So recently I have had the chance to try a good quality Taiwanese tea, and for my regularly readers you may have noticed or remember me at one time mentioning that I just do not do Taiwanese teas. Not because I do not like them, but rather I just have not put forth any effort in exploring them. As such I perhaps have slight holes in my teaware (shocking I know).
But in regards to this, I was told for this tea heat retention was key, so a thin gaiwan could not be used. This had me rattling my head, as for all more delicate teas that are not heavily roasted or heavily oxidized my go to vessels are Gaiwans. But determined to make it work, I realized I have a Seong-il pot which is bulbous in shape, holds heat quite well, and is glazed on the inside so I shouldn't have to worry about much interaction.
It was certainly an experience, while this was not a super green high mountain taiwanese oolong, it was actually labeled as being traditionally fired, which I learned upon opening the package that traditional fire in Taiwan means a whole different thing than traditional fired for Hong Kong. The leaves were still decently green, but the taste was quite interesting, I would have almost guessed this was a midway aged tea, that was not in an "off stage." There were some interesting flavors of darker fruits most notably plum, but also a lot of nice greener and fresher notes.
If Taiwan offers many more teas like that I might just have to give in and start placing some orders.
1 comment:
I too have encountered vastly different descriptive terminology when it comes to the level of roast and firing...terms like "high fire", "traditional" or "traditional roast", "medium roast", etc...they're almost as good as meaningless.
It's further compounded by the fact that companies focusing on Taiwanese teas may sell some Chinese oolongs but use the Taiwanese terminology, and vice versa. It's gotten to where I take any sort of description of the level or style of roast with a grain of salt, almost ignoring it.
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