This 2017 Rou Gui came along as a bonus with the Huang Guan Yin and Qi Lan comparison teas from Old Ways Tea. If you haven’t checked it out, I wrote 2 big comparison pieces on those teas.
Me and Rou Gui is hit and miss. I find it is awkwardly not roasted enough for my tastes and missing complexity compared to its greener counterparts. I decided to give Old Ways Tea’s 2017 Rou Gui a try as I have been enjoying their teas so far.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Method
Oh man, the aroma of this leaf is killer! Old Ways Tea’s Rou Gui smells fragrant, fruity, and roasty. I want to face plant in it.
So I was pretty lazy with the steeping. I simply dumped the whole packet into my gaiwan, so it was around 1 gram to 11-12ml leaf to vessel ratio. I steeped in boiling water and infusion as fast as I could flash. The hot leaf smells also epic with mouth watering roast and peaches.
First Infusion: Hot damn, this tea is SMOOTH. This rou gui is what I have been missing. The roast on this is on the stronger side, so it is roasty, minerally, bright, yet clean tasting. The finish is sweet and crisp, with an oophm in high flavor. The texture is creamy soft and thick, whereas the aftertaste is slightly fruity. The aftertaste does linger, but is fresh, adding an interesting contrast to the roast.
Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: I noticed this round more depth and thicker in texture. It is richer in flavor, like drinking sweet black wet soil and tasting all the minerals where all the magic plants get. The finish is crisp stone fruit and refreshing as it has a cooling sensation in the mouth. The most I drink, the most I notice I am drooling.
The Rou Gui has a bowling ball to the chest feel. This tea feels heavy-hearted and thick feeling, take a sip and it just slams down like I chugged it. I took a big gulp of it cooled and it just about knocked me on my owl butt.
And I am slamming tea drunk. Admittedly, I had 2 rounds of tea a couple hours ago so there was some primer laid down, but I am whacked out on steep 2. Maybe it isn’t energy, it is excitement of how much this tea sings to me. I also witnessed a whole lot of steam during this tea session, which looked incredible.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: The Rou Gui is starting to steep out and stew. It is sharper and an astringent, adding an ashy texture to my throat and cheeks. It is still a thick tea with notes of roast and wood. The finish is more cooling and contrasting, as the astringency is helping the aftertaste along. However, the aftertaste is a little bitter, as I am tasting some stewy greens.
Seventh Infusion: Power infusion here. probably 15 minutes. I knitted 4 rows of my scarf. This tea somewhat crashed and burned, but still drinkable. It has stewy notes like I roasted spinach and boiled it to death, but it isn’t as harsh as I was bracing myself for. It is quite dry, turning my tongue a little funny, but the flavor is light, roast, mineral, and sweet in the finish like liking a sweet peach pit.
It smells and tastes like I could get another steep or two, but I think this would need a teapot + warmer to milk it out. I do think the early infusions are the best.
Comments
I am thoroughly impressed with Old Ways Tea. The comparison tastings were great and this 2017 Rou Gui is out of this world with lots of complexity, depth, and texture. I am biased to liking more stronger roasted teas, so if you like some hair on your chest from your oolong, this is the place. The roasting is so well done too, no smoke or burnt notes. The roast is a clear taste though, I bet give this tea a touch more time and it’ll mellow out and be more epic.
What the hoot, there is a premium Rou Gui? That has to be utter crack if it is better than the regular one! Either way, I promptly made a tea order before posting this review as I needed more Rou Gui and other teas.
(tea provided for review… that I ended up buying)
