Dec 23
Lynn’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "The resulting liquor was a sunny golden yellow and nicely redolent of osmanthus blossoms. The flavor was silky smooth and sweet on the tongue, with a thick, mouth filling feel and a long sweet finish."
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From the Norbu site: " We are excited to offer a wonderful early harvest Huang Jin Gui oolong from Anxi county of Fujian Province. This is the first oolong to be harvested for the spring season in Anxi, home of some of China's most famous Oolong teas. The name of this particular tea cultivar is Huang Jin Gui, which roughly translates to "Royal Golden Turtle." (FYI: Some refer to this particular tea cultivar as "Golden Osmanthus" in English)"The more of Norbu's oolongs I try, the more impressed I am. What I have sampled to date have been uniformily excellent and impressive, and this oolong is another point in that line. Norbu owner, Gregory Glancy's stated mission is to "make interesting, unique, and high quality teas more accessible to the Western world." He's doing a heck of a job. Not only do his teas come vacuum sealed for maximum freshness, but the labeling includes their provenence: where they were grown, and when they were harvested. In this case, the tea was grown in Anxi County, Fujian Province, China—that Eldorado of tea—and harvested in the spring of 2009.
I cut open the vacuum packet and measured out 5 g of the large, dark olive green twisted leaf nuggets. The fragrance was strongly floral— osmanthus. I have never smelled a live osmanthus flower, but have learned the perfume through tea. It's very much like orange blossom, which is citrusy and bit thick in the nose. I brew oolongs gong fu style, in a small Yixing pot; the Norbu site includes a steeping guide that gives directions for both gong fu and Western style brewing. http://www.norbutea.com/tea-steeping-guide Either way yields good results, but I find that gong fu brewing makes the most of a good oolong. If a Western style infusion equals a wine, then a gong fu brew is a liqueur. It's not at all hard to learn and I recommend giving it a try. Just make sure you do some research and invest in a decent pot. There are a lot of bad ones out there, many of them ridiculously overpriced.
I placed the leaves in a warmed 5 oz Yixing teapot dedicated to oolongs and covered the leaves with 195F water for about thirty seconds. The resulting liquor was a sunny golden yellow and nicely redolent of osmanthus blossoms. The flavor was silky smooth and sweet on the tongue, with a thick, mouth filling feel and a long sweet finish. Oolongs have a unique, almost oily feel on the tongue, especially when brewed in the gong fu manner. That might be due to the high concentration of leaves to water, resulting in a higher concentration of tea oils. Whatever the case, it adds to the overall enjoyment, giving the tea an added tactile element.
Returning to the pot, I found the leaves still tightly clenched. A second infusion of forty five seconds produced a comparable cup. The fragrance was perhaps more pronounced and deeper, the liquor the same sunny yellow. The second cup is often better than the first and this was the case here; there was a touch of astringency and pull now, just the tiniest bitter bite, but still a long, sweet, fragrant finish.
The leaves were a bit more relaxed now but still quite wrinkled. I smoothed several out on my palm and found that them to be about an inch and a half to two inches long. A third infusion of thirty seconds produced another excellent cup: smooth, a bit astringent, less bitter than the longer steep, a lot sweet, and endlessly fragrant, with a long, satisfying finish.
I continued to enjoy the tea through the afternoon; good oolongs can be infused up to a dozen times or more, gong fu style. At one point I accidently oversteeped it for several minutes, but it was delicious—thick, sweet, and fragrant— and not a bit bitter. Highly recommended.
— To purchase Norbu Huang Jin Gui Oolong Tea, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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January 28th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
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