I recently had a couple of friends visit our house to have some teas, a theme that doesn't come up very often. One of them has been exploring teas living in Taiwan, a local Thai guy I met in a shop outing here in Bangkok, Gawin. Gawin was even hosting ceremonial tea drinking sessions there, into different dimensions of the experience.
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first meeting Gawin in Ju Jen, a Bangkok shop in the Paradise Park mall |
He passed on some "wild Tie Guan Yin" and what looks to be more oxidized rolled oolong, also called red oolong. This is a well-known style among more experienced tea enthusiasts, but to me it doesn't get enough attention and credit among people newer to exploration. It's a much more natural starting point, and type of tea that anyone can appreciate, than many other types of teas that tend to get talked about more.
This red oolong is identified as produced by the Buo-Ya Pavilion Natural Tea Company (on the packaging), sold by the Buo Ya tea shop in Taitung County. Taitung Luya might be the branding name.
The wild TGY is identified (written on the sample pack) as from the Guide Tearoom, which is probably the business name for the ceremonial session business. That also lists two Instagram contacts, TEATIANTIAN and JACK_DAILYTEA. Those profiles are very aesthetic; I recommend checking them out.
Review:
wild Tie Guan Yin: this is not a rolled oolong style tea. For sure Gavin mentioned that, and processing background, but things don't stick with me a lot of the time. This could be white tea, since that's often how more simply dried versions are intended for type, but I'd guess they made oolong without doing that shaping step (the leaves show oxidation; they're darkened).
We tried a tea that Gavin actually made, during his visit, but I'm guessing that this is a commercially produced tea, along the line of a small-batch artisan production theme. I can ask and edit this to include that.
Of course the color of the brewed liquid is much lighter; red oolong is typically oxidized into a more conventional black tea range. The flavor of this is nice. It tastes a bit like Tie Guan Yin, as TGY would. The tones are a bit warm; this has been oxidized a little more than the light style versions, which is suitable, an improvement. It'll be interesting hearing about other processing, about a potential roast step. This may not have been roasted; I'm out of practice for identifying how those two inputs map across to each other. Or then again it probably was; there's a lot of caramel warmth and sweetness to this. [later edit: it was roasted, but not a lot, and not over charcoal].
A base flavor is floral, a common main aspect. Then the warmth and caramel stand out next after that. Mineral undertone isn't missing but it's not as pronounced as that can get. We talked when Gavin visited about how some Taiwanese oolong high intensity of flavor might come from heavy fertilization, pushing into something like a new car smell, and this isn't unusually intense like that, but it has decent intensity, good complexity, and nice depth. It's good.
red oolong: tartness stands out most, right away. I'm ok with black teas being tart, or in this case oolong oxidized to the point of essentially being a black tea, but it's not a favorite aspect range for me. To me it's not really a flaw but it also isn't favorable. It would be nice if that would fade quite a bit but it's usually not how that goes. It's like black tea tasting like cacao, not like sheng exhibiting astringency edge that can fade; it's just part of that tea.
Savory range is interesting, like sun-dried tomato. Sweetness level is pretty significant, or else those other two aspects wouldn't tie together well at all. It's complex; there is more to it than these main notes. Cacao and berry-like fruit might stand out beyond that, or rose-like floral range. I gave this extra brewing time to get started, to open up, and it will be easier to identify flavors brewed lighter, since it's so intense. It's also good, it just doesn't match to my personal preference as well as the other, mostly related to the tartness. I don't see why someone else couldn't love that; it seems to just be an individual preference thing.
TGY 2: the same as last round; not transitioning yet. This is a little light; I brewed both quite fast, to see what that changed. The other proportion is higher, even though it looked like very little tea at the bottom of the gaiwan.
Creaminess is nice in this. Jin Xuan has a reputation for being creamy but of course other plant types can express that too, especially related style oolongs. The rest of the flavor matches the last description still, rich, sweet, floral, with nice warm caramel tones, and some mineral undertone, just not a lot.
A hummingbird dropped by; that's nice. Myra was here earlier, my favorite of the cats, since I'm tasting outside, where we met with Gawin and his friend. Now also a squirrel and crow, with a songbird in the background; kind of busy out here.
red oolong: it evolves to balance slightly better, or maybe works out well at such a light infusion strength. At this high a proportion even a 10 second infusion isn't really light. Fruit is nice in this. It's complex; one part reminds me of cranberry, then also dried tamarind. The flavor seems to cover floral range too, but that's well-integrated with the fruit.
I'm often saying "wow, these teas are strong!" right around this point drinking sheng pu'er, and I can feel these two already, finishing a third and fourth small cup. I just ate a heavy late breakfast too, oatmeal with goji berry and extra banana, and two fried eggs. I'll push these a little further, and will probably keep this review short, not describing the transitions deep into a count, or even to a mid-point. I'm late to call the kids, who finally arrive back for a Christmas break visit in one week, and that's a priority over everything else.
TGY #3: this longer infusion was still probably 20 seconds or just under, not so long.
A bird is talking to the squirrels, and that crow is going on, adding extra sounds beyond the caw, unless that's a conversation he's having. It would be nice to know what they go on about. Two other birds seem to have a nest in a different area; you can tell when they are warning someone off.
Warmth and depth really pick up in this. It's still going to describe as warm caramel in summary, but it's stronger, and not the same.
red oolong: even a slight bump in infusion strength made that tartness shift from somewhat more balanced back to dominant. I'll keep trying it light. This is pleasant, the way those different parts come together, it's just a shame that I don't love tartness in oxidized tea range as much as most other possible flavors.
Fourth round, transitions: the TGY is staying consistent. That's nice, given how pleasant and complex it had been, with such nice depth.
The red oolong might be evolving a little, trading out some of that tartness for the beginnings of a cinnamon note. That's an improvement.
I might also mention that it's normal for red oolong to be produced in a black tea range, as I said, but this is pretty far up the oxidation level scale. It is really just a black tea at this point, perhaps borrowing from some oolong processing or other input range (the tea plant type, the rolled shape, and so on). To me that's essentially a good thing, since somewhat hybrid forms can create something novel and pleasant in a new way, but I guess that part is a judgement call.
I really don't have additional conclusions this time; the teas were good, it was nice of Gawin to share those. Of course I drank more rounds of them, and they stayed just as pleasant.
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