This tea piques my interest, the dry leaves smell somewhat roasted yet some of the leaves are distinctly more green than I have seen most Wuyi oolongs. I also found a single twisted leaf that had to be 3 to 4 inches long, I don't know how I got it into my yixing without breaking it. It is pictured resting on top of my Yixing.
This is the start of alot of Wuyi Yancha's I will be doing, as the 1997 Shui Xian brick from the tea gallery impressed me so much, I want to try my hand at aging some Wuyi Yanchas. So I am in the middle of getting small sizes from a number of vendors.
The color of this one indicates that I am not brewing it nearly as strong as the others, and that it probably does have less of a roast on it. But with such large leaves, its hard to stuff the yixing nearly as full as with other teas.
The color and the scent, make for pure bliss, before I have even poured it into a cup. With the first slurp you know this tea is something special. Almost an oily and creamy like clinging to your mouth, while full of flavor, comforting like chicken soup on a winter day, when you are sick, but att the same time a nice healthy desert, which tastes delicious.
Its after taste is rather cooling, with sweetness and maybe a bit of mint.
On the second infusion, I swear I smell very fresh pastries laden with butter.
While the third infusion smells more of fresh summer berries, and cream.
There is something magical about this tea, and half way through the 3rd infusion, I'm starting to feel the amazing Chaqi this tea was said to have. Truly wonderful indeed.
I fished that huge leaf out of the pot just to show you it unraveled.
3 comments:
Be sure to check out Jing Tea Shop; they always have great quality Yen Cha and they just recently posted the new harvests, including several very interesting and unusual teas!
Zero
Easily the biggest leaf I've ever seen (and I've seen some big ones). That probably means the ancient tree is only plucked once a season, and then allowed to rest for a year until its harvest comes around again. It allows all that concentrated aroma and flavor to power the leaf.
Thank you for your blog. I've been very glad to follow you, and your writing has encouraged me with my own tea explorations.
Cheers!
If you will, please share with me what you've learned about aging Wuyi teas. Do they need to be the highest-quality teas? And do they need to be stored in any certain way or is it just as simple as keeping them in their sealed pouch they came in from the store for several years? --Spirituality of Tea
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