It is the first week of November and with my birthday is coming up (November 7th) I have an important decison to make – what teas to drink on my birthday!
With that said, I’m going to be sampling a bunch of oolongs. Today’s oolong – Eco-Cha’s Tsui Yu Jade Oolong, an oolong from Nantou, Taiwan.
By the way, Eco-Cha is having a crowd funding campaign for support of small scale oolong made from traditional farming methods. The oolong here is certified organic too! Check it out – the $50 tier looks pretty awesome as you get a clay gongfu tea pot!
Dry Leaf
Tsui Yu Jade Oolong dry leaf smells deliciously buttery and floral – both excellent oolong scents. I bet for non tea drinkers thinking about a rose with a slab of butter doesn’t sound appealing, but to a oolong drinking sounds amazing. Tsui Yu Jade Oolong is a lovely light green in nice tight rolls with not many stems.
Steeping Instructions
I went with Gong fu brewing method, using my entire sample in a small 125ml tea pot. With boiling water, I started at 10 second infusions, stacking longer steep times for each infusion. Apparently Tsui Yu Jade Oolong is excellent cold steeped.
Tasting of Eco-Cha’s Tsui Yu Jade Oolong
First Infusion: Tsui Yu Jade Oolong steeps up a crystal clear light pale cream yellow with a vegetal and sweet scent.
The flavor of Tsui Yu Jade Oolong is light buttery sweet at first, then develops a crisp and fresh green bean flavor with sweet butter. End of sip there is a floral magnolia note, a 4/10 on the floral meter.
Second Infusion: Tsui Yu Jade Oolong has gotten stronger in flavor and is less sweet and more savory. With this second infusion the oolong tastes of steamed buttercup flowers with a savory buttered green beans and sweet fresh green pepper. The tea is very smooth with a lovely silky lip feel. Tsui Yu Jade Oolong is very clean and refreshing of a sip.
Third, Fourth and Fifth Infusion: Whoa floral! Tsui Yu Jade Oolong certainly highlights the fun of gong fu infusions as I’m getting new flavors with each infusion. These steepings, though still savory, have a strong floral note, 5/10 on the Floral Meter, of butter cups and orchids. The moderate level of floral notes have a background of freshly steamed vegtables. All that floral in this tea and Tsui Yu Jade Oolong steeps up with matching butter cup yellow colour brew to boot !
Sixth and Seventh Infusion: Tsui Yu Jade Oolong has balanced out making for these infusion to be my favorite! The oolong has melded into a clean, refreshing and savory steamed vegetal flavor with a great balance of floral. End of sip, there is a sweet butter finish and silk texture. It is like drinking an untouched meadow of flowers!
Eighth and Ninth Infusion: The flavor is starting to lighten to a sweet magnolia over steamed green beans. I’m battling to keep this tea going with 30 second infusions, but I think it isn’t enough. Finally in these later infusions there is a hint of dryness at end of sip – a 1/10 on the Astringent Meter.
The oolong leaves are trying to escape again, that or waving to the Tea Owl.
Tenth and Eleventh Infusion: The final steepings of Tsui Yu Jade Oolong is light with essence of vegetal and floral. The light dryness is still there. The flavor is light and I’m making this tea stretch with long 1 minute infusions. In the end, a nice wind down to a lovely oolong session.
After all these steepings I checked out the leaf. First off, mega tea expansion! I put all the tea leaves into the same vessel of I took a picture in of the dry leaf.
The leaves look fantastic – pretty large, majority of them intact, with all a single leaf, little stem, and no holes. Very nice quality!
Comments
Eco-Cha’s Tsui Yu Jade Oolong is a treat for green oolong lovers looking for something high end, with a nice balance of vegetal and floral flavor. The tea and leaf is gorgeous too!
I had a great session with this tea, especially with the middle infusions. I feel this is a great spring oolong and perfect for a tea drinker who loves floral flavors. I didn’t find the floral overpowering and with very little dryness, this oolong is easy to drink. I could see myself serving this oolong to causal tea drinkers for example of very fresh and high quality tea.
Bonus: Tea Owl photobombing level – Expert
(tea provided for review)
