/ck/ - Food & Cooking

It's nice to drink something other than pu'er after so long. I journaled about the 2020 Spring Yu Qilin Wuyi Oolong from Verdant Tea tonight. I hoped for more from this tea, but at least it wasn't terrible. I'm grateful to try it at all, really.
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5g/205F/20s

Dry leaf smells of a half-sweet, smoky chocolate. Brewed leaf has an aroma of tobacco and roasted seeds.

Medium thickness and astringency, low bitterness. Smooth, somewhat savory smoke is the primary flavor. This extends to the aftertaste, which possesses a very fine amount of vague sweetness. A sort of light bubbly texture is expressed throughout, and this serves this tea well.

Brewing at 195F-200F did not reveal other notes, but the low sweetness was more apparent, perhaps because the smokiness was also noticeably diminished. When brewing for longer periods at 205F, this subtle sweetness began to coincide within the smokiness without obscuring it as with lower temperature infusions. I found this particularly nice, but not exactly potent either, and increasingly weak with each infusion. This tea is not very complex or interesting, but it is at least palatable enough to sip on due to the decent texture. That said, I wouldn't reach for it unless you really like plain smoke and nothing else.
>>15983203
Nice Anon, have you ever tried it with a green tea before? I used to use sencha bags from Maeda-En a year or two ago, and that was nice. Some simple mid-grade loose greens would probably be excellent for coldbrewing.