second and third infusions, especially in the aftertaste.  The prickly feeling stays with you to some degree as well.  I notice that as the tea cools down, the mouth feel thickens dramatically.  It feels much heavier, especially in aftertaste.

After the 3rd infusion, I feel like this tea falls off dramatically.  It develops a sort of sour/bitter edge which I can sort of relate to young pu erh.  In reading about brewing yancha, most people recommend using at least 3/4 of the volume of your pot with dried leaves.  I read this information after having already used only 1/2 of the volume of my pot.  At this point, I only have about 6 grams of this tea left, which is not sufficient to produce this ratio.  Many tea drinkers seem to believe that a smaller amount of leaf can generate a sort of 'insipid' brew, and perhaps that is what I am experiencing.  I will certainly be taking these pieces of wisdom when I move on to the two other yancha that I received.

Something interesting is - When I was cleaning my teacup that I had been using for the past couple of days, an aroma of cinnamon seemed to leap out of the residue that was being dissolved by the rinse water in the cup.  It was completely unexpected, something which I did not taste in the tea itself.  I can't decide whether my mind was playing tricks on me or whether the smell was actually coming from my cup.  I suppose stranger things have happened.