Review: Red Jade and Concubine Oolong Reviews by TChing
November 18, 2013
A great read on Eco-Cha Red Jade and Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Concubine Oolong Teas by Regena Rafelson of TChing.
"The first sip was minty and spicy. I immediately drained the cup. The second steep was even better, catching all the best of Autumn’s fruits, falling leaves, gathering firewood. The tea remained aromatic through four steeps. My husband and I enjoyed it for several days, chatting away as we sat near the wood stove, sipping Red Jade Tea. The tea is a real treat!"
"A whiff of leather and tobacco, very pleasant. The second steep was lovely, like dried plums and dried cherries. Through a fourth steep, the leaves unfurled more, but remaining fully flavorful."
Head over to their outstanding tea blog to have a read:
This batch of Alishan High Mountain Jin Xuan Oolong summer 2020 harvest has a very pronounced buttery character. Starting with the leaves put into the pre-heated tea judging cup, they exuded a pronounced buttered toast/popcorn aroma. But the flavor profile is replete with an uncanny buttered popcorn note, it's almost unbelievable! How can tea leaves do this?! It's not only buttered popcorn either! There are distinct floral and vegetal notes that balance out the incredulous and delicious buttered popcorn flavor. OK, enough repetitive description! Click hereto get your share.
This is what an award winning Wenshan Baozhong Tea looks like, in its dry leaf state, of course. Notice the uniformity in the size and coloration of the leaves. The yellow hues are only in the spine of the leaves, which would naturally protrude into a stem, but the stems have been removed, along with the larger, lighter colored, over-matured leaf stock. This uniformity of leaf material offers a pure flavor profile. It allows for a complexity of aromatic and flavor notes, but it comes from a uniform stock which is essential in producing a purity of character. This is a fundamental aspect of competition grade tea. It's not muddled. It's refined.
Batch #55 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an award-winning Wenshan Baozhong Tea that was entered in the recent spring tea competition of the local Farmers' Association. Preparation for competition involves removing the bulkier stems from the leaves, and also sorting the leaves by coloration to achieve the most uniform stock of leaf material possible.
