Qilan Wuyi Oolong

Going to assume this is the recent offering from Verdant…

Anyhow, again, I’m pretty sure I tried this once before and just didn’t write a note, but I am this time! It’s a pretty tasty oolong, with all of the righty oolonginess and mineral notes, so it really hit the spot last night (I didn’t know the spot existed until it was hit, though). A bit sweet, but mostly just minerally. Enjoyable, but I’m not drawn enough to it to restock, too likely.

I was expecting this tea to be super rocky and mineraly like other wuyi oolongs I’ve had. It has a nice mineral taste to it but is not as strong as I thought it would be. It has sweet vegetal notes and a sweetness to it that reminds me of honey.

1.5 tsp (roughly — big leaves) for 300mL water @85C, steeped 3 minutes 30 seconds, Western style, first infusion.

Dry leaf: dark and giving a scent of earth and — uh — incense. Something spicy. Mineral notes.

Wet leaf is green and smells of toast and sun-warmed rocks.

Liquor is pale golden-green, much like a tieguanyin would be.

First aroma notes are earth and sunshine and rocks. The earthiness seemed more pronounced in the cup I made last night with warmer water, 90C. Today I’ve got something close to an autumn tieguanyin, those sorts of florals, with toasted grain and minerals. Yeah, I keep mentioning rocks: lots of rocky notes here, and that’s great. I think I prefer tieguanyin, on the whole, but this is lovely and complex, invites meditation — perhaps it’s the faint, faint reminders of incense doing that.

Flavours continue to open up as the tea cools.

My second wuyi from Verdant, this one reminds me of the first infusion of the Teaave dong ding, in that it tastes like brown sugar with some vegetal notes. The dong ding; however, transforms into a beautiful nectar flavor, whereas this one is pretty much the same throughout. A little boring, in my opinion, but not bad. Gee, I think I’m getting quite snobby! Ha!

If this tea wasn’t smooth it wouldn’t pass as a tea I would drink. Nothing special stands out with this tea in terms of taste. The leaf looks nice, but looks are not what my taste buds judge off of. Overall this tea made me want a quality phoenix oolong as it is similar but lacks the bold taste.

Reading the description makes me thing I had a different tea, but this is the right name/company! The tea is very clean and mineral tasting with a slight sweetness and “rocky” taste. Overall, very good, but not outstanding compared to some other similar teas. I almost feel like I got a Shui Xian by mistake or something because that’s the best way to describe the flavor of this tea.

I am a bit disappointed in this one. I think it is my fault though. I love wuyi oolongs, they are so roasty and toasty and comfortable. But I think I failed to properly read the description of this one before I purchased it. I was tea-blind.

This one taste much more of a green oolong. It is greeny tasting with a lot of floral notes. Not terribly much roast or toast or comfort. It did brew up quite thick with a lot of honey notes.

It is still quite a delicious tea, just not what I was expecting. I would normally reserve a tea like this for the afternoon, not the first one of the morning. So I feel like I am not quite wakened up yet.